Is the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator a “dead duck”?

With the current debate around truck driver safety and the linking of driver remuneration to safety is it time to review the current regulatory bodies to determine their effectiveness.

In horrific bus crashes outside Kempsey and Grafton back in 1989, where 55 lives were lost, it was time for a major rethink about the approach to transport safety, something needed to be done. The Australian Trucking Association in 1996 launched TruckSafe as a means to raise the profile of safety in the trucking industry. Then in 1999 the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme came into being via the States offering operators the opportunity to adopt qualitative safety systems and processes to their business in the management of mass and maintenance and in 2008 Fatigue Management was added to the Accreditation process. In 2002 the WA government adopted WA HVA as its own heavy vehicle accreditation scheme all with a specific intent to improve transport safety.

The National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme came into being in 1999 after much debate about needing to achieve consistent national heavy vehicle regulation across Australia. Prior to this the States operated entirely autonomously in regards to mass management, maintenance, fatigue and speed. It was a punitive regime not a performance based regime, where penalties were more eagerly sought than improved transport safety and operators were more focussed on outcomes that evaded the authorities.

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s (NHVR) began in July 2009 when the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to establish a single national system of laws for heavy vehicles over 4.5 tonnes GVM.

What are the benefits of NHVAS?

The claimed benefits of accreditation with NHVAS include:

• vehicles are kept roadworthy

• reduced infrastructure damage from overweight vehicles

• improved accountability of drivers and mechanics

• increased life of vehicles and reduced repairs and maintenance costs

• improved safety as scheme members who make regulatory compliance part of everyday operations

• improved relationship with enforcement agencies

• improved targeting of enforcement resources towards non-scheme operators

• improved driver morale

• eliminating the need for a certificate of inspection for annual registration renewal

• reduced vehicle downtime

• improved concessional benefits for mass, less overloading fines

• improved management of driving hours,

• nationally recognised accreditation from one State to the rest

What are the flaws of the NHVAS?

• Nationally accredited system managed by each State creating gaps and variable interpretations

• No Workplace OHS

• No load security

• No driver wellness controls

Does the NHVAS reduce truck accidents?

There have been a number of studies done to try and articulate this benefit. The Austroads Research Report Analysis of the Safety Benefits of Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Schemes released in 2008 came up with a number of conclusions

• Operators who have safety management practices that meet accreditation standards are, on average, significantly safer than non-accredited operators.

• Operators generally show substantial improvements through the process of becoming accredited.

• Accredited operators reported that the process of becoming accredited made internal processes easier to manage and the external audits helped to drive positive change within their companies.

• Improvements appear to be driven by a change in safety culture. An example of this occurring was reported by operators who noted that, after their sub-contracted operators became accredited they tended to be more open with information, better at communicating, more professional and willing to exchange information with their peers.

• The influence operators can have on speed behaviour suggests that drivers can be encouraged to drive more defensively. “Pressure to meet deadlines” was by far the most common reason raised as to why drivers speed (AMR-Interactive 2006). As many as 20% of the drivers reported that they were speeding on at least half of their trips even though the vehicle was supposed to be speed limited. Only half of the drivers reported that their company promoted a “do not speed” policy.

• Accreditation appears to produce both safety and financial benefits for operators (Naveh and Marcus 2006).

• While not specifically explored during this project, accreditation is also likely to lead to fuel savings if appropriate modules are introduced. This is because of the strong links between driver behaviour, speed and energy use.

• Smaller fleets are likely to see greater benefits from becoming accredited.

• The analysis suggested that NHVAS Maintenance Management produced greater safety benefits than NHVAS Mass Management. This is consistent with overseas experience where general schemes such as ISO certification do not produce the same level of benefits as safety specific schemes. This would suggest that making NHVAS Maintenance Management accreditation a pre-condition to incentives attached to NHVAS Mass Management could improve safety.

• Both mandatory approaches (such as those used in North America) and voluntary schemes produce safety benefits. It was not possible from the information available to determine which approach is more effective.

• The corollary of the safety benefits of accreditation is that those not accredited are less safe and should be encouraged to become accredited or targeted through enforcement.

Austroads report further concluded:

“It is recommended that greater use be made of heavy vehicle accreditation in Australia and New Zealand as it is arguably the most effective means available to jurisdictions and industry for improving heavy vehicle safety”

What has happened since 2008

Chart from Bureau of Infrastructure and Regional Economics

Fatal crashes involving articulated trucks has diminished significantly from 2008 to current with a smaller movement in heavy vehicle rigid trucks and bus accidents.

It must also be recognised there has been an increase in:

• the number of heavy vehicles over 4.5t GVM being registered

• in kilometres travelled and

• tonnes/kilometre over that period March 2008 to March 2015

In Conclusion

While it is difficult to attribute specific accident statistics to Accreditation schemes it is possible to assert that the increase in companies and operators being accredited either via NHVAS, TruckSafe or WA HVA that there is a greater sense of responsibility and commitment to Safety. Most operators will tell you the increased dialogue around safety improvements has been a positive outcome. While penalties still exist for noncompliance there is a greater benefit to be considered when both customers and operators agree in principle on achieving joint transport safety goals.

The National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation System under the auspices of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator is the most appropriate mechanism towards achieving a continued improvement in transport safety as it demonstrates a solid blend of commitment from both operators and Government.

As an accredited Auditor for NHVAS, TruckSafe and WA HVA, Modal Logistics meet with operators and Customers alike who share a strong commitment to Transport Safety and who feel a mutual responsibility to share the transport safety activity via review meetings, training sessions, incident investigations and setting improvement standards for both businesses’.

The NHVR is not a “dead duck” as long as government and business continue to seek transport safety objectives which do not compromise safety.