How is Heavy Vehicle Accreditation different from Heavy Vehicle National Law?
It’s easy to see why there’s confusion when talking about Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) and the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme (NHVAS). Even professionals in the transport industry often conflate compliance with heavy vehicle accreditation requirements and meeting your obligations under HVNL.
But there are some important differences between the two, and understanding these distinctions can help your business better understand the programs in place to meet Chain of Responsibility (CoR) obligations.
Here’s why heavy vehicle accreditation, while beneficial, is just one piece of the puzzle in meeting your obligations under HVNL.
What is Heavy Vehicle National Law?
Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) regulates the operation of heavy vehicles with a gross vehicle mass of more than 4.5 tonnes across most of Australia, with the exception of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Administered by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR), HVNL commenced in 2014, and is intended to streamline regulations and improve safety in the heavy vehicle industry.
A significant amendment to HVNL in 2018 placed further emphasis on the proactive management of risks for everyone involved in the transport supply chain. This includes operators, schedulers, consignors, consignees, packers, loaders and unloaders, all of whom are responsible for ensuring the safe and legal operation of heavy vehicles.
“HVNL takes a holistic approach,” explains Aaron Louws, Supply Chain Technical Manager at CoRsafe. “It’s not just about the transport company or the driver; everyone in the chain is accountable for the safety of transport activities.”
Failure to meet your obligations under HVNL can result in significant penalties, including fines, demerit points, defect notices, and even prosecution. These penalties are designed to ensure that all parties in the supply chain take their responsibilities seriously, making safety a shared priority.
Beyond that, HVNL is about addressing key safety risks that are present when working with heavy vehicles, and meeting your obligations contributes to a safer supply chain.
What is the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme?
The National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme (NHVAS) is a voluntary program that recognises transport operators who have put robust systems in place to manage specific risks. Transport operators can apply for accreditation in one or more of the following three modules:
Mass Management;
Maintenance Management; or
Fatigue Management (which offers Basic or Advanced levels).
To become accredited, operators must develop systems that meet the specific requirements of the module they’re applying for as defined by the NHVR.
David Berner, a heavy vehicle auditor with nearly two decades of experience, says each operator’s methods are up to them, but they must be reliable and verifiable, and they must enable the transport operator to reach the performance standards that have been set for each module.
“Once that’s in place, an accredited auditor visits the business to assess whether the system is fit for purpose,” David says. “We’re looking for documented procedures and evidence that they’ve got what they need to ensure compliance.”
Once accredited, operators are subject to periodic audits to ensure they continue to meet NHVAS standards.
“After the initial audit, we come back six months later to check that everything is running smoothly,” David says. “After that, operators are audited every two years to ensure they’re maintaining compliance. If they’re being audited for Maintenance Management accreditation, for instance, we’ll look at their service records, and make sure repairs are being conducted in a timely and appropriate manner.”
Failure to pass these audits could result in losing accreditation, so it’s crucial that operators continuously manage and review their systems.
The benefits of heavy vehicle accreditation
Although heavy vehicle accreditation is voluntary, it offers numerous benefits to transport operators.
Mass Management accreditation, among other things, allows operators to operate at concessional mass limits on the general access road network – in other words, it enables them to carry bigger payloads, giving them more flexibility. Subject to meeting additional requirements, they may also be able to operate at Higher Mass Limits (HML).
Maintenance Management accreditation can provide concessions around annual certificates of inspection when renewing heavy vehicle registration in some states, enabling operators to reduce downtime with fewer mandatory vehicle inspections. Accreditation may even streamline routine roadside checks, as inspectors and police can recognise accredited vehicles from their Maintenance Management stickers, and prioritise inspections accordingly.
Fatigue Management accreditation provides operators with more flexibility in how they schedule drivers’ work and rest hours. Under Basic Fatigue Management (BFM), drivers can work up to 14 hours in a 24-hour period, while Advanced Fatigue Management (AFM) offers even more flexibility, provided that the operator demonstrates a rigorous approach to managing fatigue risks.
Beyond the direct benefits to operators, accreditation supports better compliance with road safety standards, benefitting the broader community by promoting safer transport practices.
The limitations of heavy vehicle accreditation
While heavy vehicle accreditation is valuable, David stresses that its current remit “can be very narrow” compared to the broad requirements of HVNL.
Heavy vehicle accreditation only covers those three specific standards – Mass, Maintenance and Fatigue for operators of heavy vehicles. However, HVNL also establishes other safety standards for heavy vehicles – including Load Restraint, Dimensions and Speed Management – that aren’t covered by NHVAS. There are also broader obligations like the ‘Primary Duty’, which requires companies to do everything, so far as is reasonably practicable, to ensure the safety of their transport activities. This proactive duty creates additional obligations for things like risk management practices that might not be assessed as part of a NHVAS audit, which is especially relevant to parties with off-road activities (like Consignors and Consignees).
“These standards are outside the scope of NHVAS,” David says, “which means operators aren’t assessed on the systems they have in place to manage those risks as part of an NHVAS audit.”
It should also be noted that operators are only assessed on the NVHAS modules that they voluntarily seek accreditation in.
“If they’re accredited for Mass Management, for instance, we’re not looking at their records that pertain to Maintenance Management or Fatigue Management,” David explains.
Additionally, NHVAS accreditation only applies to nominated vehicles within an operator’s fleet. Even if an operator is accredited for Mass Management, for example, this only applies to the vehicles listed in their accreditation.
“An operator might have 20 vehicles, but only one is nominated for accreditation,” David says. “That means the rest of the fleet isn’t covered by NHVAS, and they won’t be subject to the same audits or scrutiny.”
Even if an operator’s entire fleet is included in their heavy vehicle accreditation, they may employ subcontractors who won’t be audited.
“You can't contractually shift the blame for non-compliance,” David says. “Even if you use subcontractors, it's your responsibility under HVNL to ensure that every party in your supply chain complies with the law.”
NHVAS is also targeted specifically at transport operators, while the Chain of Responsibility (CoR) obligations under HVNL apply to the entire supply chain.
“Heavy vehicle accreditation can be fantastic for transport operators, but it doesn’t address the responsibilities of other parties in the supply chain,” David says. “Under HVNL, everyone from the packer to the executive is responsible for managing safety risks, and needs to be aware of their obligations.”
How to ensure your business is fully compliant
NHVAS accreditation is a good indicator that an operator has robust systems in place, but it may not be enough on its own.
To meet the broader obligations under HVNL, all parties in the supply chain need to implement suitable safety management systems to manage their risks, and ensure that those systems are working through activities such as internal or external audits.
“Accreditation is a great start, but businesses need to be mindful of the bigger picture,” Aaron Louws says. “Managing risk as required under HVNL requires a whole-of-business and whole-of-supply-chain approach, and that means having safety systems that cover all your risks, not just those covered by the heavy vehicle accreditation scheme.”
“It’s important to audit your own business and your partners to ensure that all obligations under HVNL are being met,” David adds. “NHVAS is helpful, but you need a broader look at how your entire operation is managing safety risks.”
By staying proactive, implementing robust safety management systems, and ensuring your systems are working through activities like regular audits, businesses can not only ensure they meet their obligations under HVNL, but also create a safer, more efficient transport network for everyone.
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