National Transport Commission: Review of the Australian Vehicle Standards Rules

If you are interested in making motor vehicles safer for cyclists and pedestrians, here is an opportunity to ensure your options are known.
NTC is interested in your views on the Australian Vehicle Standards Rules. You are invited to complete a brief online questionnaire. The questionnaire linked below invites feedback on the Australian Vehicles Standards Rules (the Vehicle Standards). It will only take a few minutes to complete.

Please select and complete one of the questionnaires for:

1. Non-government employees (link to http://www.AdvancedSurvey.com/default.asp?SurveyID=54860)

2. Government employees (link to http://www.AdvancedSurvey.com/default.asp?SurveyID=55296)

The questionnaire will close on Friday, 2 November 2007.

Background information on the Vehicle Standards
The Vehicle Standards set out a national set of model rules and requirements for vehicle design and maintenance. They include light, heavy vehicles and combinations. While each State and Territory transport agency maintains and enforces its own set of standards, the Vehicle Standards serve as a national model. A 2007 review concluded a broad level of uniformity in the way they had been implemented by each of the States and Territories.

The Vehicle Standards apply the requirements of the Australian Design Rules (ADR), which govern the design and construction of new vehicles, to in service vehicles as well as addressing other issues specific to the in- service context such as vehicle combinations, modifications and wear and tear/maintenance.

The Vehicle Standards also provide standards for pre-1969 vehicles, built prior to the ADR. This survey invites feedback on the relevance and effectiveness of the Vehicle Standards, i.e. how well they have met their objectives, and whether those objectives remain relevant. Your responses will be incorporated into the Review report that will eventually be published on the NTC website.

The Road Transport Reform (Vehicle Standards) Regulations and the Australian Vehicle Standards Rules were endorsed by the Australian Transport Council (ATC) in 1999.

Review objectives and overview
As part of its monitoring role, the National Transport Commission (NTC) has a responsibility to conduct periodic and comprehensive reviews of reforms, in this case the Vehicle Standards. This is done by consulting and inviting feedback from organisations and individuals who are aware of and have been impacted by the model Vehicle Standards.

Their responses are then included in the process of compiling a draft Review Report to assess the relevance and effectiveness of the Vehicle Standards according to their originally agreed objectives. The draft report will be circulated for comment to transport agencies, amended as necessary and submitted to Transport Agency Chief Executives (TACE) and then ATC for approval, before being published on the NTC website.

Further information on the model Vehicle Standards is available at the National Vehicle Standards: Homepage.