Traffic Law

The Heavy Vehicle National Law (“HVNL”) establishes a national law for heavy vehicles over 4.5 tonnes and creates offences for every party in the chain of responsibility for safety breaches.

The most common offences enforced against heavy vehicles drivers or parties in the chain of responsibility are under the HVNL with fines of up to $20,000.00 (plus CPI increases) or up to $300,000.00 and/or 5 years imprisonment  for an individual or $1,500,000.00 for a corporation if a breach involves a risk of death or serious injury.

Many HVNL offences are divided into categories of minor, substantial, severe or critical risks. It is important that the category is determined correctly as this will have a significant impact upon the potential penalty.

While not all offences attract demerit points to your drivers licence, some offences incur up to 4 points which or 8 points during a double demerit point period which may accrue to your NSW drivers licence which may have serious consequences, particularly to professional drivers.

Chain of responsibility

All parties in the chain of responsibility may be held liable for any breach in circumstances if they could have exercised any control or influence to prevent the breach from occurring.

Chain of responsibility compliance applies with respect to things such as mass, dimension, loading, speed, fatigue, vehicle standards and maintenance.

Recent changes to the HVNL mean that parties within the chain of responsibility may be prosecuted even before there is an incident whether these offences occur on site or off.

Defences

The possible defences available to HVNL offences, including chain of responsibility offences, are more limited than other areas of traffic law and you should consult your traffic specialist at Catron Simmons Lawyers for advice and guidance in this regard.

Possible defences may include:

• That you did not have any control or influence to prevent the breach from occurring.
• That all reasonably practicable steps were taken to ensure safety of activities undertaken.
• That appropriate steps were taken to eliminate or minimise  and manage the relevant risk for example adoption of a registered industry code.

If you are convicted for an offence of driving or permitting a person to drive a heavy vehicle not complying with dimension requirements the following maximum penalties apply:

A heavy vehicle operating under a permit or authority (for example an oversize overmass combination including a low loader) determined to be operating outside the bounds of the permit or authority may be subject to standard dimension and mass requirements. As a result many of these breaches will fall well within the critical risk category with a maximum penalty of $10,000.00 plus CPI.

The maximum penalty for contravening a mass or dimension exemption generally attracts a maximum penalty of up to $6,000.00 plus CPI.

If you are convicted for an offence of driving or permitting a person to drive a heavy vehicle not complying with mass requirements the following maximum penalties apply:

A heavy vehicle operating under a permit or authority (for example an oversize overmass combination including a low loader) determined to be operating outside the bounds of the permit or authority may be subject to standard dimension and mass requirements. As a result many of these breaches will fall well within the critical risk category with a maximum penalty of $20,000.00 plus CPI.

The maximum penalty for contravening a mass or dimension exemption generally attracts a maximum penalty of up to $6,000.00.

The HVNL imposes a positive obligation upon drivers to avoid driving a fatigue regulated heavy vehicles while impaired by fatigued by creating a specific offence for driving while fatigued. This offences has a maximum penalty of $6,000.00 plus CPI.

There are strict requirements with respect to allowable work hours and requirements for drivers to keep accurate records of their work and rest times. Whether you are operating under standard, Basic Fatigue Management (“BFM”), Advanced Fatigue Management (“AFM”) or exemption hours, fatigue related offences will fall into different categories.

You may be liable for more than one offence in the same period of time,  for example, you may be issued with a Court Attendance Notice for exceeding your maximum working hours and for not having the required continuous rest time in the same 24 hour period.

While the hours of work and rest time may differ depending upon which hours you are working under the penalties for the different categories are the same and are as follows:

In certain circumstances you may be able to raise a defence to the above fatigue related offences, for example where it can be proved that a split rest break or delayed short rest breaks apply and you should consult your traffic specialist at Catron Simmons Lawyers for advice and guidance in this regard.

When completing your log book entries It is important to know that in the majority of cases any part of a 15 minute period that is worked is counted as 15 minutes, for example working 17 minutes is counted as a 30 minute work period whether you work the remaining 13 minutes or not.

You need to lodge an application to the Local Court, this application must be within 28 days so it is important to get legal advice early.

The test for this appeal is quite high. The applicant must show that there are “exceptional circumstances” as to why you need a licence. Therefore, reasoning such as transport to/from work, school and/or even having your licence as part of your job are not considered exceptional or extraordinary.

Catron Simmons Lawyers, can assist you in preparing, the application to give you the best chance of returning to driving as soon as possible.