Chain of Responsibility Legislation (UPDATED JUNE 2022)

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Video – Chain of Responsibility Legislation

Chain of Responsibility Legislation Overview

Many people in the industry have an influence on the safety of heavy vehicles. They influence actions taken by drivers, loaders, maintenance crews, and others. This is the Chain of Responsibility. Chain of Responsibility legislation is part of the Australian Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL). Chain of Responsibility legislation ensures everyone shares responsibility for safety. It helps ensure breaches of the law do not happen. Chain of Responsibility legislation encompasses –

Employer or prime contractor of the driver
Drivers
Schedulers
Consignors
Consignees
Packers
Loading managers and loaders
Unloaders

If you –

are one of these people
use heavy vehicles in your operation
have the ability to control any transport-related task

then you have a shared responsibility to follow the HNVL legislation. You must minimise safety risks. Anyone involved in the chain of responsibility may be held liable in case of a breach of the law.

Examples of when Chain of Responsibility legislation may apply include –

When someone can influence a transportation activity and does not attempt to manage any risk created
When business practices encourage drivers to exceed legal speed, load or rest limits
When business practices encourage drivers to drive whilst tired
When instructions or demands contribute to a HVNL offence
Schedulers that cause drivers to exceed speed limits
When vehicles are not maintained to legal standards
A manager who does not ensure a driver has the correct licence for their vehicle

In a HVNL court case, the prosecution will attempt to show negligence of someone in the Chain of Responsibility. Directors, managers, CEO’s can be held liable under specific offenses. These offences include jail terms of up to five years. There are also fines of up to $300,000 for individuals and $3,000,000 for companies.

In one recent example, NVHR accepted an Enforcement Undertaking valued at $249,000. This was for chain of responsibility education from Laing O’Rourke Australia Construction Pty Ltd. The case failure to comply with mass requirements. For more details, see here.

Your organisation is legally required to have systems in place to –

Manage risk
Manage compliance, including –
speed
load
vehicle standards
driver rest periods
Produce reporting for management
Document safety related actions

The NHVR provide plenty of information about CoR here.

One of the key tools is their gap assessment tool.

Chain of Responsibility legislation compliance is a big task. It covers many departments in your organisation. One of the key components to CoR compliance is a Fleet Management System.

How to Implement Chain of Responsibility?

The NHVR (National Heavy Vehicle Regulator) recommends:

the best way to do this is to have Safety Management Systems (SMS) and controls in place, such as business practices, training, procedures and review processes that:

identify, assess, evaluate, and control risk
manage compliance with speed, fatigue, mass, dimension, loading and vehicle standards requirements through identified best practice
involve regular reporting, including to executive officers
document or record actions taken to manage safety.

Fleet management systems can be a key part of the implementation of Chain of Responsibility requirements –

“identify, assess, evaluate, and control risk”

Driver Coaching: System monitors live driver behaviour (eg seatbelt use, speed, stop sign violation), suggests improvements. Leaderboards incentivise safer driving.
Detect incidents immediately for rapid response by using crash detection functionality
Incident Replay: See exactly what happened and modify future processes as appropriate

“manage compliance with speed, fatigue, mass, dimension, loading and vehicle standards requirements through identified best practice”

– “Speed”:

Monitor (and record) real-time driver behaviour including distance travelled and speeding infringements via GPS tracking
In-cab driver coaching helps ensure real-time compliance
Recorded data on journey times and routes makes drivers more accountable for their vehicle use.

– “Fatigue”:

Electronic Work Diary functionality to record working time and manage rest periods

– “Mass”:

On-board monitoring of mass per axle

– “Vehicle Standards”:

Pre Start Checklist; identify vehicle defects and track their repairs to ensure vehicles remain roadworthy
Preventive Maintenance based on distance travelled or fault codes that are automatically created by in-vehicle sensors

“regular reporting, including to executive officers”:

Automatically create speeding and other infringement reports
Automatically create vehicle defect reports

“document or record actions taken to manage safety”:

Record speeding and other infringement history, and disciplinary actions
Record axle mass history
Record vehicle defect reports and follow up actions
Record drivers’ working and rest periods

In addition to supporting Chain of Responsibility requirements, fleet management systems can also help deliver fuel and labour savings, help optimise fuel tax credits, and increase customer satisfaction.

For more information, click on the links below.