Senate Inquiry Opening Statement – The importance of a viable, safe, sustainable and efficient road transport industry 

The Australian Logistics Council welcomes the opportunity to present to the committee in relation to its Inquiry into a viable, safe, sustainable and efficient road transport industry.

ALC is the peak national body representing major companies participating in the freight and logistics industry. Its policy focus is on delivering enhanced supply chain efficiency and safety.

We first filed our submission to this Inquiry in November 2019 and would now like to take the opportunity to briefly update the committee into the work it has done in this area since filing its submission.

ALC has formally published its National Operating Standard, which proposes amendments to the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) designed to improve the safe operation of heavy vehicles on Australian roads, which it has promoted widely.

The next Infrastructure and Transport Ministers’ Meeting to be held later on this year will be considering amendments to the HVNL.

ALC hopes the meeting will incorporate the standard into the National Law, and if not to ensure that any changes that are to be made to the HVNL are capable of implementation within 12 months of the meeting, as recommended in the Conran review of COAG councils and ministerial forums. This is because the HVNL amendment process has been far too slow in the past.

Secondly, ALC has developed a single freight data standard for the national digital framework.  One of the reasons the ALC has designed the standard is to allow operators to collect data that can be used for safety, compliance and planning purposes.  It will be formally launched in Melbourne at the end of June.

To assist the committee, copies of both standards have been provided to the committee secretariat.

We look forward to answering the committee’s questions.

Thank you.