Main Points
New Chain of Responsibility (CoR) laws commence on October 1, 2018.
All parties that have control or influence over a transport task are responsible for compliance under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL).
Please refer to the attached CoR checklist, if you select YES in any of the checkboxes for a specific role/s, you are a party in the transport supply chain. Pretty much everyone in the supply chain will be considered liable as the checklist will indicate.
As part of this supply chain, you are legally obliged to eliminate and minimise public risks by doing everything reasonably practicable to ensure all transport related activities are safe. GPSM are already taking steps to ensure it has full compliance by the time these laws come into effect. We will continue to advise information as it comes to hand as we all need to prepare for the new Chain of Responsibility New primary Duty Laws over the next few months.
GPSM suggest as a starting point to establish your own safety management systems with regards to complying to COR:
Check with your insurers on how you might be affected by these new laws, and what your responsibilities encompass. Also check if you are covered in case of an incident as current policies may not give you coverage.
Insurers should also be a good source of information on how best to comply and protect your specific risk factors.
Penalties for noncompliance are large, and penalties may be applied to a business and individual inside the business, such as managers and executive offices.
Penalties range from $50,000 to $300,000 including imprisonment for Individuals and from $500,000 to $3m for Corporations.
You will need to Identify, assess, evaluate, and control risk.
Implement regular reporting systems, including to executive officers.
Document or record actions are taken to manage safety.
Keep an eye out for further newsletters as GPSM will continue to advise on latest developments as more information comes to hand.
As always please don’t hesitate to contact our office if you have any questions. GPSM has appointed a COR compliance officer, Rob Sullivan who will be the key liaison for all matters regarding COR.