The fatigue and work diary rules in the Heavy Vehicle National Law are inflexible and over-complicated, and have stagnated since the 1990s. Throughout the HVNL review, the ATA has argued that they need to change.

We put forward option after option, but now we are approaching the review’s final deadlines. We expect the final package of legislation to be presented to transport ministers at about the end of the year.

It’s time, in other words, to focus on realistic ways to improve fatigue enforcement and make the rules fairer for Australia’s truck drivers.

The ATA has previously argued for changes to the law so enforcement officers can issue more formal warnings.

At present, an officer can only issue a formal warning if they reasonably believe that a driver has exercised reasonable diligence to prevent a breach and was also unaware of it.

These requirements mean it would be unlikely that an officer could issue a warning for a fatigue breach.

In our view, an enforcement officer should be able to issue a formal warning for minor fatigue risk and administrative offences if they think it appropriate.

This would enable officers to issue warnings for understandable breaches of the law such as:

a driver cutting a 15-minute break short to enable another truck to park in a congested rest area, or
a driver avoiding a rest area due to concerns about their safety
a driver working an extra 10 minutes to get home.

We also propose that truck drivers who commit a minor fatigue or record keeping offence should have a one-time opportunity to do an online training unit instead of being fined.

Under this proposal, a driver issued with an infringement notice for one of these offences could undertake an online work diary unit through the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.

A driver who completed the free unit would be entitled to get the infringement notice withdrawn. The NHVR would maintain a register of the drivers who had done the course. Drivers would only be able to do the course once.

The driver would be recognised as completing a nationally recognised unit of competency. They would be able to include it in future job applications or even transfer the credit toward a vocational certificate.

Our plan would provide training to drivers instead of fining them for simple work diary errors. It would be cost effective for governments and the NHVR, because there would only need to be one register of drivers who had taken the training option.

One of the NTC’s last projects in the review is to look at the penalties in the law.

The ATA has consistently argued that fatigue and record-keeping penalties are too high.

We reported the real-world experience of truck drivers to the NTC, including one driver, Chris.

Chris told one of our Daimler Truck Future Leaders that he had been stopped twice on one day and fined for two separate work diary offences, both more than a month old and presenting no current safety risk.

These offences cost Chris a week’s wage. And to think that people wonder why we have a driver shortage.

The ATA told the NTC that it should review 32 fatigue and work diary offences as a priority.

The HVNL review has been a long process. Babies have toddled off to kindergarten; high school students have started and finished apprenticeships and university degrees.

We’re nearly at the end of the process, though, and the ATA is determined to get positive results on fatigue to make these long years worthwhile.