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National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme
Updated: 20 August 2008
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In the early 1990s, the NRTC (precursor to the NTC) recognised that accreditation was an effective means of demonstrating compliance with road transport law and was more attuned to modern compliance and enforcement practices.
This philosophy had led to the pilot accreditation scheme in Mass Management in Victoria and another pilot in Maintenance Management in New South Wales.
A third pilot in Fatigue Management was instigated in Queensland at the same time. During the same period, road transport industry bodies were developing accreditation schemes that were directed specifically at road transport operations and one of these schemes, known as TruckSafe, achieved an industry presence by the mid-1990s.
The successful implementation of the mass and maintenance management pilots led to the development of a national accreditation scheme. At their meeting in late 1997, Australian Transport Ministers approved the national framework for ‘Alternative Compliance’ schemes and agreed to offer industry a scheme that became known as the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme (NHVAS). |
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The NHVAS is administered through the state based road and transport authorities using a common set of standards, audit procedures and business rules. Operators can seek accreditation in one or both of these modules and accreditation in any state are granted mutual recognition in the other states.
Issues requiring clarification and amplification of the Business Rules arose once the scheme was introduced in 1999. This led to a project directed at the first revision of the NHVAS Business Rules, which was subsequently approved by Ministers in June 2006. At the same time, they also approved the addition of a new standard for the maintenance of vehicle suspensions in the Mass Management module. This was introduced as part of the concessional mass limits package for accredited operators.
Further changes to NHVAS were proposed and approved by Ministers in January 2007 to facilitate NHVAS accredited operators gaining access to the Commonwealth diesel fuel tax credit. These changes, affecting the Business Rules and the Maintenance Management module, became the second revision of NHVAS.
In November 2007, the Australian Transport Council voted unanimously to approve amendments to the Model Heavy Vehicle Driver Fatigue law, the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme Business Rules and a common implementation date for the reform of 29 September 2008.
The amendments to the Model law do not change the policy that has been developed by the National Transport Commission, rather they are technical changes made so that the law better reflects the intention of the policy. Some of the more significant changes include a change to the way that reasonable steps are defined so that it now provides examples of ways to identify and manage risks, how time is counted, penalties in relation to breaches of Advanced Fatigue Management outer limits, the operation of the Fatigue Authorities Panel, and transition arrangements for current Transitional Fatigue Management Scheme participants.
The vote also updates the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme business rules, to account for the introduction of the Heavy Vehicle Driver Fatigue reform.
National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Auditor Certification Scheme
RABQSA International is offering a new scheme for the certification of auditors for the three main heavy vehicle accreditation schemes in Australia. The new heavy vehicle accreditation auditor certification scheme replaced the existing arrangements for the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme, WA Heavy Vehicle Accreditation and TruckSafe from 16 October 2006.
The National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Auditor Certification Scheme will effectively create a single national pool of highly qualified and competent auditors to serve the interests of the three schemes. It reflects twelve months of hard work by representatives of the three accreditation schemes and is a significant step in maintaining the integrity of the schemes.
Downloads
The current version of NHVAS is as follows:
Audit Matrices for use in AFM and BFM fatigue management audits. Approved by Transport Ministers in April 2008.
News Release
Information Bulletins
Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS)
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