Trucking Australia: NTC update

The CEO of the National Transport Commission, Paul Retter, has outlined the body's progress and future plans to Trucking Australia 2014 delegates

Paul Retter, CEO of the National Transport Commission, addressed delegates at the ATA's Trucking Australia conference on Friday, June 6, where he touched on a range of outcomes determined with ministers last month while also providing an update on NTC's progress and future program.

While ministers on May 6 decided to delay until 2016 measures to address the current overcharging of the truck industry through heavy vehicle registration and road user charges, Mr Retter said that, while the decision was disappointing for truck operators, it also underlined a greater issue.

"We recommended Option A [to Government], which was no change to the percentage split between rego and the road user charge, although it did recommend significant changes to the charges that would be made," he said.

"It's not simply that everyone was going to pay less – some combinations of vehicle would have paid more – but certainly what we came up with would have been a much fairer way of charging.

"Ministers decided to implement this but delay for two years – over concerns of a reduction in revenue that could flow on to a lack of funds for road maintenance.

"Now this exposes one of the key challenges – with the exception of South Australia, there's no direct linkage between what you pay today and what you see being reinvested into the road. That's a real problem, and what we were seeing in our discussions with ministers was effectively a reflection of that. They were concerned that if they went to their respective treasuries they would get knocked back, and indeed many did, on the basis that they wouldn't have got any compensating revenue to deal with road maintenance."

Last year NTC determined that the truck industry is overcharged by around $234 million per annum, largely because of an underestimate of the number of trucks and trailers being registered each year by about 70,000.

While the delay offers little comfort to transport operators, Mr Retter said a further meeting with ministers, held in Alice Springs on May 23, delivered some promising outcomes – including the initial agreement to investigate a 'user pays' system of heavy vehicle charging.

"If we're going down a road of 'user pays' you actually have to do a bunch of work – colloquially known as supply side measures – first," he said.

"They relate to the asset base. What is the condition of our roads today? What would we like to see in terms of service delivery standards? What amenities do we require? And from that you work out the gap, the investment strategy, and the priorities.

"It's a complex issue but we've got to start somewhere, and ministers agreed on May 23 that we would start that work. That's a positive sign in my view and it starts us on the journey.

"In I think November ministers are required to agree to a more detailed plan of how they're going to put that to the Prime Minister and Premiers at the next COAG [Council of Australian Governments] meeting towards the end of the year or early next year. So there's more work to be done."

Mr Retter also outlined NTC's work on the heavy vehicle telematics framework, and the related issue of Electronic Work Diaries (EWD).

"In about 12 months we hope to look at a phased implementation of EWDs from a regulatory perspective, so there will be a lot of discussion as NHVR, NTC, various road managers and industry get together to work through that," he says.

"If we find that as part of that phased implementation things aren't working, ministers have already agreed to a two-year review so if we find something isn't working, we can look at it and change it."

On the subject of the effectiveness of the fatigue management system, and following the raising of concerns from some states of the perceived risks of 'nose-to-tail' scheduling, Mr Retter said there was little if any evidence to support any change to the current system. Consequently ministers have asked NTC to work with others to get some quality data about fatigue in the workplace – a task it will be completing over the next six months.

Mr Retter said NTC's strategic work plan for the next three years was approved on May 23, with the plan placing a strong emphasis on roadworthiness, among other matters.

"What we've been asked to do is have a look at NHVAS [National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme], in particular the maintenance module but more broadly if need be, and look at the inspection regime," he said.

"It wouldn't surprise you to know that in our wonderful federation we have different inspection regimes in just about every jurisdiction and we need to find a way through that. We're working through that now; I have to go back to ministers later this year with a way forward."

Other items on NTC's agenda include a "default setting" for some PBS approvals; an investigation of increasing steer axle mass; a thorough look into the cost of compliance for road transport operators; and preparations for the roll-out of future technologies in the truck industry.

"There's no doubt in my mind that technology is going to provide one of the great lever for productivity improvement in this country, whether it's safety, cost reduction, better use of vehicles or better maintenance regimes," said Retter.

"My job, the NTC's job, is to put in place the policy settings and legislation that actually allow Australia to jump on board this technology when and where we see it as being appropriate."

Trucking Australia: NTC update

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