The Heavy Vehicle National Law applies to a defined list of parties in the chain of responsibility. It does not apply to intermediaries like online freight matching platforms, facility owners or heavy vehicle repairers.
The ATA submission on chapter 4 of the HVNL review RIS (primary duties and responsibility) recommends that the chain of responsibility be extended to include any party with influence over heavy vehicle road transport activities.
The current list of chain of responsibility parties should become non-exhaustive, with the following parties added for clarity:
- agents and intermediaries between consignors and operators
- facility owners and operators
- persons preparing livestock for transit
- heavy vehicle repairers.
The submission recommends a dramatic reduction in the prescriptive penalties for minor breaches of the law, accompanied by a new duty for drivers.
The ATA made a series of submissions to the NTC in response to the HVNL review RIS. The other submissions are:
- Regulatory tools (chapter 5)
- Technology and data (chapter 6)
- Access (chapter 9)
- Safer vehicle design (chapter 10)
- Roadworthiness (chapter 11).
