Here’s an opportunity for the trucking industry to get its input into developing driver fatigue laws. A discussion paper released by the National Transport Commission (NTC) is looking for suggestions on how to collect better data to inform improvements to heavy vehicle driver fatigue laws. Read more
The chain of responsibility (COR) legislation needs to be streamlined with safety prioritised is a common view in the trucking industry. The current legislation sets out COR duties by attempting to prescribe exactly how businesses must operate, discouraging innovation and creating unnecessary red tape. Read more
Apparently, there are some chain of responsibility laws in place in Australia. We are told the rules make the responsibility fall on whichever party involved in the supply chain forced the hand of the truck driver to break the rules. These rules have been in place for over ten years now and, for most people, nothing has changed. Read more
Reforms to the chain of responsibilities regime has taken a step closer with a recent release by the National Transport Commission. The NTC discussion paper details the proposed specific requirements of participants in the supply chain. Read more
The whole process of moving regulation of the trucking industry onto a national basis has been a long slow grind. Real results ending the ridiculous cross border issues we meet every day have been hard won and often quite small victories. Read more
The National Transport Commission has said productivity will become the main focus for its work over the next four years. A statement released outlined a range of projects designed to boost transport networks. It says it will seek to identify ways to deliver quicker and cheaper road, rail and intermodal networks, particularly for Australia’s freight and logistics industry. This announcement follows the approval by Australia’s transport ministers of anew work program last week. Read more
How the atmosphere has changed in the last few months? After a bad year in 2014, when it looked like the project to get a true national legislation and regulator for the trucking industry looked in danger of stalling, and the various state ministries and regulators were rubbing their hands in schadenfreude at the misfortunes of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, we seem to be turning a corner. Read more
There is a general recognition the current way of calculating the road user charge for trucks on Australia’s roads is flawed. In 2014, the government froze the charge for the year after questions were raised about incorrect calculations about the number of trucks on the road. Read more
The calculations have been done and the National Transport Commission has released the proposed heavy vehicle registration charges, to come in later this year. The NTC annually recalculates the charges using a seven year average for both road expenditure and vehicle numbers. Read more
It’s like waking up on the morning after losing a grand final. Your team made it all of the way to the big day and then messed up, going down meekly to the opposition. There’s a blame game to be had, if you want to take it out on somebody, and then there’s just crying in your beer. Read more