Transport ministers agreed to include measures to implement maintenance provisions into chain of responsibility duties as soon as possible.
The announcement was made at the third meeting of the Transport and Infrastructure Council held in Sydney this month.
The measures would be implemented as part of a package put forward by the Council to expediate national consistency and compliance improvements for decision in November 2015.
Council members include Transport, Infrastructure and Planning Ministers from the Commonwealth, States and Territories, New Zealand and the Australian Local Government Association.
The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has been lobbying for the Chain of Responsibility laws to be extended to include maintenance since 2013.
ATA CEO Chris Melham welcomed the announcement.
“Extending the chain of responsibility concept to heavy vehicle maintenance will compel businesses and their senior managers to take all reasonable steps to make sure maintenance staff can do their jobs properly – for example, but delivering adequate budgets, resourcing and training.”
The Transport and Infrastructure Council also directed the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator to progress plans for the implementation of a national heavy vehicle registration scheme by 1 July 2018.
Grant Andrews, Managing Director of Uniqco said it is important to make senior council management, including CEOs and Financial Directors, aware of the changes.
“Under the chain of responsibility changes, it now forces senior management to comply with the maintenance requirements and that really rounds out the whole process in relation to heavy vehicles,” he said. He added that
IPWEA’s Plant and Vehicle Management Manual already has a maintenance component in it.
“Generally it was always critical to maintain your vehicles to at least minimum manufactures standards, but what this has done is made senior management liable to make sure that you do that, which is excellent.”
He added that fleet should be included in a council’s strategic register under its own line, not under assets as is historically the case.
CEOs currently assume a direct liability risk for fleet through the Chain of Responsibility provisions under the
Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) and the
Work Health and Safety Act (2011).
An independent taskforce extended the Chain of Responsibility provisions to include heavy vehicle standards and vehicle restraints in June 2014.
Under the legislation, the CEO could be prosecuted if their fleet is found to be unsafe on the roads, common mistakes include overloading of vehicles or failure to secure loads.
Read more
Don't leave your CEO out in the cold, help them understand their fleet risk
Can you afford not to comply with health and safety legislation?