About this course

This CoR training course is for operators, owners, managers, schedulers, brokers and freight forwarders, loaders, packers and drivers.

The content for Chain of Responsibility has been developed by ComplianceNet based on materials published by The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) and State/Territory Road Safety Authorities, and will provide your team a firm understanding of everyone's responsibilities under Chain of Responsibility.

Topics covered include:

What is Chain of Responsibility?

An introduction to the Chain of Responsibility concept, where it comes from and those in the transport supply chain who have CoR responsibilities.

Chain of Responsibility Laws

Explains national, state and territory laws and regulations and their enforcement, what penalties may be imposed and the requirements for a 'reasonable steps' defence.

What must be managed

Covers potential breaches in heavy vehicle mass, dimension, loading, speed and driver fatigue and what you can do to avoid them.

Your responsibilities

This topic provides everyone in the transport supply chain with a clear understanding of their responsibilities under CoR and the actions they may take to ensure breaches do not occur.

Program Content

This program features:

  • Animated scenarios for all key concepts
  • Interactive activities
  • Glossary links provide quick access to detailed explanations and technical terms
  • Case studies and scenario based activities provide extra emphasis on key concepts.

Chain of Responsibility has been developed using our dynamic and responsive training interface, ensuring our training content is adaptable to your needs and usable across desktop and mobile devices.

Sneak Peek

What are reasonable steps? video and exercise.

Under the HVNL, you will comply with your Chain of Responsibility obligations so long as you have taken all reasonable steps, or undertaken all that was reasonably practical, to prevent a breach.

The reasonable steps defence is not new and has been in place in other legislation for many years.

Differences between businesses make it difficult to define the exact steps required to comply, and so the defence is designed to be flexible. There are no restrictions on the ways in which a business or individual can demonstrate that they took reasonable steps, as reasonable steps will vary depending on circumstances.

In making a 'reasonable steps' claim, a person must prove:

  • That they did not know, or could not have known, that a breach occurred
  • They took all reasonable steps to prevent the breach, or
  • There were no reasonable steps they could have taken to prevent the breach.

For the defence to be successful, ALL reasonable steps must have been taken - not just some.

An operator of a vehicle used in the commission of an offence against the HVNL may also raise a defence that at the time of the offence the vehicle was being used by:

  • An employee who was acting outside the scope of his or her employment
  • An agent (in any capacity) who acted outside the scope of the agency, or
  • Another person who was not entitled to use the vehicle.

So how can you show you have taken all reasonable steps?

Taking reasonable steps means you can prove that you are regularly assessing and identifying the risks associated with your activities and managing those risks. This means that your business practices should include methods to identify, assess, control, monitor and review situations that put driver or public safety at risk.

You should ensure you document your business practices and ensure all employees are trained in their use. These practices should be comprehensive yet flexible enough to allow for changes through regular review, in response to accidents or incidents, or at times when things just go wrong.

Are you taking all reasonable steps?

A vehicle that attends your warehouse site has serious roadworthiness issues. The driver advises that he's transporting the load anyway so you may as well load the goods as it won't make any difference.

Select 'Yes' or 'No' against each statement to indicate whether or not the following actions would be considered reasonable steps to take in this case.

What steps could you take? YES NO
Load the truck anyway.

This would NOT be considered a Reasonable Step

The truck has obvious roadworthiness issues. A risk assessment of the situation would show that a breach is likely to occur and that action should be taken to control the risk.

Block the truck and refuse to let the driver leave.

This would NOT be considered a Reasonable Step

You are not legally empowered to stop the driver from continuing his journey.

Inform the driver of your concerns and refuse to load the vehicle.

This would be considered a Reasonable Step

By expressing your safety concerns and refusing to load the truck you are taking ALL reasonable steps. You should keep a record of the incident, including the details of the driver and vehicle, any discussions with the driver or owner of the vehicle.

Report the incident to relevant traffic authority or the Police.

This would be considered a Reasonable Step

A truck with serious roadworthy issues poses an appreciable risk to people's safety and potential damage to road infrastructure. You should keep a record of the incident, including the details of the driver and vehicle, any discussions with the driver or owner of the vehicle and report the incident to the authorities.

Content customisation

For clients with more the 20 enrolments this program may be customised to meet any specific requirements you may have. Options include text, graphics, animated scenarios, case studies, test questions, policies and other support materials.

Training administration and support

ComplianceNet manages your online training administration process and provide phone and email user 'Help Desk' support.

For corporate clients our services include enrolment and reminder emails to users, suppling user reports to training administrators at agreed intervals and scheduling and managing refresher training requirements ensuring that all employees keep up-to-date with their compliance training requirements.

Individuals and small business paying and enrolling online have access to phone and email user 'Help Desk' support. Our support services include monthly reminder emails to users and user reports are available on request.

At a glance

Content customisation: Client content can be included
Company policies: Company policies and 'I have read' acknowledgements may be incorporated
Assessment: Randomised assessment questions
Certificate: Selfserve Certificate of Completion

Content by: ComplianceNet trainers
Designed for: Business owners, managers, employees and contractors
Duration: Approximately 1 hour 30 minutes
Recommended frequency: Annually
Mobile ready: Yes, optimised for desktop and mobile devices

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