CoR: Heavy Vehicle Safety and Roadworthiness Requirements


Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) and Chain of Responsibility (CoR)

Under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) parties in the CoR have an obligation to ensure all transport equipment is properly maintained, safe, roadworthy and ‘fit for service’. This includes where any heavy vehicle used to carry goods by road must meet all relevant Heavy Vehicle Standards and Australian design rules and be maintained in a safe and roadworthy condition at all times. Those responsible must ensure that proper and routine inspections are carried out and any necessary maintenance and repairs are conducted in a timely manner.


Managing Heavy Vehicle Safety & Roadworthiness

Managing Heavy Vehicle Safety & Roadworthiness in your Business includes:

  • Conducting a risk assessment of your heavy vehicle safety and roadworthiness obligations.
  • Documenting policies and procedures relating to heavy vehicle safety and roadworthiness that outline the control measures.
  • Consulting with other parties on how heavy vehicle safety and roadworthiness, are managed within their business.
  • Conducting regular contract reviews of the effectiveness of controls implemented by others in the supply chain.
  • Ensuring contracts and agreements do not cause or encourage the parties to operate vehicles that are unsafe or defective.
  • Ensuring commercial arrangements include prescriptive requirements to comply with legal obligations.


Vehicle Standards

Under the Vehicle Standards you must ensure vehicles comply with Australian Design Rules and are able to be legally registered.


Maintenance Programs

Maintenance Programs involve conducting regular servicing of vehicles, components and equipment. As a minimum, service schedules should be aligned with the manufacturer’s recommendations. This could include asking the driver when the last service was conducted or when the next service is due. Maintenance and repairs should be carried out by a person with appropriate skills, experience and qualifications.

Daily visual pre-start check to should be conducted to detect problems with critical safety components and formalise this process for management to inspect daily pre-start checks to ensure they are being completed.


Defects

Responsibilities for reporting and management of defects applies to both operators and drivers and other supply chain parties.


Record Keeping

In accordance with HVNL and the NHVAS Maintenance Management Standard, record keeping requires documented evidence that will be maintained to demonstrate the effective operation of the Maintenance Management System, by retaining pertinent records and all records are to be retained for three (3) years.


Zenergy eLearning Program Chain of Responsibility (CoR) for Operational Staff

This online course introduces you to requirements and obligations of Fatigue Management, Speed Compliance and Heavy Vehicle Safety and Roadworthiness, Load Management including Mass and Dimension and Load Restraint as they relate to Chain of Responsibility and the Heavy Vehicle National Law and the key aspects of these risks and how to manage them in accordance with the Heavy Vehicle National Law.


This course includes Module 3. Roadworthiness – Provides an overview of the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) and Regulations requirements and obligations for managing Heavy Vehicle Safety and Roadworthiness.


Click on the following link to review further course details: Chain of Responsibility (CoR) for Operational Staff


Zenergy – Heavy Vehicle National Law and Chain of Responsibility (CoR)

Zenergy experienced consultants can assist in the development of CoR Transport Safety Management System (TSMS) documentation, conducting independent audits of your Management System documentation for management of transport safety, including Chain of Responsibility (CoR), to ensure it meets your responsibilities under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL).


For more information on our services feel free to email us at info@zenergygroup.com.au or call 1300 333 400.

Chain of Responsibility (CoR) Training

Contact Us

Zenergy News

Zenergy Congratulates the 2026 AWHSA Finalists
By Dean Woods • October 13, 2026
Zenergy is proud to sponsor the 2026 Australian Workplace Health & Safety Awards. Meet the 52 finalists ahead of the Sydney gala on 12 November.
By Dean Woods • October 13, 2026
Welcome to Take 5, Zenergy's weekly five-minute scan of what's moving in Australian workplace health and safety, workers compensation and people & culture — five items, one featured senior role, every source named. This week: a hard regulatory deadline lands on the calendar, Safe Work Month hits its stride, and Safe Work Australia publishes the clearest picture in years of who is actually exposed to harm at work. 1. New workplace exposure limits commence 1 December — including Australia's first diesel particulate limit The transition period for Safe Work Australia's updated workplace exposure limits (WELs) for airborne contaminants ends on 1 December 2026. The list introduces Australia's first national exposure limit for diesel particulate matter — 0.01 mg/m³, measured as respirable elemental carbon — alongside revised limits for a range of other contaminants. Regulators are telling duty holders to use the remaining weeks to review exposure monitoring, confirm controls are effective, and prioritise elimination and engineering controls over reliance on RPE. If your operations involve diesel plant in enclosed or poorly ventilated environments — distribution centres, tunnels, underground mining, workshops — this is the compliance item to table at your next leadership meeting. Safe Work Australia has published guidance and a transition toolkit, and state regulators including SafeWork SA have flagged the change, as has NOPSEMA for offshore operators. Sources: Safe Work Australia — Changes to Workplace Exposure Limits (safeworkaustralia.gov.au); SafeWork SA — Get ready for new Workplace Exposure Limits (safework.sa.gov.au); NOPSEMA — Diesel engine emissions: new workplace exposure limit takes effect December 2026 (nopsema.gov.au). 2. Dates ahead: Safe Work Month's “for health” week and World Mental Health Day National Safe Work Month is underway, with Safe Work Australia's 2026 theme “Safe work is for life” running week-by-week focuses: “for health” (week two, this week), “for the future” (week three) and “for all” (week four). World Mental Health Day falls on Saturday 10 October, inside Mental Health Month — a natural prompt to put psychological health on the toolbox agenda, not just the poster wall. Regulators are active too: SafeWork NSW opened the month with a compliance operation targeting the meat processing sector. Sources: Safe Work Australia — National Safe Work Month (safeworkaustralia.gov.au/national-safe-work-month); SafeWork NSW — news, 1 October 2026 (safework.nsw.gov.au). 3. People & culture: FWO recovers $453 million for workers in 2025–26 The Fair Work Ombudsman's 2025–26 results, released 14 September, show $453 million recovered for underpaid workers across the year, with Ombudsman Anna Booth urging employers to find “compliance common ground”. For employers, the signal hasn't changed: payroll governance, award classification and record-keeping sit alongside WHS as enterprise-level compliance risks — and the regulator's recovery capability keeps growing. Worth a standing item on the people & culture risk register, especially for businesses with large award-covered or labour-hire workforces. Source: Fair Work Ombudsman media release, 14 September 2026 (fairwork.gov.au/newsroom). 4. Job market pulse: national vacancies ease, HSE demand holds The ABS's August 2026 Job Vacancies figures (released 1 October) show 325,000 vacancies nationally — down 0.9% over the quarter and 1.3% over the year, and 31.2% below the May 2022 peak. Private sector vacancies fell 2.0% for the quarter while public sector vacancies rose 7.8%. Health care and social assistance remains the deepest vacancy pool at 54,300. Against that gently easing backdrop, safety hiring is holding its ground from WHS advisors in Melbourne manufacturing to safety leadership in Queensland logistics — a spread we read as steady, sector-broad demand for proven operators rather than a hiring spike. Sources: ABS — Job Vacancies, Australia, August 2026 (abs.gov.au); 5. Industry story of the week: 68% of workers likely exposed to at least one hazard Safe Work Australia's newly published Worker Exposure Survey finds 68% of Australian workers are likely exposed to at least one physical or chemical hazard at work, with 28.9% experiencing high-level exposure. Solar UV is the most common hazard (an estimated 4.87 million workers), silica exposure covers an estimated 2.04 million workers and is heavily concentrated in construction and mining, and apprentices and trainees are disproportionately exposed across heat, silica, lead and asbestos. Construction, agriculture and mining are the industries most likely to see multiple hazard exposure. It's the week's most important read for HSE leaders — and the subject of this week's Zenergy deep-dive, where we unpack what the numbers mean for exposure monitoring, young-worker supervision and the 1 December exposure limit deadline. Sources: Safe Work Australia — Worker Exposure Survey (safeworkaustralia.gov.au); Safety Solutions, 28 September 2026 — “Over two-thirds exposed to a physical or chemical hazard, workers survey reveals”
By Dean Woods • October 7, 2026
Safe Work Australia's Worker Exposure Survey finds 68% of workers exposed to hazards. What HSE leaders should do before new limits land on 1 Dec.
City skyline at sunset with tall modern buildings under a colorful orange and blue sky
September 16, 2026
Explore the latest Safe Work Australia updates for 2026, including WHS penalties, incident notification, AI, chemical exposure limits and regulatory changes.
Worker in white hard hat and glasses speaking on a factory floor, with colleagues blurred in the background
September 9, 2026
Should you hire an HSE contractor or permanent HSE Manager? Explore when interim HSE solutions make sense for Australian businesses, projects and temporary vacancies.
HSEQ salary bands by role, Australia Q4 FY2026 – Zenergy
By Dean Woods • September 7, 2026
See live HSEQ salary data from 47 verified Zenergy placements — HSE Manager, WHS Advisor and Head of HSEQ pay bands, by city and company size.
More Posts