The NHVR has released a paper it has entitled ‘Removing Roadblocks to Reform’, which it says calls for swift reform of Australia’s Performance Based Standards (PBS) heavy vehicle allowance scheme.
NHVR chief safety and productivity officer, David Hourigan said the paper called on industry and government to work alongside the regulator to create positive change for the road transport sector.
“The ‘Removing Roadblocks to Reform’ paper outlines how we can work hand-in-hand with our partners to remove barriers to the productivity potential of the heavy vehicle industry,” Hourigan said.
“This will help us accelerate the transition to a younger and less polluting heavy vehicle fleet, and most importantly, save lives.
“Right now in Australia, the safest, most productive, and lower emission heavy vehicles face more barriers to get on the road than a standard ‘prescriptive’ heavy vehicle, and as a result, we are seeing higher emissions, loss of productivity benefits and most concerningly, more fatalities.
“We need to modernise the PBS scheme, and to do this we must change the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL).
“We seek to work with government and industry to reset the PBS scheme’s policy settings and update the PBS standards.”
Hourigan said while the PBS scheme had proven popular, it was initially designed to act as a pathway for innovative designs and technologies to be safely developed and deployed, and was now failing to operate as originally intended.
“Rather than allowing for new truck designs, it is dominated by more or less of the same vehicles,” he said.
“Of more than 20,000 PBS combinations on Australia’s roads, almost half consist of one vehicle type – the truck and dog combination.”
Through the ‘Removing Roadblocks to Reform’ paper, the NHVR is calling for amendments to the HVNL to allow for mature and proven PBS vehicles to transition to the prescriptive vehicle fleet.
The NHVR will continue to engage with industry and government to seek commitment to enact positive change.
