In October, the National Transport Commission (NTC) unveiled its plans to push for new penalty changes for numerous offences listed under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL).
As part of delivering a revised HVNL that is “risk-based and proportionate to harm”, the NTC reviewed 349 offences and their monetary penalties and demerit point amounts. The review saw the NTC call for 71 penalties to be tweaked under the HVNL, with the proposal suggesting 50 HVNL penalties should be increased while 21 should be decreased.
In the safety duties and vehicle standards sections of the HVNL, the NTC called for penalties for the likes of prohibited contracts and requests, contravening vehicle standards exemptions and not complying with heavy vehicle standards to be doubled.
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When it comes to mass, dimension and loading national regulations, the NTC wants false or misleading transport documentation of goods penalties to double in penalty rate, while smaller increases have been suggested for not complying with dimension requirements.
The majority of fatigue penalties relating to not adhering to electronic work diaries (EWDs) or following correct fatigue guidelines have been included in the increase list, while the NTC proposed a new penalty if the driver doesn’t avoid driving while unfit, with the penalty rate to be $20,000, or $26,610 when indexed.
Despite these increases, the 21 suggested decreases have caught the eye of major Australian transport bodies, with the NTC calling for the penalty for those failing to record information immediately after starting work to decrease from $8,000 to $5,300, with the infringement notice amount falling from $800 to $530.
National Road Transport Association (NatRoad) CEO Warren Clark told OwnerDriver the decreased penalty suggestions were the standouts from the NTC’s paper.
“NatRoad has long been an advocate for reducing paperwork and other penalties that are not about the level of risk,” Clark says.
“The industry has had longstanding concerns about penalties being totally out of whack with reality, so we’re encouraged by the NTC proposal to reduce 21 penalties.”
In particular, Clark says NatRoad welcomes the proposal for some minor fatigue fines to be reduced, including for some paperwork offences with logbooks. He believes these tweaks will make a significant difference for NatRoad members.
The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) says its members have argued throughout the review that driver fatigue and record-keeping penalties should be reduced.
“The very high penalties for minor breaches of the fatigue rules do not make roads safer. Instead, they are unfair and discourage good drivers from participating our industry,” ATA CEO Mathew Munro says.
Outside of the positives, Clark did refer to the suggested new penalty alongside the raft of increases that the NTC put forth.
“We note there is a proposed new penalty for driving while unfit to drive, but we need some more information,” he says.
“We do note the range of proposed penalty increases is more than double the number of proposed penalty decreases and includes fines going up for offences such as compliance with dimension requirements and vehicle standards. We are consulting with our members on what this means for them and we’ll provide further input to the NTC.”
When it comes to putting this HVNL package before government ministers, Clark wants to ensure Parliament addresses the issue in a “holistic way”.
The NTC is now consulting on the drafts to check they reflect the policy intent of ministers, with consultations set to close on November 21.
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