Victoria next cab off the rank for national regulator come November
The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has expanded on the next steps of its regulatory services transition, with Victoria on track to be included in December.
The NHVR assumed control from Access Canberra the ACT in July this year, having already taken over operation in Tasmania and South Australia.
“Working very hard on making the transition for VicRoads – as of early December, TSS will transition to NHVR delivering all services in Victoria,” NHVR manager for services transition Paul Olendrowsky tells the NatRoad Connect event.
He notes the regulator is working with the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) and the NSW government to transition services there on a yet-to-be-determined timeline, and Queensland by approximately 2021.
Read about the national regulator’s vision for access, here
Its process involves devising a concept of operations, with six to 12 months’ operational planning, working alongside existing enforcement agencies to ensure a service level “at least as good as the jurisdictions were delivering or better”.
NHVR outlines that it aims for its service includes:
- consistent approach to compliance and enforcement from roadside to interventions
- borderless operations
- national data to inform more targeted compliance activity
- building capability to deliver timely, national response to critical compliance issues
“A benefit is identifying best-practice compliance and using what we find in the delivery of our services – e.g if things are done better in one state, we adopt that methodology,” Olendrowsky says.
“At the end of the day we are working towards best-practice compliance and enforcement.
“Industry’s main concern was ‘we wanted the same treatment’ and that is what we are aiming for across all participating jurisdictions.”
One of the outcomes of the SA transition – in terms of “building skillsets” – has been an NHVR prosecutions unit in SA building significant capability working with police agencies to more effectively deal with cases before a court.
“No longer can operators cross borders and say ‘we did it that way there’ – bad operators will be detected.
“As will be good operators, who will see benefits.”