The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator has released the Safety Enhancement survey results targeted to enhance safety across the Heavy Vehicle Industry, writes Dave Hourigan the NHVR Chief Regulatory Policy and Standards officer.
Commencing with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator at the start of 2023, one of my first priorities was to analyse the findings of the 2022 Heavy Vehicle Industry Safety Survey results. I am pleased to say the results of the survey, which have now been released publicly, encouragingly highlights industries improvement in safer practices and general understanding of enhancing safety across the sector. This survey was held in June, July and August last year to provide the NHVR with greater insight as to how the heavy vehicle industry manages its safety responsibilities.
As the safety regulator for the heavy vehicle industry this survey serves an important role in helping the NHVR to better understand the safety perceptions and practices in our industry to tailor future initiatives to address safety gaps.
This is the third iteration of the survey and I want to congratulate the 5,750 respondents who took part in the survey because it demonstrates the priority the heavy vehicle industry has for improving safety.
The results provided excellent insights about the heavy vehicle industry management of safety responsibilities. It informed us that there has been an increase in safer practices applied by those employed in the heavy vehicle industry, as well as an increase in a better understanding of heavy vehicle safety technologies.
Typically, those who completed the survey were:
- Managers (43 per cent)
- Drivers (41 per cent)
- Employed in a business based in Victoria (49 per cent), New South Wales (20 per cent) or Queensland (15 per cent)
- Delivering loads that comprised general freight (20 per cent) or primary production/farming (20 per cent)
- Transporting their goods locally (59 per cent)
- Employed in a business that has two to ten staff (60 per cent) and have been in the industry for 20 years or more (53 per cent)
Overall, safety management across the industry was found to have increased since our last survey done in 2020, with notable improvements in the uptake of a basic Safety Management System (SMS) where 65 per cent of respondents now have an SMS for their business. This is an encouraging result, but it also tells us that we still have a lot of work to do to increase SMS uptake. In addition, 98 per cent of respondents found the SMS materials available from the NHVR very helpful.
Having an effective SMS is one of the best ways to ensure you have a safety-focused business and are complying with your safety duty obligations under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL). One way for operators to be more aware of an SMS and how to implement one can be found in the materials that we provide on our website. We have an array of guidance materials, including an SMS roadmap that can help operators to put this system into place for their business.
Encouragingly, there was an increase in respondents who have a better understanding of heavy vehicle safety technologies. When considering a vehicle upgrade, several safety technologies stood out:
- Antilock Braking System (ABS) (77 per cent)
- Those employed in the bus, dangerous goods, and waste sectors are most favourable
- Features that reduce blind spots (68 per cent)
- Those employed in the bus, construction/landscape products, steel, and waste sectors are most favourable
- Reversing safety systems (64 per cent)
- Those employed in the bus, government including local government, and waste sectors are most favourable
Despite almost two-thirds of respondents indicating awareness of side and rear underrun protection systems, only 33 per cent of respondents indicated they would consider that technology when upgrading a vehicle. Those employed in the dangerous goods, waste, and containers sectors were more favourable to considering side and rear underrun protection systems when upgrading a vehicle.
We were also able to capture the various views that people in the industry, based on their years of experience. We listed ten different safety features in the survey and of those ten, respondents who had been in the industry for five years or less placed a higher rating of importance for many of the safety features, compared to those that have been in the industry for 20 years or more.
In recent years, we’ve been pleased to see an increase in the uptake of Performance Based Standards (PBS) scheme for heavy vehicles. In the survey we were able to capture some of the views PBS operators had. When purchasing a new vehicle, PBS operators typically consider ABS, stability control systems, and features that reduce blind spots as most important.
In addition, those that are PBS owner-drivers are more favourable to the following safety management practices:
- Review risk controls in their business
- Commit to having a dedicated safety person in their business
- Hold regular meetings to discuss safety issues
- Provide ongoing communication to staff about safety
- Attend safety meetings or events
- Keep and maintain records of safety training
PBS has been picked up by industry as a major driver of efficiency, with lower operating costs and higher safety benefits for the network. To hear from PBS owner-drivers that they are prioritising safety in the management of their business is highly encouraging. We’re hoping to see a continued increase in the uptake of PBS vehicles in the months and years to come.
Throughout 2023 we will be engaging widely to use the results from the survey and help address the most critical safety risks. We will do this by delivering more targeted SMS and Chain of Responsibility messaging and information to address gaps and increase awareness across different sectors.
The Safety Survey 2022 report can be viewed on the NHVR website: https://www.nhvr.gov.au/safety-survey
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