The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator says it issued 22 prohibition notices in 2025–26, compared with two the year before. Former NHVR prosecutions director Belinda Hughes says transport businesses should understand both the safety threshold for these notices and the steps available if their operations are stopped.
NHVR chief executive Nicole Rosie reported the rise in commentary published on 16 October, describing a deliberate focus on the highest-risk operators.
The numbers require one qualification. An NHVR media release dated 17 July gave a total of 23 prohibition notices in the past financial year, whereas Rosie’s October article put that number at 22. The reason for the difference has not been established. Neither figure tells readers how many separate operators were affected or how many notices halted an entire fleet.
Hughes: prepare before a notice arrives
Belinda Hughes, formerly the NHVR’s Director of Prosecutions and now principal lawyer at Hughes Law, recently warned operators through a social media post that a prohibition notice can interrupt contracts, stop transport work and inflict significant commercial harm.
Hughes says she has encountered cases in which operators did not have an opportunity to explain their position or respond to the regulator’s concerns before a notice was issued. That is her account of the matters she has handled, not a finding about every prohibition notice.
In an earlier interview with Which Way To Go, Hughes raised related questions about procedural fairness, proportionality, alternative regulatory tools and the engagement needed to get businesses safely operating again.
What the Heavy Vehicle National Law actually says
Under section 576A of the Heavy Vehicle National Law, an authorised officer must reasonably believe that an activity involving a heavy vehicle creates, or would create, an immediate or imminent serious risk to a person’s health or safety. The officer can prohibit the activity, or prohibit it being carried out in a specified way, until the risk has been remedied.
Section 576B requires the written notice to set out the basis for that belief, identify the activity and relevant risk, and specify the provision of the law believed to be contravened. Section 578 separately places a duty on authorised officers to exercise reasonable diligence to cause as little inconvenience and damage as possible when using their powers.
Past contraventions may be relevant evidence of risk, but a history of non-compliance does not, by itself, dispense with the statutory threshold for an immediate or imminent serious safety risk. Equally, nothing in those safeguards removes the regulator’s power to stop an activity where that threshold is met.
The NHVR’s response: serious risk, not isolated mistakes
The regulator strongly disputes any suggestion that prohibition notices are routine penalties for minor deficiencies. In a detailed written response previously provided to WWTG, the NHVR said the notices are remedial, reserved for immediate or imminent serious risks and generally preceded by engagement, education or other interventions. It stressed that its comments were general and did not relate to a particular notice.
In an opinion article published on 9 October, NHVR Executive Director Statutory Compliance Paul Alsbury said operators subject to the power had significant compliance histories and prior opportunities to address identified safety problems. He argued that the regulator must intervene when those risks remain unresolved.
Rosie’s later commentary made the same wider point: the NHVR is using intelligence and data to direct stronger enforcement at operators presenting the greatest danger, while supporting businesses that invest in safety.
The disagreement is therefore not over whether dangerous operations should be stopped. It is about how the legal threshold, the process leading to a decision and the pathway back to safe operation work in individual cases.
Six steps if your operation receives a prohibition notice
Hughes’ practical recommendations, summarised from her recent post, are:
- Seek legal advice early. Establish exactly what activity is prohibited, when the restriction takes effect and what your responsibilities are.
- Examine the statutory threshold. Identify the immediate or imminent serious risk said to justify the notice, rather than assuming any previous non-compliance automatically meets the test.
- Examine the written reasons. Review the evidence and the specific activities, risks and alleged contraventions identified.
- Consider review and a stay. Internal review may be available, generally within 28 days. Applying for review does not automatically suspend the decision; a separate stay application may be needed and is not guaranteed.
- Keep engaging with the regulator. Seek clarity about the remedial action required and whether a practical, lawful path to addressing the risk can be agreed.
- Document rectification. Keep records of corrective work and obtain confirmation that the restriction has been lifted before resuming any prohibited activity.
The NHVR’s published guidance says a prohibition notice ceases when the regulator gives notice that it is satisfied adequate action has removed the immediate or imminent risk. The HVNL’s review and stay framework is in sections 641 and 642.
Update — 31 October: dangerous-goods operator receives prohibition notice
In a statement issued on 30 October 2026, the NHVR reported a further case involving an unnamed operator transporting flammable fuels and other dangerous goods. The regulator said inspections beginning in late August found defects across the operator’s registered heavy vehicles, including faults involving steering, tyres, seat belts, lighting, suspension and a fuel leak. Investigators also identified shortcomings in the operator’s systems for managing maintenance and other compliance risks.
According to the NHVR, subsequent inspections resulted in 24 additional defect notices, with some of the same types of safety-critical faults recurring. On 28 October, the regulator issued a prohibition notice preventing two heavy vehicles from being used until they undergo NHVR inspections at a Heavy Vehicle Inspection Station and all identified defects are cleared. It also issued an improvement notice requiring policies, procedures or systems to manage vehicle safety risks.
NHVR Executive Director Statutory Compliance Paul Alsbury characterised the findings as systemic shortcomings rather than isolated defects. The regulator says investigations are continuing and has not identified the operator. These are the NHVR’s reported findings; WWTG has not independently inspected the vehicles or the notices. The case does not establish that the operator’s entire fleet was prohibited from operating, and it does not resolve the separate discrepancy between the NHVR’s previously published annual notice totals.
The distinction matters: a prohibition notice addresses an immediate or imminent serious safety risk by stopping specified activity, while an improvement notice addresses deficiencies that require corrective action. See the NHVR’s guidance on issuing notices.
The unanswered question behind the increase
There is a practical distinction between 22 or 23 notices, the number of operators receiving them and the number of fleets actually grounded. Without that breakdown, the headline rise is evidence of more notices being issued, but not a measure of how many transport businesses were wholly stopped or how long those restrictions lasted.
Safety must come first. Operators and drivers also need to know what evidence supports a decision, how to remedy the risk and what recourse is available when the decision is contested.
That is why the experiences Hughes describes — and the NHVR’s explanation of its targeted approach — deserve to be examined together. The commercial damage of a shutdown can begin long before any challenge is decided.
Primary sources
- Nicole Rosie, NHVR CEO — 16 October 2026 commentary reporting 22 notices
- NHVR — 17 July 2026 media release reporting 23 notices
- Paul Alsbury, NHVR — 9 October 2026 commentary
- NHVR — issuing improvement and prohibition notices
- Heavy Vehicle National Law — sections 576A, 576B, 578, 641 and 642
- Belinda Hughes — original social media statement supplied to WWTG; earlier WWTG interview and NHVR written right of reply