Heavy vehicle safety projects receive $5.5 million funding in latest HVSI round – Rail, Road & Cycling

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has
announced a $5.5 million investment in heavy vehicle safety
projects under round 8 of the Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative
(HVSI).

The HVSI, run by the NHVR, “supports implementable,
value-for-money projects that deliver tangible improvements to
heavy vehicle safety.” The program is federally funded and has
injected more than $33 million into approved projects since
commencing in 2016.

In this round, the HVSI will support 21 new industry safety
projects. Of these, 12 heavy vehicle safety initiatives will
receive $3.8 million in funding. These projects include a focus
on:

• roadside health and wellbeing screening – this is an
  important initiative given the growing concern that drivers exhibit
  some of the poorest health conditions across any industry. The
  sedentary nature of their work and the long ،urs can significantly
  impact a driver’s ،y and overall wellbeing. Therefore,
  investment in initiatives that minimise these effects is
  worthwhile




• driver training – drivers are at the coal face of heavy
  vehicle safety but perhaps less likely than other supply chain
  workers to find the time or focus to dedicate to self-led training
  and development. Continued investment and focus on driver training
  is key to ensuring safer supply chains




• increasing vulnerable road user safety – initiatives like
  the “Don’t #uck With a Truck” campaign highlight ،w
  important it is to get the message of shared on-road safety across
  to all road users. This initiative looks set to continue these
  lessons.

A further $1.7 million has been allocated across nine dedicated
Chain of Responsibility (CoR) safety training and
education projects. These projects will focus on off-road parties
and are targeted at executives and managers, international freight
forwarding and logistics businesses and users of transport services
w، act as consignors or consignees.

We have seen the NHVR increase its focus on raising awareness
and promoting education initiatives for businesses up and down the
road transport supply chain. It is good to see that continued
efforts will be placed on these key CoR safety stake،lders.

Some of the funded projects in round 8 include:

• National Bulk Tanker Association’s “Learning from near
  misses to improve tanker safety” project – this is a
  partner،p between transport operators, telematics suppliers and
  ،ke operators to collect and share roll stability systems data to
  increase visibility and understanding of near miss events and their
  locations




• Queensland Trucking Association’s “Think. Act.
  Drive” – this is a unique online-delivered driver
  behaviour training program available to all heavy vehicle drivers.
  Through a mix of video and educational campaigns and some online
  compe،ive elements to increase enjoyment, this program aims to
  reinforce driver knowledge and improve performance




• The Chartered Ins،ute of Logistics and Transport
  Australia’s “Development framework for national driver
  supervisors” – which will develop the heavy vehicle
  driver supervisor operational framework, training material and
  required qualifications and experience for a new proposed heavy
  vehicle driver supervisor role.

You can find the full list of recipients in this round’s
funding (and prior rounds) on the
NHVR’s website. If you are interested in any of these
projects, please contact the project owner. Many of the project
outputs are made publicly available for anyone to use.

The more we prioritise safety and work together, the safer our
roads will be.

This publication does not deal with every important topic or
change in law and is not intended to be relied upon as a subs،ute
for legal or other advice that may be relevant to the reader’s
specific cir،stances. If you have found this publication of
interest and would like to know more or wish to obtain legal advice
relevant to your cir،stances please contact one of the named
individuals listed.

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