New industry projects to drive heavy vehicle safety

A dozen heavy vehicle safety initiatives have been alolocated funding in the latest round of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative

Twenty-one new industry-led projects will receive funding from the Federal Government through the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s (NHVR) Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative (HVSI).

A total of $3.8 million will be invested into 12 heavy vehicle safety initiatives through round eight of the HVSI program, including for roadside health and wellness screening, driver training, and increasing vulnerable road user safety. Key projects encompass:

• Developing a series of Vehicle Specification Envelopes (VSEs) for three common PBS vehicles (Advantia Transport Consulting);

• Creating a Light Trucks ADAS Safety Comparison program to provide objective performance testing and reporting on a range of active safety features on NB category two-axle medium goods vehicles between 4.5 and 8 tonne GVM (ANCAP Australasia);

• Delivering a road safety campaign aimed at heavy vehicles using generic roadside messaging encouraging drivers to drive safe and take fatigue stops (Eurobodalla Shire Council);

• Promoting and providing free access to industry-tailored mental health training for small to medium-sized enterprises (Healthy Heads in Trucks & Sheds);

• Collecting and sharing near-miss data from existing Roll Stability Systems (RSS) installations on bulk tankers to give drivers, operators, and road managers visibility on the number of near-miss events that occur and where on the road network they are occurring (National Bulk Tanker Association);

• Rolling out phase three of the wellbeing program ‘Health In Gear’ to expand the reach of ‘Truckie Tune Ups’ roadside health and wellbeing screening further south in Victoria and into NSW (OzHelp Foundation);

• Developing and delivering an online training program for heavy vehicle drivers using a combination of video and education campaigns designed to reinforce knowledge and improve learner performance (Queensland Trucking Association);

• Utilising Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based video analytics and traffic conflict-based safety assessment for measuring the crash risks between heavy vehicles and vulnerable road users (Queensland University of Technology);

• Developing a new industry job role, Heavy Vehicle Driver Supervisor, including operational framework, training material, proposed qualifications and experience, and governance arrangements (The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Australia); and

• Investigating and reducing barriers to take up of blind spot information systems on heavy vehicles (Truck Industry Council).

A further nine projects have been selected to receive funding as part of $1.7 million in once-off funding to Chain of Responsibility (CoR) training and education projects.

The new projects under round eight address key issues in the transport and logistic sector and provide workable solutions, to reduce road trauma and save lives.

The CoR projects will help organisations develop training content and resources that will help participants improve the safety of their heavy vehicle transport activities and meet their obligations under the law.

Successful projects include the development of CoR training targeting executives and managers, training tailored for international freight forwarding and logistics, and training aimed at businesses that are not transport companies, but that send and receive goods using heavy vehicles.

Infrastructure and Transport Assistant Minister Carol Brown says the once-off grant scheme for CoR projects will help pave the way to a safer future on Australian roads by helping industry improve their safety practices.

“Delivery of vital CoR training, particularly in regional and remote areas nationally, will lead to improved industry safety across the complete supply chain,” she adds.

National Heavy Vehicle Regulator CEO Sal Petroccitto adds the projects will help ensure compliance is improved across the supply chain.

“I look forward to working with the successful applicants and discovering the benefits of these latest projects,” he says.