Last week, HVIA provided its response to the National Transport Commission’s (NTC) review of the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) Mass and Dimension regulations.
A copy can be downloaded from the submissions page on HVIA’s website, or by clicking here.
The key changes proposed by the NTC are:
- Increase in the prescriptive length limit from 19 metres to 20 metres;
- Increasing the General Mass Limits (GML) to reflect current Concessional Mass Limits (CML);
- Including Euro VI compliant prime movers being used in road train combinations within the scope of vehicles eligible for the Euro VI mass limit increase; and
- Changes to the ‘tow mass ratio’ for tag trailer combinations from 1:1 to 1:1.3.
HVIA kept members well-informed of these changes throughout 2025, which included the NTC’s Executive Leader of Regulatory Reform Aaron De Rozario as a guest speaker at the mid-year member forum, and a range of TtT articles. This was the latest one, which also flagged the timing of the review.
The thrust of HVIA’s submission is that we agree with the changes and do not wish for them to be further delayed, but flagged issues with some of the policy settings, and also that there is more work to be done.
HVIA strongly supports increases to mass and dimension limits as ways of improving productivity. The industry and wider community desperately need these reforms. Without them, the growing freight task will result in greater congestion, negative road safety impacts and higher emissions.
Notwithstanding, the proposed increases each represent only minor incremental changes to mass and dimensions. HVIA considers that the ability of these changes to deliver the productivity increases needed to meet the growing freight task is unclear.
HVIA has previously questioned whether the changes are sufficiently ambitious, and that concern remains.
Additionally, HVIA remains concerned that none of the amendments have resulted in a simpler law, and instead, more layers of complication have been added.
HVIA’s submission also noted half a dozen unfavourable policy settings, which if addressed, could further improve productivity for the entire sector.
HVIA looks forward to working with regulators and discussing these crucial reforms throughout 2026.
Further information on the NTC’s review is available here.