HEAVY VEHICLE SAFETY FORUM

The QTA’s CEO, Gary Mahon is a member of the Queensland Ministerial Freight Council (QMFC), and is the Chair of the Heavy Vehicle Safety Forum.

Purpose of the QMFC Heavy Vehicle Safety Forum is to:

Industry members on the Heavy Vehicle Safety Committee include: Agforce Australian Road Train Association, Canegrowers, Commercial Vehicle Industry Association of Queensland, General Freight Industry/Transport and Freight Industry Training Board, Livestock Transporters Association of Queensland, National Association of Road Freight Operators, Over-dimensional Movement Industry, Transport Workers Union and the Truck Industry Council.

Other government member organisations involved in the Committee are, the Queensland Police, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, State Coroner and the Department of Mines and Energy.

Queensland's Heavy Vehicle Safety Action Plan 2016-2018

The Queensland Government recently launched Queensland's Road Safety Strategy 2015-21 and Action Plan 2015-17.  The Strategy is the first time any Queensland Government has adopted a vision of zero road deaths and serious injuries.  Although this vision is undeniably ambitious, it serves to guide, inspire and motivate action over the long-term, supported by interim targets along the way.

Queensland's Road Safety Action Plan 2015-17 presents the initiatives to be delivered over the first two years of the Strategy to work towards the Strategy's objectives.  It includes 57 initiatives and over $500 million of investment that will benefit all road users - including education and engagement, enforcement, technology, roads and roadsides, research, data, innovation, governance and strategy.  Importantly, it also calls for the delivery of a Heavy Vehicle Safety Action Plan, which specifically targets those initiatives that will improve safety outcomes for heavy vehicles and other road users involved in crashes with heavy vehicles.

The Heavy Vehicle Safety Action Plan 2016-18 was developed by the Heavy Vehicle Safety Working Group of the Ministerial Freight Council.  The Working Group is chaired by the Queensland Trucking Association, and includes representatives from the heavy vehicle industry, the Queensland Police Service (QPS), Workplace Health & Safety Queensland (WHSQ), the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) and Transport and Main Roads (TMR).

The Heavy Vehicle Safety Action Plan 2016-18 presents 31 initiatives across the following six key areas:

1. safer roads
2. safer vehicles
3. fatigue management*
4. seatbelts
5. safer speeds
6. impaired driving and driver distraction

*Fatigue is generally included with impaired driving, however, for the purposes of the Action Plan it has a stand-alone focus in the context of heavy vehicle driver fatigue.

This Action Plan adopts the Strategy's four guiding principles for road safety in Queensland:

We will expand our understanding of the 'road toll' to all fatal and hospitalised casualties.

We will adopt an ambitious long-term vision, supported by interim targets.

3.  Safe System principles are the foundation for action

We will entrench the mindset that the whole system must be safe at every level of road safety management, and develop solutions based on evidence and innovation.

We will drive a fundamental change in the culture and attitude to road safety.

For your copy of Queensland's Heavy Vehicle Safety Action Plan 2016-18 please click on the link below.

• Heavy Vehicle Safety Action Plan 2016-18