NHVR reports on national service rollout

National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) Southern Regional Director, Paul Simionato, has commented on the Regulator's transition to national service.

Simionato shared his update via a recent National Bulk Tanker Association webinar which brought together a group of industry experts and operators keen to impart their knowledge on specific topics of interest.

“We commenced in South Australia in July 2016 with progressive phase-ins including the Prosecution Intelligence Service, then Onroad Compliance and Access, then slowly we transitioned to Tasmania in July 2018 and the ACT in 2019,” said Simionato. “Victoria transitioned in December 2019 and New South Wales was planned for July 2020 but due to COVID-19 that’s been delayed and is now scheduled for early 2021, however, we are still waiting for confirmation from the NSW government on how that should proceed, and the same goes for Queensland.”

Simionato said the majority of the country is now joined or is in the process of joining with the NHVR, with Western Australia and the Northern Territory remaining as the respective non-transitioning state and territory.

“From a compliance perspective we have a vested interest in the heavy vehicle safety area and we still do a lot of work with our WA and NT colleagues,” said Simionato.

Simionato started his journey with the NHVR as Operations Manager in South Australia and has watched the organisation progress, noting that it has come a long way over the last few years in trying to achieve harmonisation of procedures and laws across borders and between the different jurisdictions.

“We believe education needs to be our primary focus when it comes to compliance,” he said. “Unfortunately, we still have five to 10 per cent of industry that chooses not to comply no matter what we do by way of education including toolbox talks and presentations. They’re the ones we try to target with our enforcement activities and basically weed out of the industry.” 

In other news, National Transport Insurance unpacked its tanker accident research in the same webinar.

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