New safety laws aimed at keeping truck and bus drivers from driving tired will come into effect in Victoria on 29 September 2008.
The new laws set revised work and rest limits for heavy vehicle drivers, and apply to trucks and truck and trailer combinations over 12 tonnes and buses that carry more than 12 passengers including the driver.
It is widely recognised that working long hours and fighting your body clock at night, puts drivers at a high risk of having a crash. To address this, these new safety laws change the focus from regulating driving hours to managing tiredness.
We all know that driving when you’re tired is one of the biggest killers on our roads. In fact, it accounts for around 20% of deaths on the road. Experts say that being tired and driving can be as bad as drink driving, so it’s time to bring in new tiredness safety rules to keep more people alive.
We know that 70 people die on our roads every year in crashes with heavy vehicles -
with these new fatigue safety rules we can make a real difference and bring down that road toll.
These new safety laws will help to make sure that truck and bus drivers are not driving for too long and are getting enough rest in between shifts. Everyone in the supply chain will have responsibility for making sure their truck drivers and bus drivers aren’t driving tired – responsibility won’t just rest with the drivers.
We aren’t. Eighteen months ago all the States and Territories signed up to the new laws agreeing to start by the end of September this year. We have worked hard to meet that timeline and we aren’t going to delay them any further because the safety benefits are too important. The Victorian Government developed these laws over seven years ago in collaboration with industry to get it right and save lives. Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia are all bringing the new laws in on the same date.
The laws provide set guidelines around work and rest times for truck and bus drivers. They make sure everyone in the supply chain has responsibility for ensuring the safety of their drivers.
Truck and bus companies will have three options under the new safety system:
- Drivers can do a maximum 12 hours work a day. This does not require a formal fatigue management system and will suit most companies;
- Drivers can work longer and more flexible hours but companies will need to have a fatigue management system in place, including trip planning and scheduling and driver training; and
- At the more advanced end, companies can build their own fatigue management system, but it needs to certified by an independent auditor and approved by VicRoads.
Enforcement of the new laws will focus on penalising companies and workers who were being deliberately unsafe, through things like inappropriate driving schedules with inadequate rest breaks or putting pressure on drivers to deliver goods in an unreasonable timeframe. The system will be reasonable when it comes to penalties. For example, you won’t be fined or lose demerit points just for spelling mistakes in your work diary.
A new work diary has been designed for drivers – this simply replaces the existing log book. The work diary needs to be kept up to date and the driver needs to keep it onboard while working. But this is not a big change, they provide essentially the same information in their work diary as they would in their log book. However, the work diary is physically bigger than the old log books.
The new laws really aren’t more complicated. We are giving owners and operators of heavy vehicles three options for managing when their drivers will need to work and rest:
- Drivers can do a maximum 12 hours work a day.
- Drivers can work longer and more flexible hours but companies will need to have a fatigue management system in place; or
- At the more advanced end, companies can build their own fatigue management system, but it needs to certified by an independent auditor and approved by VicRoads.
For most operators of heavy vehicles it’s business as usual. While the new safety laws put some clear guidelines around working hours for drivers, there is a lot of flexibility built into the system. This is about working safer – not necessarily working less.
Victoria will have a transition period. Drivers using the transition periods under the Transitional Fatigue Management Scheme (TFMS) will have a 14 day grace period until Monday 13 October 2008 to get a work diary. When the new laws come in, the Transitional Fatigue Management Scheme will end. There will be a six month transition period for drivers working under TFMS while the operators they works for obtain accreditation.
Drivers currently working regular hours (around 12 hours per day) can continue to use a log book for 90 days after the law comes into effect on the 29 September 2008. After that, they will need to have a work diary and transition to the Standard Hours rest and work hours.
The message to truck and bus companies is this - if you are risking safety on the road, there will be tougher penalties. You will be fined for breaches of work and rest hours and in the most severe cases you will lose demerit points as well.
But the system will be reasonable when it comes to penalties. For example, you won’t be fined or lose demerit points just for spelling mistakes in your work diary.
The focus will be on safety and making sure we don’t have tired truck and bus drivers behind the wheel.
We know the majority of companies want to do the right thing, so we want to work with industry to get this right. Our approach is also about education and training, not just handing out tickets.
Fact sheets are available to help heavy vehicle operators understand what the new laws mean to them. See: New heavy vehicle driver fatigue laws.