On 1 August 2026, changes to the Heavy Vehicle National Law and the new Heavy Vehicle Accreditation scheme came into effect.
For all civil contractors
You need to be aware of your part in the chain of responsibility, for example, as a loader of a heavy vehicle for haulage and how that might relate to the updated mass and size rules.
Responsible parties in the chain of responsibility are expanded upon here.
“A key change is the new unfit to drive duty, which gives drivers the legal authority to refrain from, or stop, driving when they are not sufficiently fit or healthy to drive safely.
“This may be due to illness, injury, a physical or mental health condition, or the effects of alcohol or other drugs.
“The duties not to drive while unfit or impaired by fatigue apply to all drivers of heavy vehicles over 4.5 tonnes, not just those operating fatigue-regulated heavy vehicles.
“Fatigue and fitness to drive are shared responsibilities.
“CoR parties must actively manage these risks through appropriate business practices and controls, ensuring their practices do not cause or encourage a person to drive while fatigued or unfit and that drivers are able to stop driving when necessary,” an NHVR spokesperson said.
For civil contractors who are operators of heavy vehicles
The change in law means several things, beginning with the phase-out of the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme (NHVAS).
It is gradually being replaced by a new scheme – the Heavy Vehicle Accreditation (HVA).
The National Heavy Vehicle Register (NHVR) will no longer be issuing new NHVAS accreditation but operators who hold them will not have to migrate to the HVA until their NHVAS expires.
NHVR has published the Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme Operator Guideline to aid heavy vehicle operators during the transition.
The change from NHVAS to HVA is more than a name change.
New baseline prerequisite for other accreditation – General Safety Accreditation
Under the new HVA, a baseline accreditation called General Safety Accreditation (GSA) must first be attained before accreditation for mass management, maintenance management, and fatigue management can be issued.
For people seeking GSA accreditation, having an effective safety management system that meets the Safety Management System Standard is a requirement.
Civil contractors who operate heavy vehicles should leave adequate time to prepare to adopt the new HVA scheme prior to the expiry of their NHVAS accreditation.
During the transition there is capacity for the NHVR to extend existing NHVAS accreditation and information on changes to accreditation and making an application for an extension can be found here.
Changes to mass and size rules
In summary, the changes to mass and size rules for heavy vehicles are:
- General mass limits have been raised to match current concessional mass limits (CML) and accreditation is no longer required to access CML weights
- Eligible Euro VI prime movers in road train combinations can access the same type of steer‑axle concessions already available to some other combinations
- Several common heavy vehicle combinations are allowed to be up to 20 m long (up from 19 m)
- The previous 1:1 tow mass ratio is removed and replaced with a ratio of 1:1.3
“Changes to mass and length requirements may provide greater flexibility where the relevant requirements are met.
“For example, certain heavy vehicle combinations can now operate at more than 19 metres and up to 20 metres, where the applicable requirements are satisfied.
“However, these changes are optional, and businesses can continue operating within the previous limits,” an NHVR spokesperson said.
More information on changes to heavy vehicle mass and size rules can be found here.
Maintenance rules remain largely the same
Under the HVA, there is no change to maintenance compliance except that having GSA accreditation is now a necessary prerequisite.
Functionally, it still works the same and provides exemptions from annual vehicle inspections as part of registration in NSW and Queensland.
More information on the new scheme, the GSA – Maintenance Assurance Program, can be found here.
Changes to fatigue management regulation
Under the HVA, the Fatigue Management framework allows operators the ability to apply to set work and rest hours that suit their business operations called alternative compliance hours (ACH).
Applications will be assessed by the NHVR on criteria such as:
- your proposed ACH provide a safe balance between work time, rest time, risk management and fatigue countermeasures
- your proposed ACH are within the outer limits stipulated in the Heavy Vehicle National Law
- granting the accreditation will result in a standard of safety at least equivalent to what would be achieved under standard hours
- you have a safety management system that complies with the Safety Management System Standard (as obtained through general safety accreditation)
More information can be found here.
Additionally, the fatigue templated tables of hours can be found here. This is a list of 10 schedules that an operator can pick from (if they do not wish to customise their own).
For help or further information, please contact CCF NSW on 02 9009 4000 or ccfnsw@ccfnsw.com