NatRoad supports a shift away from roadside enforcement of heavy vehicle laws but believes extra attention must be paid to enforcing drug and alcohol misuse.
More frequent testing of light and heavy vehicle drivers for drug driving, in particular, is a vital road safety measure.
These issues shouldn’t be forgotten in the finalisation of reforms to the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) where a move to risk-based enforcement is likely.
NatRoad has emphasised in all of our submissions to the HVNL review that enforcement must be completely reformed. There must be warnings issued before fines are imposed for mere administrative offences, particularly those relating to fatigue records.
Much greater use of self-clearing defect notices should be applied, so that they are the norm where there is no imminent danger to the vehicle, the road or other road users.
And resources that are currently devoted to arduously checking fatigue diaries for pedantic issues should be diverted to cracking down on drug driving.
