CICA PRESIDENT’S REPORT
PRESIDENT’S REPORT Road access, an industry wide issue. A RECENT SURVEY OF CICA MEMBERS IN New South Wales confirmed there is still some confusion regarding the Return of Delegations project. Cooler mornings and shorter evenings are here, which means that getting out of bed is a bit harder and the daylight hours are limited. CICA’s Victorian/Tasmanian liaison officer, John Humphries, recently wrote a safety bulletin highlighting some practical ways to manage working at night or during suboptimal lighting conditions. The safety bulletins that John writes, are a fantastic resource for toolbox talks and can be downloaded from the Vic/Tas State page on the CICA website. I would encourage you, if you don’t already do so, to look at them or to get in touch with John to be added to the mailing list. The last edition of Cranes and Lifting touched on the Return of Delegations project currently being undertaken by National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NVHR) and Roads and Maritime Services (RMS). The NHVR will soon coordinate road access applications from start to finish, liaising directly with industry and road managers to manage applications and issue permits. While the NHVR have been assisted in the past by state and local governments in processing some applications, all access permit delegations and processing is currently being transferred (“returned”) back to the body. While all change can be daunting, the reason the National Operational Strategy and Policy Advisory Group within NHVR has endorsed this, is to overcome obstacles such as inconsistency between local governments and to reduce the red tape burden. The NHVR portal is a an efficient process that will modernise road access applications, but as is always the case with everything new, a 22 / CAL July 2019
commitment to overcome the learning curve is required. In April, CICA sent our New South Wales members a survey in reference to the Return of Delegations Project, to gain an understanding of how much was known about the project and how our membership would be impacted by the project plans. Some of the outcomes of the survey are listed below: • We had a 63 per cent response rate Of those who responded, 59 per cent were not aware of the coming changes • 73 per cent of companies who responded had not applied for a permit through the NHVR portal • 76 per cent of respondents stated that they required additional training • 62 per cent of crane companies opted for face to face or video streaming training • 84 per cent of crane owners wanted to know more about the changes • Some of the concerns, owners identified: -H ow easy will the system be to use? -A m I able to get to emergency jobs quickly? -H ow long will it take to process permit applications? •L ack of knowledge possessed by local governments about cranes
CICA president Tom Smith
-W hether the duration of permit is too short? -T he cost and administrative burden of permit applications -L ack of harmonisation (different rules in different states) -S ome road managers have a limited understanding of load sharing suspension CICA, together with NHVR and RMS are working hard to manage this process and provide opportunities to crane owners, road managers and local governments to familiarise themselves with what the changes mean and how things will be done moving forward.
The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) will soon coordinate road access applications from start to finish, liaising directly with industry and road managers to manage applications and issue permits.While the NHVR have in the past, been assisted by state and local governments in processing some applications, all access permit delegations and processing is currently being transferred (“returned”) back to the body. www.cranesandlifting.com.au
