Australian mainlanders love Tasmania for its beautiful food and wine, its wilderness and walks, and its promise as a sanctuary at the bottom of the world. Heavy vehicle operators love it for something more — its live automated road access system.
Lately, there’s growing optimism the Tasmanian model will underpin a new access system set to be designed and deployed more widely.
Ken Kanofski, the independent consultant who reviewed the Heavy Vehicle National Law, was mirroring a lot of industry opinions about the present system when he said at the Australian Trucking Association conference in March: “Frankly, I’m shocked by how convoluted that process is (i.e. the performance-based-standard road access permit system).” He added, “It’s presently not fit for purpose.”
Indeed, reforming so-called PBS road access permit decision making is one of the overarching themes of his recommendations. It was the first topic he talked about in his widely watched presentation.
Encouragingly, he said the Infrastructure and Transport Ministers Meeting responsible for heavy vehicle law reform had signed off on a set of principles to make the process better. The ITMM is an intergovernmental forum comprising federal, state and territory transport and infrastructure ministers.
Kanofski, and it seems everyone everywhere, are advocating for reform of the PBS scheme to give heavy vehicle operators more opportunities to improve productivity through optimised vehicle design. Essentially, road operators want real-time decision making and greater access to use certain roads.
Now, we know, the ITMM has agreed on a package of recommendations put forward by the Kanofski review, including to roll out an automated access permit system for heavy vehicles.
“There’s been some haggling over KPIs and the review process but ministers agreed that a new automated access system should be in place within three years and the number of access permits required should be reduced by 50 percent within three years and 90 percent within five years,” said Simone Hill, executive director of AFRA, the Australian Furniture Removers Association, when introducing speakers at the ATA’s TruckingAustralia23 session “Eliminating Nine out of 10 Access Permits”.
The great news is we know it’s possible. The model has already been built.
In Tasmania, a few years ago, a bunch of parties — state and local government road managers, industry groups and the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator — got together and collaborated and developed a system known as the Heavy Vehicle Access Management System, or HVAMS.
It’s harmonised and automated and ostensibly presents as one road manager, one road network, with heavy vehicle operators and special purpose vehicles able to go online, input their route plan and immediately be given any rules, limits and conditions that apply.
In this way, Tasmania has done away with the need for most permits. It instead relies on a system of gazetted notices. For example, a crane operator will be allowed to cross a certain bridge, say one that wasn’t designed for the crane’s weight, so long as it travels at 10 kmh.
It sounds so simple, so uncomplicated, but it’s the result of years of hard work.
Simon Buxton, Manager of Heavy Vehicle Access at the Department of State Growth in Tasmania, and one of the lead architects of the apple isle’s automated access system, said in his presentation at TruckingAustralia23 they were guided by a belief that the trucking industry is worth more than the sum of its parts, more than its percentage contribution to the economic growth marker GDP, or gross domestic product.
“We recognise that we need to say ‘yes’ to you guys, because you’re our local jobs, our local employment, our local flourishing of our communities. It’s as simple as that: there is nothing at all in our lives without you.”
Buxton confirmed he is working on a project to take what they’ve done in Tasmania and make it available nationally. He said his team is working with Transport for NSW and with Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads to expand the widely admired automated access system.
