Pinnacle Safety and Training Blog

Understanding Chain of Responsibility

Heavy vehicle safety is no longer the sole responsibility of drivers and heavy vehicle owners and operators.

On 1 October 2018, the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) was amended so that all parties in the heavy vehicle transport supply chain now share responsibility for ensuring the safety of their transport activities.

If you are responsible for any road transport task in your company that uses heavy vehicles (over 4.5 tonnes), you can be held legally liable if something goes wrong.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a driver, company director, team manager, consigner, dispatcher, loader, or contractor, if you have the capability to control or influence any heavy transport task, you have a responsibility to ensure breaches of the HVNL do not occur.

These breaches may include breaches of road laws such as speeding or exceeding vehicle mass/dimension limits, breaches of fatigue management requirements, loading violations, and so forth.

The law amendments were developed out of a recognition that unlawful behaviour by truck drivers is often influenced by the actions of other parties who can encourage drivers to take unlawful actions. For example, delivery timeframes, consignment terms and employment contracts can all contribute to driver behaviour.

Pinnacle Safety and Training has two Chain of Responsibility training options available to help you understand how your actions (and those of your workmates) can contribute to breaches in HVNL.

Our non-accredited online course can be completed in just a few hours. Alternatively, you can add a workplace project to your online training to receive a Nationally Recognised Unit of Competency.