NHVR releases performance snapshot

Speaking at the ATA's recent Trucking Australia conference in Hobart, the CEO of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, Sal Petroccitto, told delegates the body has entered a new era of visibility and transparency, with a new quarterly performance snapshot and a series of other measures laying bare its progress.

Mr Petroccitto, who took the reins at the NHVR some 10 months ago, said that while there was still a great amount of work to be done, the regulatory body was on track and making significant progress.

"We have stabilised," he told delegates.

"We've got a new organisational structure in place; I have a new executive team in place; we are building organisational capability; we are listening to you; we're understanding what you're saying; we're translating that into meaningful outcomes; and we've refocused our engagement models – but more importantly your commitment has remained strong, and I acknowledge and thank you for that."

Mr Petroccitto unveiled the NHVR's new 'Performance Snapshot' – a quarterly report that provides a quick and easy appraisal of the body's activities over three months, and show how effectively (or otherwise) it is pursuing its goals.

Central to the report is the processing time for permits, an area which has improved in recent months after the initial roll-out of the Heavy Vehicle National Law in February 2014 saw permit applications backlog rapidly.

"For us it's been an important step to see where the issues were – where the problems lie and where we need to put in more effort," said Mr Petroccitto.

"Concerted effort has gone into pre-approvals, in helping to reduce that red tape and in trying to streamline the processes."

Mr Petroccitto said a broader evolution of the NHVR's work will eventually see numbers of permit applications reduce significantly.

"I'm of the particular view that we need to be halving the requests for permits; a 50 per cent reduction in permit requests is, I think, not unrealistic," he said.

"I think there will always be a role for permits but I think we can do a lot more to streamline them."

Permit processing times have dropped considerably in recent months.

"At the moment, our current performance – in terms of applications that we touch – is around two-and-a-half to three days, and that's come down from about eight when I took over the role," said Mr Petroccitto.

He also confirmed that local government processing times were improving as well.

Mr Petroccitto said the NHVR has developed an internal 'dashboard' to allow it to monitor all aspects of internal permit processing, while it was working on a number of new 'portals' to provide greater clarity for other road agencies and end users.

"We've developed one of these for each jurisdiction so they know what's outstanding and I know what's outstanding," he said.

"We can then have a dialogue on the applications and we can try and push them along."

A customer portal, which is currently being trialled, will aid operators.

"This will allow you [road freight operators] to track where your permit is at and at what stage it's sitting," Mr Petroccitto said.

"The intent after some of the piloting is to roll it out to all users, and I think that will be a really useful tool in terms of being able to see where things are at. One of the criticisms [levelled at the NHVR] was that there was no visibility; well we've become as transparent and as visible as possible so you know where things are."

A portal for councils is also being developed, to allow clarity on permit processing at a local government level.

Click here to see the NHVR's Performance Snapshot March 2015 for yourself.