Countdown to CoR changes – Tip #4 for transport and logistics operators

As those in the transport and logistics industry would know, changes to the chain of responsibility provisions in the Heavy Vehicle National Law are expected to commence later this year.

That means transport operators now have limited time left to be ready.

This week we are up to the fourth of ten tips to help with your last-minute preparations.

Tip # 4 – Managing your CoR compliance paperwork

With the advent of the CoR changes, many transport operators will receive requests from others in supply chain for evidence of compliance with legislative requirements. These may include requests for drug and alcohol testing results, driver licensing records and fatigue management data. Regulators are also able to require the production of business records that demonstrate compliance with the Heavy Vehicle National Law.

It is therefore important that you manage your business records so that you are in a position to quickly and efficiently produce relevant documents.

In addition, transport operators should be aware that there may be privacy issues associated with providing compliance paperwork to customers for audit and inspection purposes.

Do I need a privacy policy?

All private sector organisations with an annual turnover of more than $3 million must comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and have both a privacy policy and privacy collection statement. The privacy policy must clearly outline the purposes for which personal information may be collected and the parties to whom that personal information may be disclosed.

Does my compliance paperwork contain personal or sensitive information?

Personal information is information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. However, personal information does not include employee records if the records are directly related to a current or former employment relationship. This means that records relating to employees are generally not covered by the Privacy Act, but records relating to prospective employees and your subcontractors and their employees are covered.

Sensitive information is a form of personal information that is given a higher level of privacy protection under the Act. For transport operators, drug and alcohol test results, medical screening tests and driving history checks would all be classified as ‘sensitive information’.

How long do I need to keep my compliance paperwork for?

This depends on a number of factors, including what you have agreed to in your contracts with customers.

Records and documents need to be kept for different periods of time depending on the type of information. For example, under the Heavy Vehicle National Law, all work diary records must be kept:

• for three years after they are created; and
• at a location accessible to an authorised officer for audit or investigation purposes.

For those who need a general introduction to the new CoR regime, we are running a one hour webinar on 29 May 2018. All the details are here.

If your directors or managers need their questions answered on the new regime, we are running CoR half day masterclasses in Brisbane during June 2018 – all the details are available here: 6 June or 13 June.

Watch out for tip #5 next week – CoR and subcontracting agreements.