The Road Transport Forum (RTF) is calling for an incentivised approach to road safety as major regulation changes take place in the trucking industry.
The NZ Transport Agency is changing the way it monitors the heavy vehicle sector as part of its regulatory compliance review.
This impacts the Operator Rating System (ORS) which will no longer be used as a measure of safety and compliance.
The NZTA says there were a number of problems with ORS as a safety and compliance tool which “degraded the accuracy of some the data”.
This included a reduction in police roadside inspection data, system limitations in collecting information, inaccurate safety rating scores and the practice of ‘pre-CoFing’ where industry checks and fixes were taking place before a formal Certificate of Fitness (CoF) assessment.
RTF management and industry representatives recently attended a workshop with the NZTA in Wellington as part of the system review.
“We’d like to see a safety system for commercial heavy vehicle operators that incentivises companies to be their best, first and foremost,” RTF chief executive Nick Leggett says.
“This is why we are keen to work with [NZTA] as it develops a replacement for the Operator Rating System (ORS) it uses to regulate the heavy vehicle industry.
“The big opportunity in reviewing the ORS is to examine all the data we have to ensure the emphasis is on the right place. We are big believers in evidence-based decision making.
“For example, only seven per cent of accidents are as a result of faulty machinery, while 93 per cent have other causes, including driver behaviour. We wouldn’t want to see an over-emphasis on compliance around machinery and gear when we know focusing more on human behaviour and driver distraction would yield us much greater improvements in reducing accidents and incidents on our roads.
“We believe the road freight companies who are committed to safety for their staff and service for their customers could use good regulatory compliance as a selling point for their business, as more customers seek assurance around the ethics of their business partners. We’d like to see recognition of good practices.
“This is about the development of a shared lens between the road freight industry and the regulator. The aim of that lens is to improve safety and ensure that regulation is fair, reasonable and effective for all parties.
“Where an operator doesn’t meet the standards, and subsequently compromises safety not only of their own staff, but of other road users, we support the regulator taking the appropriate action.
“The road freight industry is committed to all road users getting to their destination safely. We recognise our role in that and are committed to engaging in a process that we hope will lead to lower accident and death rates on our roads,” Leggett says.
