NHVR Release Draft Heavy Vehicle Productivity Plan

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator has released its draft Heavy Vehicle Productivity Plan for 2024-2029 as it looks to set the agenda for the next five years.

The plan is available online and is open for public consultation until Thursday October31, 2024.

The centrepiece of the plan is a list of 22 targeted actions that touch almost every facet of the modern heavy vehicle industry, including access, safety, productivity, data, regulations, legislation, education, harmonisation and digitisation.

NHVR Chief Safety and Productivity Officer David Hourigan says the plan aims to address the contemporary challenges facing Australia’s heavy vehicle industry.

“This includes issues like growth in the freight task, ongoing road fatalities, environmental and health impacts, the shift from asset management to optimisation, and finally, the increased frequency of unplanned supply chain disruptions,” he says.

“As the heavy vehicle sector evolves and the freight task changes, we too are evolving and changing by continually seeking new ways to refine our approach.”

Hourigan adds the new Heavy Vehicle Productivity Plan represents a fundamental shift in how heavy vehicle productivity will be defined moving forward.

“Productivity is not a trade-off with safety, sustainability and infrastructure,” he says.

“From our perspective, productivity also has the potential to save lives, reduce carbon emissions and prolong the life of our roads and structures.

“We are consulting on this new plan so that all those who play a part in the heavy vehicle industry, such as drivers, operators and road managers, can help shape our direction and achieve meaningful and tangible outcomes.

“We want to know we are implementing the right initiatives to support industry and keep Australia moving.”

HVIA will review the plan in detail in the coming weeks and consult with members as necessary in forming its response. Members wishing to provide feedback can either do so directly to the NHVR via its website, or through HVIA by contacting Chief Technical Officer Adam Ritzinger on a.ritzinger@hvia.asn.au.

The new five-year plan will follow on from the original Heavy Vehicle Productivity Plan for 2020 to 2025 released by the NHVR in 2020.

That plan had a range of actions under three strategic objectives, which were to improve heavy vehicle access certainty and consistency, to build capability within local government, and to promote the uptake of safer, more efficient and more-productive vehicles.

The NHVR has now completed most of the actions of that original plan, described in its online scorecard. Key achievements included:

• Facilitating 49 national notices and 50 state and territory notices;
• Launching Australia’s first harmonised mapping system for heavy vehicles;
• Improving access through assessment of more than 770 structures across 106 local councils; and
• Establishing permanent electric vehicle networks in New South Wales and Victoria, and trial networks in Queensland and South Australia.