‘Chain of Responsibility’ laws to target the cause of heavy vehicle speeding have been approved unanimously by the Australian Transport Council.  The National Transport Commission (NTC) has developed model legislation for chain of responsibility for speed compliance. The proposal targets the off road parties in the transport chain that can influence whether or not speeding occurs. These parties will have a measure of responsibility that the road transport task is carried out safely.

Speed limiter compliance also rates a mention in the NTC’s “Speed Compliance of Heavy Vehicles Final Proposal and Regulatory Impact Statement”. It is the NTC’s view that a chain of responsibility be developed for vehicle standards and currently has a separate project underway dedicated to this. The project will include vehicle standards in the Australian Vehicle standards Rules. It is proposed that increasing speed limiter compliance be addressed under the chain of responsibility for the vehicle standards project.

The aim of the project is to increase compliance with vehicle standards requirements by creating duties (and offences) for those who can play a role to ensure vehicle standards for heavy vehicles are met.

Compliance provisions associated with vehicle standards could include a broad provision that any person (including an organisation) who knows or reasonably ought to know that a vehicle does not, or is not likely, to conform to vehicle standards but has taken no action to prevent the breach is guilty of an offence. This is likely to apply to all those in the chain who are in a position to influence whether a vehicle meets the required standards or not.

Those interested in providing comment on the proposals being developed for compliance provisions associated with vehicle standards are encouraged to register for the NTC email alerts that provide notification of reports released for public consultation at www.ntc.gov.au.