Parliament passes Bill for new truck safety laws

One of two amendment Bills enabling new truck safety laws has now passed through the Queensland Parliament.

The second Bill still needs to be passed before the new laws come into effect on 1 October 2018.

These new laws will apply in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT under a cooperative scheme arrangement.

The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) and its member associations have advocated for the development and extension of the truck safety laws since 2012, as part of a plan to improve truck safety and eliminate prescriptive red tape.

“This is an important win for the industry. It has taken us a long time to get here but the last pieces of the new safety provisions are now in place,” said ATA Chair Geoff Crouch.

“Safety is everyone’s responsibility, and these new laws mean customers and trucking businesses have to focus on developing and maintaining appropriate safety systems.”

Together with amendments passed in 2016, the new laws introduce:

• a strong general safety duty, including on trucking industry customers;
• the extension of the chain of responsibility concept to cover vehicle maintenance and repairs;
• due diligence obligations on company directors and executives to ensure chain parties comply with their primary safety duty;
• maximum penalty increases for the most serious cases to bring them in line with other national safety laws;
• the removal of red tape and unnecessary legislative requirements.

With the support from the Australian Government and NHVR, the ATA and the Australian Logistics Council have developed a master registered code of practice to help businesses comply with the new law, manage risks and improve safety.

“The master code of practice is designed to make businesses safer and ensure they are compliant with the new provisions,” Crouch said.

“The ATA’s best-practice accreditation system, TruckSafe, will implement the master code to help members comply with the changes and make sure they’re covered.

“Under chain of responsibility, participants in the road transport chain — including consignors and consignees — can be held accountable for safety issues on the road, so I strongly recommend that businesses become TruckSafe accredited,” said Crouch.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/passsy