Chain of Responsibility

The new changes to the Changes to the Chain of Responsibility (CoR) laws (1 October 2018) align these laws more closely with the workplace health and safety legislation

This means that everyone in the supply chain shares responsibility for ensuring breaches of the Heavy Vehicle National Laws (HVNL) do not occur.

If you excise exercise (or have the capability of exercising) control or influence over any transport task, you have a responsibility to ensure the Heavy Vehicle National Laws (HVNL) are complied with. Multiple parties in the supply chain could have responsibility for offences committed by drivers and operators of heavy vehicles.

The parties in the Chain of Responsibility for a heavy vehicle are:

an employer of a driver
a prime contractor for a vehicle if the vehicles driver is self-employed
an operator of the vehicle
a scheduler for the vehicle
a loading manager for any goods in the vehicle
a loader and/or unloader of a vehicle
a consignor of any goods for transport by the vehicle
a consignee of any goods in the vehicle
a loader and/or unloader of any goods in the vehicle

This changes not only affects the transport companies but also other parties such as principal contractors on construction projects, earthwork constructors, landscaping contractors

Acumen has long experience assisting major transport companies, government agencies and construction related companies develop practical strategies to address chain of responsibility (CoR) requirements including:

development of CoR management systems – policies, procedures and forms
a prime contractor for a vehicle if the vehicles driver is self-employed
development of CoR Management Plans for projects
Chain of Responsibility (CoR) audits, including subcontractor audits
assessment of third party CoR Management Plans
developing effective strategies to manage subcontractor transport companies and owner drivers