Accreditation policy review. [a.k.a. National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme Policy Review.]

This report reviews the alternative compliance policy approved by the Australian Transport Council in 1997. Most people now know this policy as the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme ('the Scheme'). The main aims of this policy were to improve road safety and transport efficiency by improving compliance with road transport law. The operators who joined the Scheme would meet higher standards than the standards required under road transport laws. As such, the vehicles of these operators would be subject to less roadside compliance than the vehicles of operators who were not in the Scheme. Less roadside enforcement would provide efficiency for industry as these vehicles would not be held up at roadside inspections, while enforcement agencies could redeploy their resources to concentrate on operators who were less likely to be complying with the law. This report first examines the implementation of the policy. It finds that it is now clear that the policy has evolved. Over time, other incentives to join the Scheme have come to the fore. Most participants in the Scheme are in it for reasons unrelated to minimising the number of roadside inspections for their vehicles, such as being able to carry heavier loads. The changes have been such that it is now more appropriate to describe the policy as a national permitting policy, or as an audit-based compliance policy, rather than as an alternative compliance policy. This report then examines whether the policy has met its original objectives. It finds that with respect to improving road safety, while it cannot unequivocally be said that the policy has improved road safety, there are indications to suggest that the policy may well have done so. With respect to improving transport efficiency, it can be strongly argued that the policy is directly or indirectly responsible for savings in the order of hundreds of millions of dollars. This report then goes on to examine five overall options. These are: remove the policy; retain the policy; update the policy; update and improve the policy; and replace the policy with operator licensing. These options are evaluated against a range of criteria, including the objectives and principles of the National Transport Policy Framework. It is concluded that the option to update and improve the policy provides the best outcome against these criteria. (Author/publisher)