Changing the rules a serious threat to road safety

Changing the rules to abandon log books and Certificate of Fitness checks for small passenger service vehicles would represent a serious threat to road safety for all road users.

According to media reports Transport Minister Simon Bridges is being lobbied to remove these requirements in new legislation now before Parliament.

Logbooks and controls on working hours are requirements for all transport industry sectors, including buses, trucks, trains, aircraft, or ships. There is no reason why small passenger service vehicles should not be treated the same.

The reason for limits on driving hours is quite clear: Driver fatigue has been identified as a significant factor in road crashes. In a recent case in the Bay of Plenty, the Coroner identified fatigue as a key cause of an accident which killed a teacher and student and injured nine others. A study at the Queensland Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety identified sleepiness and driver distraction as being responsible for a substantial proportion of road crash incidents.

Current legislation requires drivers to enter in their logbooks any other work they may have undertaken before their shift behind the wheel began. That means someone who has worked eight hours in a factory must take that into account when working out the available hours he or she can driver a vehicle for hire or reward.

The Federation believes it would be foolish in the extreme to remove this requirement and have drivers on the road continuously for more than the current 14 hours limit.

The Certificate of Fitness check requires all vehicles used in the commercial road transport industry to have safety checks every six months rather than the longer periods allowed for private vehicles. Commercial vehicles, including small passenger vehicles, do high mileages which can be between 50,000km and 100,000km a year. That could mean going through up to two sets of tyres every year and other road users need to be assured tyres, steering, brakes, lights and seat belts are up to an acceptable standard.

To agree to the requests made to the Minister would be foolhardy and put drivers, passengers and other road users at risk.