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What are the HVNL speed compliance duties?
Drivers must obey applicable speed limits, and businesses must ensure their transport activities, requests and contracts do not cause or encourage a heavy-vehicle driver to speed.
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What are heavy-vehicle roadworthiness and maintenance duties?
A heavy vehicle used on a road must comply with applicable vehicle standards and must not be unsafe, while each Chain of Responsibility party must control the maintenance and roadworthiness risks within its influence.
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What is a restricted-access vehicle?
A restricted-access vehicle is a heavy vehicle that cannot rely on ordinary general access and may use a road only under the notice, permit, network and conditions that authorise its exact vehicle or category.
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What do GVM, GCM, ATM and GTM mean?
GVM, GCM, ATM and GTM are maximum manufacturer or registration mass ratings for a vehicle, combination or trailer; they are ceilings, not the vehicle’s actual scale weight or an automatic legal loading entitlement.
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What is load restraint and who is responsible?
A heavy-vehicle load must be placed and restrained so the vehicle remains stable and the load is unlikely to fall or move, with responsibility extending to every party whose transport activities influence the loading risk.
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How do the HVNL Primary Duty and WHS laws interact?
The HVNL Primary Duty and work health and safety laws operate alongside each other: one focuses on public risk from heavy-vehicle transport activities and the other on health and safety at work.
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What is a heavy-vehicle Safety Management System?
A heavy-vehicle Safety Management System is the documented and operating system a business uses to identify, control, monitor and improve the safety risks created by its transport activities.
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Do I need a heavy-vehicle access permit?
You generally need an access permit only when a restricted-access heavy vehicle is not already authorised for the exact vehicle, route and conditions by a current notice or another lawful access instrument.
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What is the Heavy Vehicle Accreditation scheme?
Heavy Vehicle Accreditation is the voluntary national framework introduced on 1 August 2026 for audited safety management and approved alternative compliance in maintenance, mass and fatigue.
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What is the Unfit to Drive duty?
A person must not drive a heavy vehicle on a road while impaired by fatigue or otherwise not of sufficiently good health or fitness to drive it safely.