Australia’s first national heavy vehicle health check shows a sound performance by industry in maintaining vehicles, with some room for improvement.

Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester said the results of the National Roadworthiness Baseline Survey would provide further focus on inspection programs and help measure improvements in the mechanical condition of the heavy vehicle fleet.

The report showed that younger vehicles were five times less likely to have a major non-conformity than vehicles 10-years and older, and 11 times less likely to have a major non-conformity than 13-year-old vehicles. Brakes had the highest rate of major non-conformity, followed by steering and suspension, lights and reflectors, engines, drivelines and exhausts.

The survey will be used to develop programs using evidence and risk-based analysis of the survey data. Two such approaches will be a risk-based inspection and a consistent inspection framework.

The full story is available at the NHVR website.