Heavy Vehicle National Law Amendment Bill 2015

Overview

This bill updates the Heavy Vehicle National Law to allow truck drivers to use electronic work diaries instead of paper records, and rewrites penalties so similar offences attract similar fines across Australia. It also creates new offences for tampering with modification plates and for using oversize vehicles without authority, and makes a range of smaller clarifying and enforcement changes.

Who it affects

Heavy vehicle drivers, transport operators and their record keepers are most affected, along with mechanics who modify trucks and freight operators who move shipping containers. Other road users benefit indirectly from clearer fatigue enforcement.

Key changes

• Truck drivers can use electronic work diaries, with work time counted to the minute and up to eight minutes of nominal overrun in a 24-hour period not treated as a breach
• Record keepers must report to the Regulator within two business days if an electronic work diary is filled up, lost, malfunctioning or suspected of being tampered with, with penalties up to $6,000
• New $3,000 offence for tampering with a modification plate or label on a heavy vehicle without the Regulator's written approval
• New $6,000 offence for driving an oversize 'restricted access vehicle' (over 4.3m high, 2.5m wide or 12.5m long for a single vehicle) on a road without a mass or dimension authority
• Sixteen existing penalties are revised to match a national penalties framework, with some rising as high as $20,000 (for breaches of duties around fatigue records and dangerous goods)
• Authorised officers get clearer powers to let a defective heavy vehicle be moved to a repair or inspection place, and can enter a residence that is also a business address for monitoring with the occupier's consent
• Stricter privacy protections for information recorded in electronic work diaries, with a $20,000 maximum penalty for improper disclosure