The recent tragic truck accident in Victoria where four police officers were killed on a Melbourne freeway has once again brought home to the transport sector the huge importance of understanding the Chain of Responsibility Act.
Katie Fisher reminds all turf suppliers to ensure they understand the Chain of Responsibility and that they are working within its obligations.
Steve Burt, TurfBreed Managing Director said the tragic event has had a heart-breaking impact on those involved, their family’s and colleagues.
“To me, Chain of Responsibility is not about liability its about safety and what we as individuals can do to ensure everyone in and around our daily business activities goes home safe and sound every night,” he stressed.
Under the Heavy Vehicle National Law and Chain of Responsibility (CoR) rules, every party in the heavy vehicle supply chain is responsible and may be held liable for safety breaches committed anywhere along the Chain.
In short, if one of a grower’s truck team members has an accident regardless of if it is your truck or not, they and the business are liable.
And in the instance of the above Melbourne accident cited, the truck driver as well as the truck company were all potentially culpable in relation to the National Heavy Vehicle Laws.
Victorian Police Assistant Commissioner for road policing, Libby Murphy was cited as saying: “What (the Heavy Vehicle Laws) are there for is about a chain of responsibility, so they relate to heavy vehicles that are more than 4.5 tonnes. It’s to ensure that people have responsibilities and companies make sure that … drivers keep to hours and the vehicles are ride worthy.”
The governing principle is that all parties in the Chain are responsible for any breach if they did or could have exercised any control or influence to prevent the breach from occurring.
What is CoR?
The aim of CoR is to make sure everyone in the supply chain shares responsibility for ensuring breaches of the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) do not occur.
Under CoR laws if you are named as a party in the chain of responsibility and you exercise (or have the capability of exercising) control or influence over any transport task, you have a responsibility to ensure the HVNL is complied with.
The law recognises that multiple parties may be responsible for offences committed by the drivers and operators of heavy vehicles.
A person may be a party in the supply chain in more than one way. For example, they may have duties as the employer, the operator and the consigner of goods.
Who are parties in the supply chain?
- The parties in the CoR for a heavy vehicle are
- An employer of a driver.
- A prime contractor for the driver – if the vehicle’s 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.
- All the above points are significantly relevant to a turf business.
When could CoR apply?
Some examples include:
- When a company has control or influence over a transport activity and fails to manage, so far as reasonably practicable, the risk it creates.
- When a company’s business practices cause or encourage the driver of a heavy vehicle to exceed the speed limits.
- When a company’s business practices cause or encourage the driver of a heavy vehicle to breach mass, dimension, or loading requirements.
- Where instructions, actions or demands to parties in the supply chain cause or contribute to an offence under the HVNL.
This includes any direction, requirement or demand that is given directly or indirectly to a driver of a heavy vehicle or a company in the chain of responsibility that has an impact on compliance, for example:
• A consignor or consignee (such as a turf farm) has unrealistic contractual arrangements which causes or encourages the driver to exceed regulated driving hours or drive whilst fatigued.
• A schedulers business practices (such as a turf farm), requests or demands, cause or encourage the driver to exceed the speed limit.
In summary, in a prosecution, the courts may consider the actions of each party in the supply chain.
This includes what measures each party had in place to ensure safe practices and prevent breaches of the HVNL occurring.
Prosecution will need to demonstrate to the court that a party in the chain of responsibility did not do all that was reasonably practicable to ensure the safety of the party’s transport activities.
Today, through TurfPlus turf growers can ensure they are working within the Work, Health and Safety regulations of the Chain of Responsibility Act.