What is the Executive Due Diligence Duty?
Short answer
An executive of a legal entity with a heavy-vehicle safety duty must exercise due diligence to ensure the entity complies with that duty.
Plain English
Directors and other people who are concerned with, or take part in, managing the business must actively understand its heavy-vehicle risks and check that the business has and uses effective controls. A job title alone does not decide who is an executive.
What this means operationally
Executives should keep current HVNL knowledge, understand the entity’s transport activities and public risks, provide appropriate people and resources, require processes to eliminate or minimise risk and comply with every safety duty, receive and respond to incident and risk information, and verify that those processes are being used.
Who it applies to
A director and any other person who is concerned with, or takes part in, the management of a legal entity that has a heavy-vehicle safety duty. A company secretary is not automatically an executive solely because of that title.
Example
A director reviews fatigue, loading and scheduling risk reports, funds corrective work, asks for evidence that controls are operating and follows up overdue actions.
Exceptions and traps
From 1 August 2026, an executive officer acting in a voluntary capacity is not liable for failing to comply with the executive due-diligence duty. The legal entity’s own safety duties continue, and paid or otherwise covered executives cannot delegate away their personal duty.
What changed
From 1 August 2026, s 26D expressly links the executive penalty to the maximum penalty for the legal entity’s safety duty and excludes an executive officer acting in a voluntary capacity.
Previous rule
The core executive due-diligence duty has applied since 1 October 2018, but the current penalty linkage and voluntary-capacity exclusion were not expressed in the same way.
Legal foundation
Heavy Vehicle National Law s 26D
Sources & primary documents
- www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/whole/html/inforce/current/act-2012-hvnlq
- www.nhvr.gov.au/safety-accreditation-compliance/chain-of-responsibility
WWTG verification: Queensland legislation, NHVR
Frequently asked questions
Who counts as an executive?
A director or another person who is concerned with, or takes part in, management of the legal entity.
Is a company secretary always an executive?
No. The person’s actual involvement in management matters; the title alone is not decisive.
Can an executive delegate due diligence?
No. Work can be delegated, but the executive must still exercise and verify due diligence.
What does due diligence require?
Current knowledge, understanding the business and its risks, adequate resources and processes, responding to information, ensuring compliance processes and verifying their use.
Are volunteer executives covered?
From 1 August 2026, an executive officer acting in a voluntary capacity is not liable for failing to comply with s 26D.