National Roadworthiness Baseline Survey

The National Heavy Roadworthiness Program was established in late 2014 to improve the safety and efficiency of Roadworthiness in Australia. The program aims to find ways to reduce the safety, economic, and environmental impacts of unroadworthy heavy vehicles. To do our job better we need to improve our understanding of the mechanical condition of heavy vehicles throughout Australia.

Survey Overview

Key Outcomes

Australia’s first national heavy vehicle health check provides point-in-time snapshot of the mechanical condition of Australia's heavy vehicle fleet. The results show a sound performance by industry in maintaining vehicles, with some room for improvement. The heavy vehicle fleet in general is well maintained. For example, analysis of the results reveals that rigid trucks with trailers had higher rates of major non-conformities compared to any other category of vehicle. In addition to fleet improvements, there are also improvements required from a regulatory perspective. The NRBS results highlight a variation in inspection practices between jurisdictions. The Roadworthiness Program is continuing to build a national inspection approach to achieve consistent inspections to deliver consistent outcomes and a safer heavy vehicle.

Next steps

The data will enable the NHVR to identify high-risk vehicle components, vehicle systems, vehicle types and industry sectors. We want to inspect the right vehicles, for the right reasons. The objective of moving toward selecting vehicles based on risk is to more efficiently allocate inspection resources to improve the safety of the national heavy vehicle fleet.

The below timeline provides some key milestones for the roadworthiness program. Three of most important pieces of work is the development of the risk-based inspection and consistent inspection frameworks along with working on national project on the management and clearance defects.

Survey methodology