Road managers
Accessibility tools
NHVR CEO, Sal Petroccitto, used his address to the NatRoad Annual Conference in Adelaide today to highlight the progress on its work program and outline the future for the NHVR and the heavy vehicle industry.
"We're on the road to One Regulator, one rulebook and our role on that journey is to facilitate, innovate and regulate," said Mr Petroccitto.
"In all three of those areas, we will continue to refine and improve the way we do business and the outcomes we achieve, together with our industry and government partners.
"As a national regulator, we’re for every heavy vehicle, operator and driver and safety doesn’t stop at borders.
"We are regulating to ensure a safe operating environment for Australia’s heavy vehicle industry. We are working with state and territory jurisdictions to ensure key accountability and performance measures are in place so that drivers and operators continue to benefit from a greater level of consistency in on-road compliance and enforcement outcomes under a national law.
"We are facilitating improved heavy vehicle access through cooperative arrangements with road managers on critical first and last mile issues.
"And we are innovating through putting smarter safer heavy vehicle combinations on the road that are improving freight task efficiency and delivering environmental benefits," Mr Petroccitto said.
On heavy vehicle access, Mr Petroccitto said there are now over 459 pre-approvals and gazette requests in place with 169 road managers, including 159 local governments.
"Access pre-approvals speed up permit processing significantly and ultimately many of these pre-approvals will become part of the gazetted network, removing the need for a permit entirely.
"In the meantime, transport Ministers will consider options in November 2014 on future improvements to the access permit system. We will work with both jurisdictions and industry on how an update to this system will be implemented.
"We recognise that little business improvement increments add up to big benefits over time. We are doing that and achieving gains in productivity and safety, in partnership with jurisdictions," Mr Petroccitto said.
A key focus of the NHVR going forward is building a bigger body of data on compliance, intelligence and the overall freight task to deliver gains for the industry, consumers and Australia’s overall international competitiveness.
"This data will guide funding decisions in the future to ensure money is invested in the areas and services that provide the greatest productivity gains and benefits for industry," said Mr Petroccitto.
Media contact: Orla Thompson - 0419 092 510