Councils are signing up to streamline the heavy vehicle access application process, says the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator
The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) is making inroads into improving heavy vehicle access, with governments signing on to streamline the process of getting trucks on the road.
During his appearance at this year’s NatRoad conference, NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto detailed the gains the regulator had made around access conditions through the use of pre-approval agreements and gazette notice requests.
Petroccitto says there are now 249 pre-approvals and 210 gazette requests in place with 169 road managers, including 159 local governments.
“We are facilitating improved heavy vehicle access through cooperative arrangements with road managers on critical first and last mile issues,” Petroccitto told the NatRoad conference.
“Access pre-approvals speed up permit processing significantly and ultimately many of these pre-approvals will become part of the gazetted network, removing the need for a permit entirely.”
The use of pre-approval ends the need for road managers to sign off on access applications, a process that can take up to 28 days.
Under pre-approval, the NHVR receives an application from the trucking operator, grants access and then notifies the relevant authority.
During his speech, Petroccitto also told the conference the regulator was working with state and territory jurisdictions and operators to improve the level of consistency of on-road compliance and enforcement.
He says a key focus of the NHVR is building a larger body of data on compliance, intelligence and the overall freight task.
“This data will guide funding decisions in the future to ensure money is invested in the areas and services that provide the greatest productivity gains and benefits for industry,” Petroccitto says.