Heavy Vehicles and HVNL

Heavy Vehicles and compliance with The Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL)

The Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) is Australia’s dedicated independent regulator for heavy vehicles. HVNL define a heavy vehicle as a vehicle that has a gross vehicle mass or aggregate trailer mass over 4.5 tonnes, such as: semi-trailers, B-double freight trucks, road trains, passenger buses, vehicles carriers, livestock, and mobile cranes. 

The Transport and Logistics sector in Australia has an estimated annual revenue of $102.87 billion, with an operating profit of $10.14 billion in 2018. However, there is a high rate of workplace health and safety incidents associate to this industry. In 2019, a total of 188 people were killed in crashes involving heavy trucks. 

JSEAsy safety management software can help you with compliance

NHVL and WHS

A person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) has obligations under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) and the Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) Laws.

Compliance with one legislation does not resolve your obligation to comply with the other. Where many of the requirement of one legislation are mirrored in the other, each of the legislation also has its own specific requirements.

With the new higher standard of obligation and massively increased potential penalties for both, compliance is more important than ever.

JSEAsy has been devised to help you meet your obligations for both

Policies and Procedures

JSEAsy Premium Version includes important policies and procedures to help you with compliance.

JSEAsy has an extensive list of policies and procedures. Some of the more pertinent policies and procedures are listed below: 

Choose which suits you better:

Download for Windows and install on your PC or Windows server

Cloud Hosted Version Access from anywhere on any device 

Record Keeping

You must keep details of your employees and subcontractors, along with records of their licences, qualifications and training.   

Vehicle, plant and equipment registers along with service and repair logs must also be maintained. 

Registers of all incidents, near misses and inspections must also be kept.  

JSEAsy Premium Version is a central location to generate and store all of your WHS and NHVL documentation to help you with compliance. 

The forms below are generated and stored through the register section in the WHS forms section of JSEAsy Premium. All WHS registers pertaining to a job are created, stored and then access through the Job Form.

Safe work Method Statements (SWMS) – included!
Safe Operating Procedures (SOP) – included!

Plant and Equipment Risk Assessments (PERA) – included 
Safety Policies – included!
Safety Procedures – included!
Register and Inspection Forms – included
Job Related Safety Forms – included!
Employee details, licences, qualifications, inductions and training – included

Registers

WHS Form 60 Plant and Equipment Register is a register of your company’s plant and equipment. It is also a service and repair log.
In the JSEAsy Premium version this form will not only keep track of your vehicles, plant and equipment, but the service and repair log will keep track of your full service history, as well as when the next service is due
Other registers to help you keep track include:

Contributing factors that may cause high-risk behaviours:


  • Lack of policy and procedures, or systems to report non-compliance
  • Inadequate information, training, instructions and / or supervision of speed management obligations
  • Poorly planned trip schedules and driver roasters
  • Inflexible loading and unloading schedules and timeslots
  • Non-compliance with speed-limiting requirements and/or inadequate maintenance of speed monitoring components
  • Driver inexperience and skill

Speed Management

Speeding is a high-risk behaviour. Speeding is more than driving faster than the sign-posted speed limit, it is driving too fast for the weather conditions, light, traffic, and road conditions. Speeding may affect the stability, steering and braking performance of the vehicle, increasing the possibility of the driver losing control of the vehicle.

You can buy our JSEAsy Premium safety management software:

Download for Windows and install on your PC or Windows server

Cloud Hosted Version Access from anywhere on any device

This WHS Form is available to buy individually:
WHS- Form 84 – Speed Management Policy and Proce

Vehicle overloading

It is a criminal offence to exceed a mass limit on a heavy vehicle. The responsibility to comply with mass limits isn’t just lay with the driver, but with driver’s employer, operator, packer, loading manager and the loader. 

All vehicle drivers should be aware of the loading procedures associated with loading vehicles. Loading limits should be given to drivers during training and inductions, and a copy of their legal weights be in the front of their daily docket books.

You can buy our JSEAsy safety management software Premium:

Download for Windows and install on your PC or Windows server

Cloud Hosted Version Access from anywhere on any device

This WHS Form is available to buy individually:
WHS -Form 85 – Gross and Axle Weights Policy and Procedure