When helping people to understand the law we find it useful to use case studies that can highlight the changes in the law, such as, the recent NSW Supreme Court case where parties in the chain of responsibility were fined $210,000 combined for not meeting their primary duty obligation is one such case study that we will be using in the future as it clearly shows the differences.
We will focus on the speed component of this case below, other components of the case will be discussed in subsequent posts.

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Under the old law a party in the chain of responsibility had to take all reasonable steps to prevent drivers from speeding, the offences were “deemed liability” with a reverse onus of proof meaning that if the driver committed an offence all of the parties in the chain of responsibility were guilty until proven innocent.  The parties in the CoR would undertake audits and seek access constantly to see GPS tracking etc. and try to manage the transport operations on behalf of the transport operator.

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Under the new law, Chapter 5 that dealt with speeding has been completely repealed and replaced with the obligations from Chapter 1A including the primary duty to ensure safety of the parties behaviour, now the parties in the CoR must ensure that they do not cause or encourage a driver to breach with a proactive obligation to ensure safety.

As you read the below you will see that the first thing to establish is “are you a party in the CoR”, if yes then as discussed above your obligation is the same as the parties in the case, that is, adequate systems and procedures to ensure the safety of your transport activities, when looking at your controls the question should be “what is reasonably practical” the same as your WHS management systems. 

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The Charges (speed only)

In a media release the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) states that the breaches occurred when both the managing director and scheduler failed to ensure adequate systems and procedures were in place to manage driver fatigue, speed and compliance with work and rest hours.

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The Penalties

The transport company entered a guilty plea to a Category 2 offence under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) and received a $180,000 fine.

The Managing Director (as a scheduler) and another scheduler were convicted of Category 3 offences under the HVNL and each were fined $15,000.

Interestingly the charges against the transport company and schedulers included failing to maintain adequate systems to ensure drivers were not speeding, importantly there was no evidence of speeding (or accidents occurring). 

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GPS Tracking

The Company had installed GPS tracking systems in the Company’s vehicles in 2013, however, the Director of the company states he was aware of issues with the accuracy and functionality of the GPS tracking, clearly the management of speed by just having GPS was inadequate and since they become aware of their non compliance with the HVNL they had conducted more reviews of driver compliance which led to an increase in corrective action reports.

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GPS Accuracy

We very often see where GPS is installed into vehicles (sometimes for over a decade) that is  generating overspeed beach events and the reports are rarely run or used (unless there is an accident) and there is a perception within the business that the system is inaccurate.

When we ask the GPS system users about the accuracy of the system they often don't understand accuracy measures in their GPS data or how to schedule regular reports. If they can run the reports then documenting the corrective actions is often not done. 

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The Unavin Solution

We show our customers the dilution of precision (DOP) values (HDOP, VDOP, PDOP, and TDOP etc.) and other indicators in their data and how this data can be used to determine if the breach event is “real” or not.

Unavin has customisable pre-filters that remove the “noise” created by inaccurate GPS data and then automates the corrective action processes for the “real” breaches based on each businesses safety management system.

Unavin also has auditor / customer access available that allows customers of transport provider to see that their GPS Speed (and other) events are being processed and that corrective actions are being undertaken allowing the customers oversight without overreaching.

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Get in touch

Get in touch with us to see how we can reduce risk in your business and how we can help you to get the most out of your GPS tracking systems.

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https://www.unavin.com.au/contact

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