Note: This information is intended as 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 individuals and businesses who operate in the agricultural sector to assist them in ensuring the safety of their transport activities and meeting obligations under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL).

Who is this advice for?

• Parties in the Chain of Responsibility (CoR), especially farmers and other primary producers.

What are my legal obligations?

This means that you must eliminate or minimise public risks, and not directly or indirectly cause or encourage a driver or another person, including a party in the CoR, to breach the HVNL. You should also be aware that you are still responsible even when you contract or subcontract your transport activities. You can’t transfer your primary duty to another person or business or lessen your responsibility.

Put simply, the primary duty is your responsibility to do everything you can reasonably do to make your transport activities safe.

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 breach is proven, the law provides sanctions against a company and its executives, ranging from education and improvement notices to prosecution.  

Am I a party in the Chain of Responsibility?

When undertaking transport activities in the agricultural sector, farmers and other primary producers may be performing functions that make them a party in the Chain of Responsibility (CoR). For example, when you or your business:

• direct and control the use of a heavy vehicle, you’re an operator
• consign goods for transport, including grain, other produce or livestock, you’re a consigner
• receive goods, you’re a consignee
• load the goods, you’re a loader.

Whether you or your business are a party in the CoR is based on the functions you perform, not your job title.

Why is this important to my business?

Undertaking heavy vehicle transport activities in the agricultural sector and operating in regional locations can pose challenges due to harsh operating environments and, in some cases, limited access to heavy vehicle services and amenities – things that are taken for granted in metropolitan areas.

Agricultural work is often seasonal, and farmers and other primary producers may require workers to work long hours every day for extended periods to complete the harvest in tight time frames. The cumulative effect of long periods of work is a known contributor to fatigue for drivers and other workers.

It’s important that CoR parties, including farmers and other primary producers operating in the agricultural sector, understand the safety risks associated with carrying out their transport activities and ensure they have the necessary controls in place to eliminate those risks, or where that’s not possible, to minimise each risk to an acceptable level.

On-road regulatory activities conducted by the NHVR in recent years have detected heavy vehicle and driver non-compliance at higher rates than in other industry sectors. The main areas of non-compliance identified include:

• regulated work and rest hours
• vehicle roadworthiness
• vehicles operating in excess of their permissible mass limits
• loads, such as agricultural machinery, not properly restrained
• drivers not understanding their obligations under the HVNL and other laws, such as transport and biosecurity laws
• spillage or illegal dumping of produce.

This regulatory advice seeks to provide CoR parties with information to assist them to eliminate or minimise risks commonly associated with operating heavy vehicles in the agricultural sector.

Note: Maintenance of heavy vehicles has also been identified as an area of non-compliance and potential safety risk in the agricultural sector, and is addressed in detail in Regulatory Advice – Maintenance of heavy vehicles used in agricultural or seasonal work.

What are the hazards and risks?

Hazards associated with operating in the agricultural sector may include:

• driver fatigue during harvest
• workers undertaking long periods of on-farm work prior to operating a heavy vehicle
• workers undertaking farm work during the night and driving heavy vehicles during the day
• temporary staff who have limited experience and training
• workers, such as seasonal workers, who may not be aware of the safety risks or HVNL obligations associated with heavy vehicle transport activities in the agricultural sector
• loads not being properly restrained
• heavy vehicle rollaways
• heavy vehicles exceeding permissible mass and dimension limits.

The potential risks resulting from the hazards include:

• the risk of serious injury or death to workers and other road users
• the risk of damage to infrastructure
• financial risks because of disruption to business operations
• spread of disease and pests.

Why is it important to manage the hazards and risks?

By appropriately managing these hazards and risks as a party in the CoR, you help to:

• prevent injury and fatalities of workers and members of the public
• discuss and promote safety in your workplace
• encourage workers to raise safety concerns and make informed decisions about their safety
• avoid financial loss due to delays, impacts on scheduling, and damage to vehicles, equipment and infrastructure
• avoid regulatory and other legal sanctions.

How do I manage the hazards and risks?

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 appropriate control measures to eliminate or minimise those risks
• review the effectiveness of control measures, either periodically or after any incident, to ensure they remain effective.

The strategies used to ensure safety and manage risks should be developed with, and communicated to, your workers. You may also consider ways you and your business can stay up to date with hazards and risks and methods to eliminate or minimise them. These may include through industry publications, Registered Industry Codes of Practice, and discussions with other members of industry, your colleagues and employees.

More information on managing the risks associated with your transport activities can be found here Safety Management Systems (SMS) | NHVR.

Fatigue management and the work diary

You can help ensure your drivers and other workers appropriately manage their fatigue by doing the following:

• Educate drivers on how to accurately record work and rest time and meet their HVNL requirements, including when operating under the National Primary Production Work Diary Exemption Notice.
• Oversee and monitor driver fatigue by monitoring work and rest time and having regular check-ins, especially when drivers are operating at night.
• Educate drivers and other workers about the signs of fatigue, the safety risks of undertaking transport activities, and operating a heavy vehicle when fatigued.
• Empower drivers to rest if they feel fatigued.
• Don’t roster workers for long periods of on-farm work prior to operating a heavy vehicle.

More information on work and rest requirements can be found at Work and rest requirements, and for assistance identifying and managing fatigue at Regulatory Advice – Fitness to drive: Fatigue.

Inexperienced and underprepared staff

Take the following actions to minimise the safety risks associated with inexperienced or underprepared staff:

• Ensure workers are aware of any safety risks and HVNL obligations that impact them.
• Provide relevant education and training on mass, dimension, loading, fatigue, and mechanical safety. At a minimum workers must be trained to carry out tasks safely for the transport activities they are undertaking and the heavy vehicle they are operating. More comprehensive training will help workers identify other issues and will broaden their abilities to undertake further tasks.
• Employ sufficiently qualified staff to undertake relevant activities – for example, do not allow unlicenced or unskilled drivers to operate a heavy vehicle, even for short distances.
• Verify the qualifications and competencies of workers – for example, undertake the necessary checks to verify licences are current and request that a driver demonstrates they can safely undertake work. Prior to offering employment, you may ask a driver to demonstrate their ability to safely operate, reverse, load and unload the relevant vehicle combination.
• Provide workers with information about the heavy vehicle(s) and/or combination(s) they’re loading or operating, and any mass requirements.

More information on managing the risks associated with undertrained workers can be found at Regulatory Advice - Managing the risks of undertrained workers.

Load restraint

You can manage the risks associated with loading your heavy vehicle by:

• Developing loading plans for machinery and plant that are transported as part of your business.
• Ensuring loading plans comply with loading requirements and loading performance standards, as outlined in the HVNL and Load Restraint Guide.
• Providing all equipment required to safely restrain the load, and ensure equipment is fit-for-purpose and in good functioning condition.
• Providing load restraint training to all workers who will be undertaking loading activities.
• Being aware that the load must always be sufficiently restrained, even for short distances or when moving between farms or properties.

For more information on loading and to download or buy a copy of the Load Restraint Guide, visit Loading.

Mass management

To prevent overloading of vehicles:

• Provide drivers with information about the heavy vehicle(s) and/or the combination(s) they’re operating and the permissible mass limits.
• Where possible, use public weigh bridges and undertake test weighs.
• Monitor weigh bridge tickets issued by the receiver.
• Install weigh bridges or use portable scales on your property.
• Use vehicles fitted with pressure gauges to provide a more accurate estimate of mass.
• Consider upgrading to vehicles and trailers with inbuilt scales or other onboard weighing devices.
• Check mass limits and access arrangements if operating across state or territory borders.

More information on mass management can be found at Mass, dimension and loading.

Seasonal workers

The risks associated with your transport activities may increase if you employ seasonal workers with little to no experience of, or exposure to, farming or primary production and the associated risks.

Preparing workers to perform their work safely and understand the risks and hazards associated with their work will help you create a safer and more productive workforce. When you employ seasonal workers on farm, or to assist with your transport activities, you need to provide sufficient training to ensure they can safely carry out their work.

Depending on the size, structure and complexity of your business, this could range from formal training delivered by an external training provider, formal training that you or an employee delivers to hands-on training. The important thing is that the content of the training is adapted to your work methods and will sufficiently prepare workers for what they need to do.

Providing adequate training and making sure new and existing workers are appropriately skilled at their jobs are both very important for ensuring the safety of your transport activities.

Resources

Safety Management System (SMS)

Management of safety risks can be more effective with the adoption, development and active use of a Safety Management System (SMS).

An SMS is a systematic approach to managing safety, including the necessary organisational structures, accountabilities, policies and procedures, which is integrated throughout the business wherever possible.

An SMS can help you:

• provide a safer work environment for your employees, customers, contractors and the public
• manage your safety duties under the HVNL
• demonstrate your ability to manage risk and ensure safety
• become an employer of choice and preferred supplier to customers
• make informed decisions and increase efficiency
• allocate resources to the most critical areas that have an impact on safety
• reduce costs associated with incidents and accidents.

Regardless of the size of a business, an effective SMS can help your business have an appropriate safety focus and comply with its duty to ensure the safety of its transport activities.

Structured information and resources including quick-guide documents, templates, worked examples and toolbox talks to guide you through each step of developing an SMS, implementing it with your management and staff, and extracting safety are available in the 9 Step SMS Roadmap.

Understand the HVNL and your primary duty

Transport activities

Transport activities include all the activities associated with the use of a heavy vehicle on a road. These activities include safety systems, business processes such as contract negotiation, communication and decision-making, as well as the activities normally associated with the transport and logistics sector, such as training, scheduling, route planning, managing premises, selecting and maintaining vehicles, packing, and loading.

So far as is reasonably practicable

So far as is reasonably practicable means an action that can reasonably be done in relation to the duty, considering relevant matters such as:

• the likelihood of a safety risk or damage to road infrastructure
• the harm that could result from the risk or damage
• what the person knows, or ought reasonably to know, about the risk or damage
• what the person knows, or ought reasonably to know, about the ways of removing or minimising the risk, or preventing or minimising the damage
• the availability and suitability of those ways
• the cost associated with the available ways, including whether the cost is grossly disproportionate to the likelihood of the risk or damage.

More information can be found in Regulatory Advice - Reasonably practicable.

Executives of businesses that are parties in the CoR have a distinct duty under the HVNL section 26D to exercise due diligence to ensure the business complies with its duty to ensure the safety of its transport activities.

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