Note: This information is intended to provide general guidance only and does not constitute legal advice. We encourage you to obtain independent advice about your legal obligations. If you have any feedback on the information provided please contact us at info@nhvr.gov.au

This regulatory advice provides guidance to parties in the heavy vehicle Chain of Responsibility (CoR) focusing on the management of fatigue and driver health and wellbeing in the bus and coach industry.

Please note: In addition to obligations as CoR parties under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) primary duty, the bus and coach industry must comply with prescriptive HVNL requirements. Information on work diary requirements and work/rest hour options can be found in Heavy vehicle fatigue management - bus industry. The bus and coach industry is also responsible for understanding and complying with legal obligations under all relevant national, state and territory laws related to the operation of a bus or coach.

Who is this advice for?

Parties in the Chain of Responsibility (CoR parties) within the bus and coach industry who have control and influence over the safe operations of buses and coaches. Especially those who make safety critical operational decisions that may impact the fatigue and health and wellbeing of drivers.

Who is the CoR party?

When referring to a CoR party, it applies to both individuals and legal entities. However, when a breach of the primary duty is committed, the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) is most likely to investigate the company or business as they have control or influence over managing the risks associated with their transport activities.

Under the HVNL there are 10 CoR parties. In the bus and coach industry, CoR parties generally perform one of four functions:

1. Employer - employs another person to drive a bus.
2. Prime contractor - engages someone to drive a bus under a contract for services.
3. Operator - responsible for controlling or directing the use of a bus. For example, has control over a bus timetable or directs where and when a bus travels.
4. Scheduler - schedules the transport of passengers or schedules the work and rest times of drivers. This includes dictating the scheduling (e.g. determining pick-up, drop off or transit times).

Note: A heavy vehicle driver is not a CoR party unless they are an owner/operator or perform another function that makes them a party. However, a driver is subject to other requirements under the HVNL and other road laws.

CoR parties in the bus and coach industry typically provide services including:

• School services - buses or coaches primarily used to transport children to and from school.
• Route services - scheduled public passenger transport services.
• Charter and tour services - private organisations who provide chartered services or individuals who hire a vehicle to transport passengers to a specific destination.
• Long distance services - long distance passenger services which may be intra or interstate express services or supplementary transport services, i.e. provide passenger service in remote or rural areas where there are limited transport options.

Note: The HVNL only applies to a bus with a GVM of 4.5t or higher and built to carry more than 9 adults (including the driver). A fatigue-regulated bus is a bus that weighs more than 4.5t and is built or fitted to carry more than 12 adults (including the driver), except in Victoria where state law legislates HVNL fatigue management provisions apply to all buses, including buses with a GVM up to and including 4.5t.

What are my legal obligations as a CoR party?

This is an obligation to eliminate or minimise public risks, and a prohibition against directly or indirectly causing or encouraging a driver or another person, including a party in the CoR, to contravene the HVNL. CoR parties should also be aware that they remain a CoR party even when their transport activities are contracted, or subcontracted, to another party.

Note: Transport activities includes all activities associated with the use of a bus on the road. It includes safety systems, business processes such as contract negotiation and communication and decision making, as well as the activities normally associated with the bus and coach industry such as training, scheduling, route planning, managing premises, selecting and maintaining vehicles.

What are public risks?

What are the legal consequences?

If your business is a party in the CoR and it fails to eliminate or minimise public risks so far as is reasonably practicable, then it may be in breach of its primary duty. If a court finds an individual or a company and/or its executives guilty of an offence it may impose penalties ranging from education and improvement notices to financial penalties and/or imprisonment. It is important to understand that the primary duty is based on a positive duty to ensure safety. This means that a CoR party can be prosecuted for a primary duty breach if that party does not take proactive steps to perform its duty, even if no incident or crash occurs.

How driver fatigue, health, and wellbeing impact on the bus and coach industry

Drivers who are affected by fatigue and/or have poor health or wellbeing present an increased safety risk to themselves, their passengers, other road users and the public. Whilst fatigue, health, and wellbeing impact all heavy vehicle drivers, data from crash investigations and research undertaken by industry associations and government agencies has highlighted these hazards as particularly prominent in the bus and coach industry. This may be due to the nature of the work and the working environment. For example, long work hours and exposure to poor passenger behaviours.

Between 2014 to 2023 there were 174 fatal crashes involving buses, an average of 17 per year. Between 2012 and 2021, approximately 239 bus occupants per year were hospitalised with injuries.^[1]

Fatigue reduces alertness and slows reaction times which increases the likelihood of a driver being involved in a crash.

Chronic health issues can adversely impact a bus driver’s ability to maintain control of a vehicle. For example, bus drivers with diabetes have a higher risk of being involved in a crash, and those with sleep apnoea are more likely to experience fatigue and microsleeps.^[2]

Poor mental health can also impact safety as it can impair a driver’s ability to perform their duties safely. Mental health issues can affect emotional stability, decision making, and result in lapses in concentration which can cause drivers to crash.

It is important to remember that not only is each operator in the bus and coach industry different, but the type of operation can vary immensely in size, type of activity such as route services, long distance services or charter services, and the level of resourcing available to the operator. These factors can all impact the hazards and risks within the business and how these hazards and risks are controlled.

Why is this important to my business?

CoR parties have an obligation to ensure safety so far as is reasonably practicable. Managing the safety risks related to driver fatigue, health, and wellbeing, including fostering a mentally healthy workplace can have significant safety and other benefits for drivers and other workers, their employers and other road users.

Ensuring drivers are fit to work and not adversely affected by fatigue is the joint responsibility of both drivers and CoR parties. This is because drivers have control over their behaviours outside of work and the greatest opportunity to self-monitor their physical and mental wellbeing and fatigue. CoR parties set policies and procedures that support drivers managing their fitness to work and implement last line of defence controls or contribute to the risk. The culture and support offered by an operator has a direct impact on a driver’s activation of early intervention or preventative measures.

What are the hazards and risks?

Hazards associated with fatigue and poor health and wellbeing in the heavy vehicle industry are well documented. Some hazards more unique to the bus and coach industry or prevalent for bus and coach drivers may include:

• Lack of schedule flexibility/having to meet strict timeframes. For example, bus timetables and being unable to control when rest breaks are taken.
• Frontline interaction with the public/constantly being monitored by passengers/ judgement from the public.
• Regular periods of extreme pressure. For example, peak traffic periods, full buses where passengers are standing, breakdowns, traffic jams, or roadworks that may affect the ability to meet on time running performance indicators.
• Lulls/quiet periods creating boredom. For example, few or no passengers on a route.
• Extended sedentary periods/ being unable to get up and walk around during route services.
• Cabin design and fixture positioning that may cause stress on the body.
• Social isolation and work schedules causing drivers to regularly miss social and family activities.
• Limited access to safe, clean, and maintained facilities for meals, bathrooms, and rest breaks
• Exposure to aggressive or violent passengers or members of the public, verbal, or physical assault and or other anti-social behaviours.
• Extended workdays exposing workers to early mornings, late nights, and/or split shifts which conflict with the circadian rhythm.
• The age demographic of workers increasing the potential of age-related medical conditions experienced such as poor vision, hearing loss, heart disease, and diabetes.
• Drug and alcohol abuse.
• Secondary employment that may increase driver fatigue.

The potential safety risks and individual consequences resulting from these hazards may include:

• serious or fatal injuries to drivers, passengers, or other road users
• poor driver physical and/or mental health
• elevated stress levels
• damage to public and private infrastructure.

How can my business manage hazards and risks?

One of the most effective ways for CoR parties in the bus and coach industry to manage the safety of their transport activities is to adopt and actively use a Safety Management System (SMS) as part of their everyday business.

An SMS is a systematic approach to managing safety which, once implemented, will help CoR parties identify how to ensure the safety of their transport activities, so far as is reasonably practicable.

As part of the risk management process, CoR parties should:

• identify hazards associated with their transport activities
• assess the risks associated with those hazards
• identify and implement control measures to eliminate or minimise those risks
• review the effectiveness of control measures, either periodically and/or post any incident or change to work practices/equipment, to ensure they remain effective.

Fitness to drive

CoR parties must consider the risk of drivers' fitness to drive and their continued ability to carry out their work in a manner that does not endanger themselves or risk the safety of passengers or other road users.

More information on fitness to work can be found here in Regulatory Advice – Fitness to work

In Australia it is mandatory for all bus and coach drivers to undergo regular health assessments to maintain their license and meet driver accreditation requirements. These assessments are applied nationally and governed by the Assessing Fitness to Drive (AFTD) guidelines developed jointly by Austroads and the National Transport Commission. AFTD guidelines can be found at AP-G56-22 | Austroads.

Safety culture

Having a positive safety culture in your business which is supported by management and workers alike, can assist in ensuring that your transport activities are managed safely and have a positive impact on your business. Safety culture plays an important role in the organisations and drivers’ attitude towards fatigue management and the promotion of mentally healthy workplaces.

More information about safety culture can be found in Developing a positive safety culture.

What CoR parties should reasonably know about hazards, risks, and controls

As a party in the CoR, it is part of your primary duty to ensure safety, to understand all hazards and risks and invest in appropriate controls to eliminate or, where they cannot be eliminated, mitigate these safety risks.

CoR parties must remain up to date with industry standards and best practice and be informed of relevant safety risks and controls. This can be achieved through a range a methods including:

• speaking with others in your industry sector
• subscriptions to publications relevant to your business
• referencing industry codes of practice
• speaking with drivers
• advice and educational material published by suitable authorities, for example, the NHVR, relevant industry bodies and other statutory authorities.

Controlling hazards and risks

Parties in the CoR, such as employers and operators can implement control measures to assist in managing driver fatigue, health, and wellbeing.

These may include:

• Undertaking pre-employment medical assessments that include a declaration to identify known conditions.
• Implementing health monitoring programs and conducting periodical medical assessments.
• Implementing and communicating policies and procedures on:
  • Fatigue and driver health management
  • Fitness to work
  • Alcohol and other drug management
  • Secondary employment
  • Hazard and incident reporting and investigation.
• Ensuring workers, including schedulers, supervisors and drivers, are provided training relevant to their role and responsibility for managing fatigue, health and wellbeing.
• When scheduling and rostering, consider driver fatigue, health and wellbeing.
• Working with drivers when planning journey routes, including rest stops in locations with appropriate rest facilities. This may include service centres or hotel/motel accommodation for coach drivers.
• Ensuring contractual arrangements and timetables are flexible enough to allow for rest breaks and unexpected delays.
• Providing ergonomic training so drivers can self-assess and adjust the positioning of the driver’s seat and in cabin fixtures and devices to ensure a safe and comfortable driving position.
• Monitoring and addressing alerts detected by Fatigue and Distraction Detection Technology.
• Reviewing incident reports and identifying and implementing corrective actions and appropriate control measures to reduce the risk of reoccurrence.
• Encouraging healthy habits. For example, providing corporate/sponsored gym memberships.

How can I support drivers to actively manage their safety

Fostering a supportive work environment built on trust and open communication where drivers feel empowered to manage their own health, wellbeing, and safety without fear of repercussion is an integral part of creating a positive safety culture.

Parties in the CoR can support drivers in managing their personal safety and fitness to work by educating them in the choices they may make regarding their lifestyle and health and wellbeing and ensuring policies and procedures support fatigue management and encourage good physical and mental health. Practical steps may include ensuring drivers have time for adequate rest and access to healthy food options on the road and encouraging healthy behaviours.

Drivers also have a responsibility to monitor and manage their own fitness to work and must comply with relevant policies and procedure relating to fatigue and fitness to work.

Drivers should communicate with managers or supervisors to let them know when they are fatigued. They should also avoid working additional hours and undertaking safety critical tasks when they know it is likely they are fatigued.

By empowering and encouraging drivers to take practical steps that support their overall fitness, fatigue, health and wellbeing, the potential for incidents, injuries, illness, and crashes may be significantly reduced, and may lead to improved levels of job satisfaction and driver retention.

Other ways to support bus and coach drivers may include:

• Providing access to adequate facilities for drivers that are safe, clean, and comfortable with areas for meals, bathroom breaks and rest and cater to gender diversity and cultural needs.
• Ensuring in-vehicle sleeping berths comply with recognised industry standards and are conducive to restorative rest, with appropriate temperature control, ventilation, and a quality mattress.
• When drivers return from leave, allow time for them to adapt to long hours and working at night by scheduling day work where possible.
• Conducting welfare checks on drivers, especially those undertaking night driving, working split shifts, or returning from periods of absence such as annual leave or following an illness.
• Having regular discussions/toolbox talks with drivers about fatigue, health and wellbeing and work/personal demands.
• Conducting observational monitoring and cognitive assessments and taking action when warning signs are recognised.
• Encouraging a debrief session with a supervisor after a stressful or difficult event, job or task. For example, a driver being subjected to assault or abuse by a passenger or member of the public, witnessing another vehicle crash, being significantly delayed due to traffic congestion or road closures.
• Providing employees access to an Employee Assistance Program that provides multifaceted services including support for healthy lifestyle choices, weight management, and responsible use of drug and alcohol advice.
• Having driver relief arrangements in place if a driver is impacted by fatigue, a medical episode or traumatic event.
• Developing fatigue management plans in consultation with drivers, supervisors, and safety personnel.
• Developing return to work plans for drivers returning to work following an injury or illness.
• Installing compliant security screens in vehicles to protect drivers from adverse behaviour.

Identifying bus and coach driver fatigue and poor health and wellbeing

Resources to assist CoR parties to support driver health and wellbeing can be found here:

• Fitness to drive: Fatigue
• Fitness to drive: Physical health
• Fitness to drive: Mental health

What are the signs of fatigue?

CoR parties

A CoR party may be able to determine if a driver is affected by fatigue by observing physical, mental and behavioural signs. These may include:

• glassy eyes
• excessive head nodding, yawning or falling asleep
• mood swings/changes
• difficulty holding a conversation
• inability to concentrate or short-term memory problems
• poor decision making and judgement
• slurred speech
• reduced hand/eye coordination or slow reflexes
• an increase in unplanned absences
• an increase in fatigue alerts through Fatigue and Distraction Detection Technology (FFDT)
• feedback from customers and other workers.

Bus and coach drivers

A driver may notice signs in themselves that could indicate fatigue:

• slow reaction times or a lack of alertness
• changing position frequently, opening the window (restlessness)
• making more mistakes than usual, near misses or accidents
• difficulty keeping eyes open, drowsiness, microsleeps or falling asleep
• blurred vision
• not feeling refreshed after a rest/sleep
• not keeping in a single lane/swerving
• not maintaining a constant speed on open roads
• overshooting a road sign or traffic light, or bus stop
• poor gear changes or delayed braking
• not remembering a portion of the journey.

What are the signs of poor health and wellbeing?

Physical and mental health

CoR parties

A CoR party may be able to detect if a driver is affected by a physical or mental health issue. Signs that an operator may observe can include:

• changes in mood or behaviour such as being unusually quiet or withdrawn, avoiding social contact, erratic or irrational behaviour or emotional outbursts such as frustration, extreme distress or anger
• increased agitation or restlessness
• increased anxiety or sadness and excessive worrying
• rapid weight loss or gain
• changes in physical appearance, such as complexion
• changes in eating and drinking habits, such as displaying a lack of interest in food
• persistent fatigue or noticeable decline in energy levels
• struggling with activities that they could previously manage easily, or displaying a loss of confidence or appearing overwhelmed by daily tasks
• difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, wheezing or coughing
• frequent and or prolonged absences due to illness or regularly arriving late to work
• increased procrastination, forgetfulness or disorganisation, a change in motivation and or energy - displaying a lack of interest
• neglecting responsibilities and not performing as well, an increase in work errors
• engaging in high-risk behaviours such as substance abuse or dangerous driving
• lack of personal pride and presentation, or low self-esteem
• showing signs of paranoia
• feedback from colleagues and customers.

Bus and coach drivers

A driver may notice signs in themselves that could indicate impaired ability to operate safely due to physical or mental illness, including:

• physical pain or impairment
• pre-existing health conditions, for example, musculoskeletal injuries such as back or knee injuries
• sleep disorders such as sleep apnoea, narcolepsy and insomnia, excessive sleeping or changes in sleep patterns
• vision and/or hearing problems
• medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, and hypertension
• deep vein thrombosis and blood clotting
• digestive issues such as stomach pain
• feelings of anxiety or excessive worrying that interfere with the ability to undertake normal daily activities
• changes in appetite or weight
• confused thinking or problems concentrating
• fatigue
• self-harm/suicidal thoughts.

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1. ↑INFRA6179 BITRE Bus safety stats.
2. ↑OzHelp Foundation, Physical and Mental Health and Wellbeing of Heavy Vehicle Drivers in the Road Transport Industry: Risks, Issues and Impacts. Canberra, November 2020

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