First State Meetings Completed + Changes Announced!

Last week saw completion of the Queensland and WA state meetings, with NSW and Victoria held in the week prior. In a sure sign 2024 has had a flying start, new records for attendance were achieved by both NSW and WA, and Victoria and Queensland meetings were also very strongly supported.  

Across the board, the turnout was incredibly encouraging for HVIA staff who prepare and run each of these meetings. Todd Hacking, Harry Hunkin, Greg Forbes, Adele Lausberg, and Adam Ritzinger all commented that it is inspiring to see the continual engagement from existing and new members in HVIA’s regular meeting series.

Attendees heard the latest developments on a range of advocacy and technical areas, including updates on HVIA’s work on powered trailers, the remainder of the ‘Safer Freight Vehicle’ reforms, as well as updates to VSB6 and the Heavy Vehicle National Law.

Dr Adele Lausberg, HVIA’s Chief Advocacy Officer, also presented a special session on the current range of grants and funding opportunities offered by various government agencies, which proved popular amongst attendees. More information is available in a separate article here.

Harry Hunkin, HVIA’s National Manager – Partnerships and Member Engagement, also gave a quick run-down of the second edition of ROADBOSS Magazine, which hit letterboxes, desks, and coffee tables around the country this week, and received excellent feedback from industry.

Rob Perkins, Executive Director of the ARTSA Institute, was this series’ guest speaker, and gave an insightful presentation on trends in truck and trailer registration data, and what those trends might mean for the market in 2024.

The following links provide access to the meeting materials:

• HVIA meeting presentation slidepack (PDF)

• HVIA meeting minutes (PDF)

• Advantia HSVI grant update slidepack (PDF)

• ARTSA Institute data slidepack (PDF)

Adele and Adam also presented changes planned for the remainder of 2024, on the basis of feedback from members on HVIA’s survey last year. HVIA is pleased to announce that a range of changes will be implemented, each of which will hopefully increase engagement even further.

Going forward, two of HVIA’s in-person state meetings each year will be moved to an online format, and an annual networking event for all members will be held in each of Queensland, NSW, Victoria, and WA.

The name ‘State Committee Meeting’ will be retired and replaced by ‘HVIA Member Forum’, and the new networking events will be called ‘HVIA Connect’. The firm details of the meeting calendar will be announced in the coming weeks, but for now, an overview is provided below.