It’s been seven years since the National Transport Commission (NTC) was first directed to review the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) in Australia. In December 2018, the terms of reference for the review dictated the NTC create a “modern, outcome-focused law regulating the use of heavy vehicles”.
Beginning on behalf of the Transport and Infrastructure Council, the HVNL review started in earnest in 2019. The aim for the review was to improve safety for all road users, support increased economic productivity, simplify the HVNL, support the use of new technologies and provide flexible compliance options. Six years since the review first got underway, there’s still a lack of official changes being made to the HVNL. It’s left the Australian transport industry frustrated.
“Now is the time to abandon the notion that the HVNL review package constitutes genuine reform,” Queensland Trucking Association (QTA) CEO Gary Mahon told OwnerDriver.
“After significant time and effort, it has yielded little more than a series of minor amendments and superficial adjustments to fatigue laws that have added even more pages to the law.”
Gary was one of the main industry stakeholders involved in the initial stages of the HVNL review, being part of an expert reference panel established in 2019 under the chair of Peter Harris. Alongside him sat Louise Bilato, the executive officer of the Northern Territory Road Transport Association (NTRTA).
“At the time, the NT and Western Australia were strong protagonists advocating for the review, and that it should be brought forward despite the legislation having been implemented in 2014,” Louise told OwnerDriver.
“Both Gary and I were adamant from the outset of the expert panel meetings that the impact of the HVNL on transport, freight and logistics productivity couldn’t be ignored.”
Back in 2019, the start of the review presented an opportunity for the industry to reach a fresh HVNL. So, six years down the track, how has this once-optimistic review turned into what Louise and Gary now describe as a “farce”?
To start with, the arrival of COVID-19 derailed the meeting process for the expert reference panel, meaning Gary and Louise’s involvement in providing industry feedback was limited. The panel was supposed to run in conjunction with consultation the NTC was conducting with various Australian governments, the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator and major Australian transport bodies and industry associations.
These delays meant the review was far from completed by the original deadline of the end of 2019. The plan was for the NTC to then provide recommendations to the council for approval, with these legislative changes to be drafted and made from mid-2019 onwards.
Instead, it took until August 2022 for transport ministers to endorse a package of legislative and non-legislative recommendations for the HVNL. Over the best part of four years since it was first announced, the review process took into account the current HVNL and whether it addressed key priorities for the industry, including safe and efficient heavy vehicle access, a “risk-based approach to regulating fatigue based on evidence”, an “improved accreditation framework” and the increasing use of technology for regulatory purposes.
Over the course of 2019, the NTC says it released seven issues papers for public consultation and received more than 200 online submissions. In January 2020, it released a summary of consultation outcomes, before publishing a consultation regulation impact statement for public feedback in June that year. In May 2021, it says it “learned from all of its consultation and research” to present recommendations to ministers.
It took until October 2024 for the NTC to unveil its 71 proposed rate changes to HVNL penalties – part of what the NTC says will deliver a revised HVNL that is “risk-based and proportionate to harm”.
“The HVNL reform included a comprehensive review of penalties,” an NTC spokesperson told OwnerDriver.
“Through this review it was recognised that some penalties, especially for offences related to fatigue management administrative requirements such as completing the National Work Diary, were either unnecessary or should be reduced. Other penalties, especially for more serious offences, are proposed to increase.
“The NTC assessed 349 penalties, and following consultation with key stakeholders, recommended that 21 penalties be decreased and 50 penalties be increased.”
This slow process for the release of the proposed penalty changes last year has raised the ire of many in the industry. As CEO of the Truck Industry Council (TIC), Tony McMullan is one of many left ruing what the industry has missed out on in recent years due to the stagnant pace of the review.
“TIC is disappointed that the NTC’s review of the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) has still not been completed in early 2025,” Tony told OwnerDriver.
“The review started in May 2018 with a directive to the NTC and was projected to see the implementation of a revised HVNL completed by November 2020.
“Had the NTC undertaken what the ministers wanted, industry would have seen a more-timely introduction of 2.55m vehicle width, ADR 80/04 (Euro VI) axle mass increases and the introduction of wide spaced twin steer vehicles. The protracted HVNL review has led to delays in the roll out of safer, cleaner and more productive new trucks on Australian roads.”
National Road Transport Association (NatRoad) CEO Warren Clark remembers opposing the extension of time given to the review back in 2023. He says this refusal was because he doubted the “flawed process and lack of ambition” would ever be resolved.
“The HVNL review has gone on for far too long and delivered no meaningful benefit to the industry,” he told OwnerDriver.
“At this point, the focus should not be on token changes to the process. We need to see promises delivered – real change in the form of safety improvements and productivity gains.
“While the incremental improvements that have since been proposed should be implemented, such as improvements to general access, the review has failed to meet its original objectives.”
At the South Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA), executive officer Steve Shearer says the HVNL review process has been “utterly frustrating and singularly unsatisfying and unproductive”.
“What was promised by ministers was a fundamental review of the HVNL and the adoption of a risk-based safety-focused and simplified HVNL that facilitates productivity while enhancing safety,” he told OwnerDriver.
“What we are getting does not even remotely resemble delivery on that promise. Despite the enormous effort and cost within government and the industry throughout the process, we are getting little more than a tweaking of the HVNL.
“Yes, there are some good outcomes, but none of the truly needed and justified core outcomes have been achieved.”
He says fundamental reforms to fatigue management provisions were meant to have been a cornerstone of the review. Instead, he says they “fell victim to the interminable squabbles and jurisdictional turf wars that plague officialdom, as well as a stubborn resistance from police agencies to shift from the ‘cops-and-robbers’ mentality of bygone eras”.
“The abject refusal of the jurisdictions to be mature and sit down with industry to discuss serious reform of the HVNL, despite numerous requests by SARTA and others, has been a great disappointment and it’s a causal factor in watering down the review’s potential for a positive quantum shift,” he says.
“The adoption of a policy of reducing proposed changes to the lowest common denominator just to secure the agreement of all jurisdictions has delivered the inevitable minor fiddles.”
In WA, a main driving factor for the HVNL review being commissioned, Western Roads Federation (WRF) CEO Cam Dumesny says that he, like the rest of the industry, had “high hopes” for the process.
“We were confident that Gary and Louise as national representatives for industry associations would help influence the fundamental reform needed,” he told OwnerDriver.
“However, the end result was they got worn down by bureaucratic inertia. The end result was a relatively minor tinkering at the edges.”
Down in Victoria, Victorian Transport Association (VTA) CEO Peter Anderson is particularly aggrieved by the delays that occurred throughout the review process.
“If ever there was an example of bureaucracy at its worst and public policy gone wrong, the NTC and its review of the Heavy Vehicle National Law is it,” he told OwnerDriver.
“This is a review that started almost 10 years ago and over its lifetime has produced nothing but delay after delay. Despite the HVNL’s original intent to boost productivity, efficiency and safety, the NTC’s first five-year review has stretched over seven years with no significant updates.
“This isn’t a partisan issue either because successive ministers are as complicit as the NTC for sluggishness, and for letting down the road transport industry. The VTA is all for engagement, but when it is marred by delay after delay, it hurts not just transport businesses, but also the economy.”
The outrage at the HVNL review process isn’t just segmented to transport associations – industry veterans like Rod Hannifey, while out on the road, have plenty of issues with the proposed penalty changes put forth.
“What we have received is the withdrawal of three fines, barely touching the real problems,” he told OwnerDriver.
“We asked for some flexibility, the recognition of the lack of rest areas and guidance on where we manage our fatigue. We didn’t get that.
“I want the NTC to reveal how much the HVNL review has cost to date and whether they believe we have received good value and significant change for all of the time, money and effort involved?”
In response, the NTC spokesperson told OwnerDriver the review process has been “complex”, requiring policy agreement from the states and territories who participate in the HVNL.
“Amending the HVNL is a significant undertaking to create a more modern, effective and flexible law that meets the evolving needs of Australia’s heavy vehicle industry,” the spokesperson says.
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“The NTC is confident that these reforms will deliver long-term benefits to the heavy vehicle industry and broader community as they come into law.”
The NTC didn’t provide an exact cost figure for the review to date, instead saying it has been funded through the NTC’s annual budget which sits at around $10 million per annum. This budget goes towards a variety of projects outside of the HVNL review and also covers office rental, IT and staff costs for around 55 people. It says this investment in the HVNL review has been worthwhile for the industry.
“The regulation impact assessments associated with this reform show significant benefits arising from the proposed changes and that these benefits exceed the costs,” the spokesperson says.
“Policy proposals, such as expanding the scope of ‘fatigue regulated heavy vehicles’, where benefits may not exceed costs, are not included in the legislative package. The estimated benefits of the review dwarf the costs associated with delivering the reform.”
The recent timeline in the lead-up to the NTC’s proposed penalty changes saw ministers approve 14 foundational recommendations in June 2023 for a new law that focuses on more effective regulation, enhanced safety and productivity and streamlined governance. In September last year, an extra 12 recommendations to update fatigue record-keeping, general mass limit increases and the introduction of a new National Auditing Standard were approved.
Now, after conducting public consultation on its draft regulation changes, the NTC’s plan was to present to ministers in February to finalise the delivery of reforms and bring the long-winded reform to a close by the end of this year.
“The NTC is nearing finalisation of the legislative reforms requested by all of Australia’s transport ministers,” the spokesperson says.
“Assuming the legislative package is approved by ministers in the first half of 2025, and the Queensland Parliament passes the Amendment Bill in November to December, the NTC anticipates commencement of the changes to the HVNL and regulations in mid-2026.”
On the manufacturing side of the trucking industry, Scania Australia is looking forward to welcoming core changes that are part of the HVNL update. While the brand is still looking for further harmonisation to help operators improve efficiency, productivity and safety, it’s supportive of changes to the HVNL that promote safety, reduced driver fatigue and easier compliance with harmonised rules.
“The extra half tonne on the front axle for compliant vehicles was a welcome addition, if well overdue,” Scania Australia director of pre sales and logistics William Fisher told OwnerDriver.
“The increased width to 2.55m was also helpful because it allowed us to implement several Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) related safety hardware features, which will undoubtedly have an effect in terms of improved road safety.
“However, we would still like to see a greater harmonisation of standards and legislation across all states and territories under Commonwealth legislation, which would remove excessive and inefficient paperwork compliance for transport operators crossing state and territory borders.”
Scania Australia’s director of truck sales Benjamin Nye says he wants the review to continue urging the adoption of the Euro 6 standard on new trucks and buses in Australia “far sooner” than what is currently outlined.
“We would urge the powers behind the HVNL to turn their attention to the admittedly significant job of driving older, dirtier trucks off our roads, particularly those plying routes in heavily built-up, high density population areas,” he told OwnerDriver.
“We feel that more could be done to encourage the uptake of state-of-the-art active and passive safety systems and to retire older vehicles from our roads, if for no other reason than to preserve the driver cohort.
“With regard to fatigue laws, we again would support a harmonisation of fatigue laws across all states, as well as a more modern up-to-date way of monitoring driving hours, such as mandatory electronic workbooks.
“Overall, we welcome the HVNL changes that have been implemented, but we feel that for the benefit of the industry, all road users, and everyone in Australia, there are some easily identifiable steps that could still be taken with relatively low economic impact but with high societal and productivity benefits. All it takes is the willpower to implement the changes.”
So what is the way forward with future updates to the HVNL? It’s clear the industry, for the most part, isn’t satisfied with the current review process. Clark and NatRoad say cutting access permits is a better approach to helping the industry in the short term.
“Transport ministers should ensure fundamental change is realised by committing to abolishing 90 per cent of access permits by 2028 and by prioritising the delivery of automated access,” Clark says.
“It’s critical that the new National Automated Access System delivers genuine change and is not just a layer of automation over the top of the broken permit system. Industry now faces a red tape burden of more than 172,000 permits just to do our job of keeping the economy moving, which has more than doubled in the past decade.”
A way forward may be to refine the process itself for tweaking the HVNL. Instead of conducting one major review, Road Freight NSW CEO Simon O’Hara suggests constant smaller reviews happening more often would ensure the HVNL consistently remains up to date with the times.
“The HVNL requires smaller reviews more often. To that end, instead of one review that takes six years or longer, and effectively needing to start again once a big review is finished, we recommend the NTC examine the option of reviewing parts or chapters of the HVNL more often to ensure that the legislation is fit for purpose,” he told OwnerDriver.
“Our operators don’t service their vehicles every six years because they would soon go out of business, so we believe the same should apply to the HVNL legislation – smaller reviews happening more often with definite time frames in place to keep the legislation ‘fine-tuned’.
“As we head toward significant technological change for the operation of road freight, we need to keep up with the times, technology and practice to ensure that Australian freight remains productive and safe.”
It’s the one comment on the HVNL review process that has garnered support from the NTC. While the initial review may have been challenging for many in the industry, it may be the lesson the sector needs to better adjust governing laws in future.
“Looking ahead, as industry evolves, we recognise the need for more frequent updates to the HVNL,” the NTC spokesperson says.
“We agree with industry stakeholders that a focus on targeted, discrete changes will enable quicker and more effective improvements, enabled through current work updating the HVNL.”
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