Chain of Responsibility

What is CoR?

On 1 October 2018, CoR obligations were reformulated in the HVNL to introduce the principle of shared responsibility for each party in the chain of responsibility for transport activities. This means that each party in the supply chain has a proactive primary safety duty to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the safety of road transport activities.

All those with responsibility for transport activities that affect compliance with the road transport laws should be held and are legally accountable if they do not meet their responsibility.

Those responsible and therefore liable are:

Consigning: A person or company commissioning the carrying of goods;
Packing: Those placing goods into packages, containers or pallets;
Loading: Those placing or restraining the load on a vehicle;
Driving: Those who physically drive a heavy vehicle;
Operating: Those conducting a business which controls the use of heavy vehicles
Receiving: Those who pay for the goods or take possession of the load, and;
Employers or Manager: of a business may also be liable for breaches by an employee

CONTROL = RESPONSIBILITY = LEGAL LIABILITY

Commitment to CoR

Colpak Logistics Pty Ltd is committed to complying with Chain of Responsibility.

Colpak has produced this booklet to give all Colpak employees, agencies, hauliers and sub-contractors the information as key concepts of CoR and an understanding of their responsibilities under the new legislation.

This booklet will provide all Colpak employees, agencies, hauliers and sub-contractors an introduction into Colpaks commitment to C&E. You will be required to sign the declaration on page 19 confirming your commitment and understanding of your obligations in regard to the Chain of Responsibility and Heavy Vehicle National Law. This publication is based on information presented by the National Transport Commission Roads & Traffic Authority.

CoR Applies to?

The HVNL features the Chain of Responsibility concept – meaning all those with responsibility for activities that affect compliance can and should be held legally accountable if they do not meet their responsibility.

Chain of responsibility provisions in the law imposes obligations on all parties in the transport chain and all individuals in the corporate chain of command. Those parties are required to either take reasonable steps to prevent a contravention of the road transport laws and not to encourage or coerce other to contravene those laws.

Special provisions that consignors, packers, loaders and receivers may be held legally liable for breaches of heavy vehicle mass, dimension and load restraint requirements, in addition to drivers and vehicle operators. In this way off-road parties are as legally liable as their on-road counterparts if a breach of those requirements occurs. This assists authorities to better target the party or parties actually at fault. It also reduces pressures on on-road parties and ultimately leads to improved compliance and safer roads.

The Chain of Responsibility approach has also been extended to model laws dealing with fatigue, transportation of dangerous goods and heavy vehicle speeding.

What are my Responsibilities?

If you exercise control or influence over the transport task you can be held legally liable for your actions, inactions or demands if they have caused or contributed to a breach.

The law requires you to take all reasonable steps to prevent your conduct from causing or contributing to a breach.

In addition, the law also prohibits you from:

Making demands that you know or ought to have known would cause a breach;
Coercing, including or encouraging breaches; and
Passing false or misleading information that could cause a breach.

If you have any doubt about the position you fill or the responsibilities under this legislation, your responsibilities under this legislation or what you need to action to ensure compliance, please talk with your Site Manager.

Consignors and Receivers

Your Responsibilities

As a Consignor or Receiver your responsibility under the CoR legislation is to ensure that delivery requests do not require a truck driver to:

Exceed permitted driving hours;
Fail to have minimum rest periods;
Exceed the speed limit;
Transport goods that exceed vehicle dimension limits;
Transport goods that exceed vehicle mass limits; Or
Inappropriately secure the load.

You won’t be held liable for an offence under Chain of Responsibility if you can show that you did not know and could not have reasonably expected to have known that a road law breach would occur and that either:

You have taken all reasonable steps to prevent the breach, or
There was nothing you could reasonably have been expected to do to prevent that breach.

Will be expected to:

Place purchase orders with sufficient lead time to allow for safe transit times to the destination site.
Request deliveries that do not, either directly or indirectly, cause or help to cause breaches of Chain of Responsibility.
Provide a safe and appropriate location and method of unloading.
Adhere to agreed duration times on site.
Formally inform the driver of unavoidable delays that may impact on the drivers’ available hours for that day.
Provide a suitable driver waiting area with appropriate amenities.
Assess the driver relative to fatigue, and take reasonable steps, where appropriate, to enquire as to the driver’s fitness.
Ensure that loads that may be rejected, as a result of accuracy, quality, timeliness and the like, are considered safe to return to the road.
Assess the vehicle for any obvious roadworthiness concerns.
Assess the load with regard to safety and the ability to safely unload.
Undertake to randomly gain driver feedback to promote improvement initiatives.

What do you need to do?

You need to ensure you can demonstrate that you have taken reasonable steps to prevent any breach occurring. What constitutes reasonable steps will vary according to each individual’s circumstances.

Examples of steps you could take include:

Implement compliance assurance conditions in relevant commercial arrangements with other responsible persons;
Request information about what systems and controls are in place to ensure compliance;
Ensure there are no award arrangements which encourage or reward non-compliance; or
Implement active risk management systems.
Allocate the correct vehicle type for the freight task.
Ensure the allocation task will include consideration to weight and cube of product (mass & dimension), dangerous goods, temperature sensitivity, container weight declarations and the like.
Ensure that the load manifest accurately represent the load itself.
Ensure the correct and safe restraining of product.
Ensure the driving hours and capability of the driver being requested to perform the freight task, are adequate. Driver fatigue must be taken into consideration.
Ensure that the vehicle being used for the freight task is roadworthy, maintained on a regular basis and fit to cart the designated product without adversely affecting the quality of the product.
Ensure that the product will not be loaded in a way that will contribute to unsafe travel, including an appropriate weight distribution and restraining of the load over the vehicle.
Ensure that the booking made through inbound freight scheduling allows sufficient time for safe transit times.
Ensure that the estimated time on site, as determined by inbound freight scheduling, is detailed to the driver, to allow for an assessment of daily driving hours.
Ensure that driving plans/ expectations will not cause excessive speed on route to the destination.
Meeting the booking time at the destination site.
Inform the driver of the expected duration on site and work functions that may be performed whilst on site.
Educate and communicate to Subcontractors. Subcontractors should be treated as employees and the same consideration given, as detailed above. Also the contractor, whether they are warehousing, transport or labour hire and the like, has a responsibility to ensure that the work they undertake is completed in a safe and compliant manner.
That the contractual arrangements with the provider take into consideration Chain of Responsibility. Clear expectations around legal and safe performance surrounding the work to be performed needs to be detailed by the consigner to their employees and contractors.

Loaders and Packers

Your Responsibilities

As a Loader, your responsibility under CoR Legislation is to ensure the vehicle’s load:

Does not exceed dimensional limits;
Does not cause mass limits to be exceeded; and
Cannot become unstable, unsafe, move or fall off the vehicle. Packer’s responsibility is to ensure;
Load documentation is accurate, not false or misleading; and
Goods packed in ISO/Freight Containers do not exceed the containers gross weight or safety approval rating.

You won’t be held liable for an offence under the Chain of Responsibility if you can show that you did not know and could not have been reasonably expected to know that the road law breach would occur and that either:

You have taken all reasonable steps to prevent the breach, or
There was nothing you could reasonably have been expected to do to prevent the breach.

What do you need to do?

You need to demonstrate that you have taken reasonable steps to prevent a breach occurring. What constitutes reasonable steps will vary according to each individual’s circumstances.

Examples of steps you could take include:

Having loading diagrams for different types of loads to ensure axle weight limits are not exceeded.
If the vehicle’s weight cannot be accurately assessed at time of loading, reduce the weight on the first load/ trip and verify the weight at the first opportunity during the journey. Subsequent loads can be adjusted accordingly.
Fitting scales to loading equipment and keeping a running total of the weight of the load of each trip.
Using a pre-printed form which requires the person in control of packing or loading to verify the accuracy of all records.
Ensure that the load is presented in a way that will not create any safety issues or concerns during the subsequent processing.
Ensure that the load will not cause difficulties for the loader, driver or unloader of the product.
Accurately pack product to ensure that the load manifest does not contain any false or misleading information.
Only use safe and operational pallets, cages, totes or dollies, and the like, in building the load.
Ensure that the product does not exceed the dimensions of the pallet.
Ensure that the product is restrained sufficiently for safe transit.
Ensure the correct labelling of each pallet in the load.
Ensure that the load is presented in a way that it will not create any safety issues or concerns during the subsequent processing.
Ensure the allocation of weight over the vehicle will not cause safety concerns in transit.
Ensure the load is correctly restrained so that transit movement or damage will not occur.
Ensure the load does not exceed neither vehicle dimension or mass limits.
Use a loading diagram to detail contents and mass

Site Managers, Schedulers and Transport Managers

Your Responsibilities

As an Operator, Manager or Scheduler of a business involved in road transport, your responsibility is to ensure that:

Arrangements with commercial partners notate Chain of Responsibility compliance;
You have appropriate procedures in place to assess safe transit times;
Safe transit times are not compromised through customer pressure;
You keep accurate records of driver activities, work and rest times, and fitness of duty;
Rosters and schedules do not require drivers to exceed driving hours regulations or
Vehicle speed limiters are functioning;
Sufficient and appropriate training and supervision is provided for those that impact road freight;
Vehicles do not exceed mass or dimension limits;
Appropriate restraint equipment is provided and that loads are correctly restrained;
Appropriate maintenance schedules are in place for all equipment, restraints and vehicles;
Accurate records are kept of drivers’ activities, including driving, work and rest time

What do you need to do?

As a transport operator or an employee of a transport operator, you need to ensure that your conduct does not compromise road safety or involve breaking the law.

You will implement systems to ensure that the mass of each vehicle is assessed and recorded for each trip.
You will have auditable systems for rostering and scheduling your drivers so they:
- Do not exceed the regulated hours for work.
- Do not exceed posted speed limits
- Have sufficient rest and sleep to avoid fatigue.
You need to have work practices in place so that vehicles and equipment kept in good condition and all loads are properly restrained in accordance with the Load Restraint Guide;
If speed limiters are fitted to the vehicles, they will be operating properly;
Compliance assurance conditions will be included in relevant commercial arrangements with other responsible persons;
You will keep records of drivers’ activities including driving/working, and rest. Check they are complying with regulations; and
Employees will have necessary information, instructions, training and supervision to enable compliance with relevant laws

Drivers Responsibilities

Your Responsibilities

You must check that your vehicle is roadworthy and safe to drive, your load is secure and will not exceed mass or dimension limits. You are also responsible for the condition and adequacy of restraining equipment (chains and straps, etc).

As a truck driver, your responsibilities include making sure that:

You adhere to the driving hours regulations (time spent driving and working);
Required rest breaks are taken;
You record your driving hours as required;
Your vehicle does not exceed mass limits;
Your vehicle and load do not exceed dimension limits;
Your load is appropriately restrained;
You do not exceed the speed limit; and
You do not tamper with monitoring/ recording or speed control devices fitted to that vehicle.

What do you need to do?

As a driver, you need to ensure your conduct does not compromise road safety or involve breaking the law. You can do this by:

Keeping weigh bridge dockets issued to the vehicle you are driving so you know the mass.
Using on board scales to check your weights (if applicable).
Keeping any load documentation that records the weight of your load.
Not exceeding the regulated hours for working (remember these are maximum hours).
Ensuring your vehicle does not exceed legal dimensions.
Ensuring your load is properly restrained, checking the adequacy and condition of restraining equipment.
Ensuring you observe the speed limit at all times.
Being licensed (current & valid) and appropriately skilled in operating the vehicle and in the tasks that are expected to be performed.
Know his/ her vehicles legal capacity.
Ensuring that the vehicle does not exceed mass or dimensional limits.
Ensuring that the vehicle restraints are adequate and in good condition.
Ensuring that the load is restrained correctly so that transit movement and/ or damage will not occur.
Being inducted at the destination site and follow all site rules and signage.
Arrive at site to meet the agreed booking time.
Being willing to follow appropriate and reasonable direction from the site.
Conducting his/ herself responsibly whilst on site.

About us

Chain of Responsibility

Table of Contents

Colpak Safety Rules

Leadership

Behaviour

The Heavy Vehicle National Law