By Grant Andrews, Managing Director, Uniqco
While 2013 is just short of a month old, it is already shaping up as a time of significant changes for fleet managers, particularly in the area of legislation. While these changes will have some positive impacts, there is still a degree of uncertainty about the full impacts for local government. It is crucial that fleet managers are aware of these developments.
The legislation that will potentially have the most impact on fleet managers is the National Heavy Vehicle Law, which will be administered by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR).
The regulations will definitely make the transport industry more efficient by providing consistency across Australia.
However, for local government I believe there is still some uncertainty as to whether the laws will affect plant assets that are over the heavy vehicle GVM requirement. We still haven’t heard from the NHVR as to where these road-registered plant assets will sit. There was an indication last year that plant items would continue within the state regulations, but many of those fall within the heavy vehicle laws.
For example, things like road sweepers and some tractors, are over the required GVM of 4.5 tonnes, but are in fact classed as plant. So government fleet managers who run diverse fleets are going to need clarification when and if there are going to be any transitional arrangements.
The second part of the laws that could impact operational managers will be whether there are any changes to the fatigue management legislation. Some states do not require log books if you have a time sheet, whereas other states require log books at all times.
Some of the representatives from the NHVR will be present at the next round of IPWEA professional development workshops. Fleet managers should attend these sessions so they can address these queries to the representatives and hopefully get some clarification.
However, that isn’t the only change on the cards for 2013. The Australian Government has established the Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy for 2012-2022, which is built upon the previous National Occupational Health and Safety Strategy for 2002-2012.
Road transport has been identified as a ‘priority industry’ for the first five years of the strategy, so there will be some focus on this at the same time as the rollout of the NHVR.
Fleet management and work health and safety are intrinsically linked. Any changes that happen as part of a national health and safety plan will have an impact on how you run a fleet.
Fleet management is one of the most dynamic jobs around. For this reason, fleet managers must always be aware of legislative changes.