EWDs to be voluntary

Electronic Work Diaries (EWDs) will be accepted as an alternative to paper diaries to track the work and rest hours of fatigue-related heavy vehicle drivers, under new reforms ushered in with the recent passing of the Heavy Vehicle National Law Amendment Bill 2015.

Importantly, the uptake of EWDs will be purely voluntary, meaning drivers and road freight operators will be able to continue using traditional paper diaries (pictured) if desired.

The CEO of the National Transport Commission, Paul Retter, said the introduction of EWDs would reduce the paperwork burden for drivers required to maintain a diary.

"EWDs make it much easier to comply with the law and stay safe on the road," he said.

"The heavy vehicle drivers who choose to use an EWD will also receive extra benefits from using them such as receiving alerts when breaks are required.

"The implementation of EWDs will be voluntary, but we expect many drivers will choose them once they are widely commercially available."

Drivers who elect to use an EWD will be granted eight minutes of leeway in any one 24-hour period. For example, a driver who exceeds work time by five minutes in the first period of work may only exceed work time by up to a further three minutes.

The Australian Trucking Association has welcomed the confirmation that EWD use will be on a purely voluntary basis.

"Although electronic work diaries offer great advantages for some businesses, installing them would be an unnecessary cost for small operators and businesses that only operate heavy vehicles occasionally," said ATA CEO, Christopher Melham (pictured).

However, Mr Melham also highlighted the stricter regulatory regime for EWD use, leading to two systems for observing work and rest time.

"The time periods in the existing paper work diaries are recorded in 15 minute blocks, and are hand-written by the driver," he said.

"The electronic diaries approved under this Bill automatically round to the nearest one minute interval, with a tolerance for small work time breaches of eight minutes in a 24-hour period. There is no tolerance for errors in rest times.

"I welcome the NTC's commitment to review the treatment of small work time breaches after two years. This review is essential in order to make sure that EWD users are not subject to a stricter regulatory regime than those who use the paper diaries."

The NHVR will now develop operational procedures for EWD use, and ensure transport compliance officers are equipped with the right equipment and support to read EWD data.