The New South Wales government has revealed that incidents involving overheight trucks have dropped to their lowest level since 2017 after the introduction of a zero-tolerance approach in June.
Detections peaked in June, but after a renewed effort, slowed to 107 by December, significantly down a 2022 high of 161.
The NSW government combined forces with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator to send all overheight vehicle incidents directly to Transport for NSW.
State minister for roads John Graham says that the new approach has been overall successful.
“The NSW government was firm in its commitment to stopping overheight trucks shutting down our city and the efforts of Transport for NSW and the industry taskforce has begun to pay off in a busy time of the year for freight,” he says.
“Incidents are dramatically down in November with just four breaches recorded but we cannot and will not claim the job is done as it still only takes one overheight incident to ruin the day of driver’s all over Sydney.
“The vast majority of truckies and operators do the right thing, but the public have no patience for any unnecessary incidents involving overheight trucks.
“I want to thank Duncan Gay and his team at NHVR, all the taskforce participants, including, Transport, NSW Police Force, Road Freight NSW and the TWU, for their collaboration and contributions to drive this positive change on our roads.”
Any detection of a breach from offending trucks resulted in a six-month registration ban. There were only four total overheight incidents recorded in November 2023, compared to 25 in 2022.
The Sydney Harbour Tunnel, which is impacted by the most overheight breaches, has recorded a 22 per cent decrease this year. The M5 East Tunnel has also seen a 65 per cent reduction in incidents and a nearly 43 per cent decrease has been noted at the Lane Cove Tunnel.
This year, TfNSW has stripped 19 heavy vehicles of their registration, taking them off our roads for up to six months, and a further 21 drivers have had their licence suspended.
“To ensure drivers are adhering to the safety measures that keep themselves, their load, and other road users safe, we inform, educate, and where necessary, enforce the Heavy Vehicle National Law,” says NHVR chairperson Duncan Gay.
“Our working relationships are key in the management of overheight incidents across the Sydney tunnel network, essentially involving the coordinated actions of four parties – the NHVR, the NSW Police Force, Motorway Tunnel operators and managers and TfNSW.
“The efforts include educating industry through advertising on social media, online, radio and through key trucking channels, developing a brochure which was translated into three languages for NHVR Safety and Compliance officers to hand out at Heavy Vehicle Safety Stations, and investigating other parties in the Chain of Responsibility that may have been contributing to these incidents.”