According to former Roads and Maritime Services NSW general manager of compliance operations Paul Endycott, and Kingston Reid partner John Makris, the first Queensland-based prosecution under the Heavy Vehicle National Law’s (HVNL) WHS-style chain-of-responsibility provisions concluded recently, and other matters are on hand in Victoria and New South Wales.

Just like in the WHS and rail safety laws, the HVNL enforces every executive officer a positive and proactive duty to exercise due diligence to ensure their company complies with their obligations under the law, Makris said.

As a result, regulators and the courts will look for certain elements when determining if due diligence was carried out.

Five reasonable steps

The HVNL provides five reasonable steps officers need to take as a “bare minimum” to meet their expectations.

These five steps can be built into existing safety management systems and if a company’s system is robust it won’t need to ‘reinvent the wheel’.

Step one

Acquiring and keeping up to date on knowledge on how to safely conduct the company’s transport activities, including on where the company fits in the supply chain, and how it influences vehicles attending and leaving the site.

If a truck is delayed at a site, for example, that site needs to understand what this means for the rest of the truck’s journey and whether the delay needs to be communicated down the line so other parties can factor it into their schedules.

Step two

Makris said officers need to keep up to date on what is going on in the company, in the wider industry and in relation to the Chain of Responsibility laws. Officers will also need to ensure there is a regular flow of information from sources like employee training programs, trade associations and the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s website.

“What you are doing here... is complying with a primary safety duty to understand the risks and therefore eliminate those risks, and if you can’t eliminate then minimise them,” Endycott said.

Makris also stressed that corporate officers’ duties aren’t legally delegable, so engaging experts won’t relieve them of their responsibilities. But he encourages officers to seek feedback and reports and engage with experts on how to deal with risks around load dimensions, speed, load restraints and driver fatigue.

Step three

Ensuring the company has and uses appropriate resources to eliminate identified hazards and risks, with relevant resources including news and information services, budgets allocated to transport safety and experts engaged to assess activities.

Step four

Ensuring the company implements processes to eliminate or minimise transport activity hazards and risks, and for receiving, considering, and responding in a timely way to information about them.

“They need to ensure issues are dealt with, instead of relying on operators to manage them, by requiring them to be reported up the line to a decision maker,” Makris said.

During investigations, regulators will access company data that shows if a problem wasn’t adequately dealt with, he stressed.

Step five

Personally verifying that resources and processes are implemented. Corporate Officers should not rely on the word of their safety or transport managers, but personally look at reports, trend analyses and internal and external audits to confirm processes are being used and that workers understand the HVNL.

Help and support

For more information on this and other Health Safety and Wellbeing support, please contact our team on 03 8662 5333 or hsw@victorianchamber.com.au to discuss your needs.