By regulating the heavy vehicle transportation industry, the CoR has made a huge difference in limiting heavy vehicle accidents on the roads. That said, many people are still unfamiliar with the CoR and the other aspects related to it. For that reason, we’ve put together a short guide of all the essential info you need if you’re in or thinking of joining the heavy vehicle industry.

What we’ll discuss:

• The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator
• The Heavy Vehicle National Law
• The Chain of Responsibility

What is the NHVR?

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator is a government agency in Australia that is responsible for regulating the heavy vehicle industry in Australia. To be more specific, the NHVR regulate vehicles that exceed 4.5 tonnes of gross vehicle mass. The reason the NHVR exists is to ensure that the Australian roads are safe for all drivers on them, that heavy vehicles are used in an effective way, and that the road infrastructure in Australia is well-maintained.

What is the HVNL?

The Heavy Vehicle National Law is exactly what its name suggests; it’s a law enforced by the NHVR that applies to the heavy vehicle industry across Australia and every territory. The aim of the HVNL is as follows:

• To assist with harmonising laws across  participating states
• To improve safety, efficiency, and productivity throughout the whole industry

What is the Chain of Responsibility?

The Chain of Responsibility laws align with the Workplace Health and Safety legislation. Relevant heavy vehicle transport parties must do what is reasonably practicable, considering the degree to which a party has influence and control over the transport task/s. This includes off-road parties

Under previous regulations in Australia, drivers often bore legal liability if something went wrong, even if they had little control over the factors that contributed to the breach. This approach was considered unfair, as drivers could be held liable for breaches caused by others in the supply chain, such as fleet managers, consignors, or loading personnel. The current CoR legislation ensures a shared responsibility across all parties involved in heavy vehicle activities. These parties must understand how their actions, inactions and demands affect others.

The goal of the CoR

The CoR’s goal is to ensure that all those involved in the transportation supply chain are accountable for safety and compliance. Now, the driver isn’t the only one held responsible if there’s an offence caused, rather, all relevant supply chain parties have a shared responsibility under the CoR primary duty requirement.

Who’s involved in the Chain of Responsibility?

Those involved in the CoR include the employer, manager, or executives. Responsible business practices start at the top, executives, including people with management responsibilities, have a legal due diligence requirement. As they have a high level of control over business decisions and operators, additional CoR requirements must be understood and complied with.

The operator of the vehicle and the scheduler are also held responsible. For example, the scheduler shouldn’t schedule a vehicle needing repairs or that’s not compliant with NHVR regulations. Those who load the vehicle with supplies are also included in the CoR, as well as those who sign for the transport of the goods and their reception.

What does this look like practically?

Well, when a party of the CoR has influence over a certain task and fails to manage it in a reasonably safe manner, it creates a risk for everyone on the road. For example, say the schedule happens to schedule a freighter that has bad brakes. Now, you pack that truck with 5 tonnes of cargo, and it gets into a situation where it needs to break suddenly. While this situation is unlikely to happen with the CoR in place, it describes the risk of one piece of the chain not doing what it should. Here are some examples of when the CoR comes into play:

• When businesses have practices that breach the fatigue management requirements
• When businesses fails to comply with mass loading requirements, including the weight distribution requirements
• When transportation schedules are unrealistic
• When a business fails to communicate shared responsibilities with third parties
• If clients encourage drivers to exceed speed limits to have a faster delivery turnover

Final Thoughts

Compliance with the CoR is a non-negotiable if you’re in the heavy vehicle industry in Australia. For that reason, we encourage you to stay updated with CoR legislation and rules have an active Safety Management System (SMS) in place and train your employees so you can demonstrate you have done what is considered reasonably practicable is being and staying compliant. After all, the whole reason the CoR was created in the first place was to improve the safety and efficiency of the transportation industry.