Stronger chain of responsibility links for heavy vehicle industry

Queensland Parliament today passed amendments to heavy vehicle national law to strengthen chain of responsibility across the transport and logistics supply chain and drive better safety outcomes.

Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said the amendments were a significant step forward and would improve the way safety risks are identified and managed by industry.

“These reforms will change the way transport and logistic operators do businessbecause they acknowledge each person in the supply chain needs to take responsibility for their actions,” Mr Hinchliffe said.

“Road safety is everyone’s responsibility and these changes recognise the critical role workers such as schedulers, consignors, consignees, loaders, unloaders and packers all play in improving road safety.

“Ensuring everybody plays their part will reduce regulatory burden, simplify compliance and lead to better safety outcomes.”

Mr Hinchliffe said the reforms harmonise heavy vehicle and national safety laws and put a positive duty of care on all people across the supply chain.

“These changes will make it easier for the operator to assess risk and make sure they comply with the law,” Mr Hinchliffe said.

“By replacing existing prescriptive obligations with a chain of responsibility, industry will benefit from less regulatory burden which will allow operators to focus more readily on safety outcomes.

“These reforms will promote a proactive and systemic approach to risk identification and encourage regulators to proactively address risks in the industry.”

The chain of responsibility amendments in the Bill represent the first of three phases of legislative review for this national reform project.

“To give the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, enforcement agencies and industry sufficient time to adjust to the chain of responsibility reforms, an implementation period is proposed that will see these reforms come into effect in mid-2018,” Mr Hinchliffe said.

“The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator will take the lead in providing operators with information and educational resources to guide them through the changes.

“Operators will also refer to industry Codes of Practice for guidance in addressing their obligations.

“There is also a range of minor improvements and maintenance amendments that will serve to reduce the regulatory compliance burden for industry while maintaining safety.”

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