MAEZ insight
$60,000 Fatigue Breach
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT AND MAIN ROADS(Complainant) v Anonymous Transport Co. If the person in control of a heavy vehicle commits an extended liability offence, each influencing person is also taken to have committed the offence. Background In an unrelated case before the courts (2015), the owner of a transport company
Loading controls need evidence, not assumptions.
Daily fleet activity has to connect back to duties, controls, and review.
Due diligence means knowing whether the safety system is actually working.
Proof that freight promises do not create unsafe transport pressure.
Consignors
Role-based Chain of Responsibility controls, evidence, and SMS expectations.
Consignees
Role-based Chain of Responsibility controls, evidence, and SMS expectations.
Loaders
Role-based Chain of Responsibility controls, evidence, and SMS expectations.
Managers
Role-based Chain of Responsibility controls, evidence, and SMS expectations.
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$60,000 Fatigue Breach
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT AND MAIN ROADS (Complainant) v Anonymous Transport Co. If the person in control of a heavy vehicle commits an extended liability offence, each influencing person is also taken to have committed the offence. Background During the period of employment, two drivers breached their fatigue hours 22 times and 14 times, respectively, in trucks that were fitted with GPS tracking equipment. The magistrate noted, “It was clear that the company failed to do everything reasonably practicable to prevent these breaches.” Both of the two drivers were also convicted and fined $14,000 and $6,000, respectively, for the fatigue breaches. In an unrelated case before the courts (2015), the owner of a transport company in Queensland was deemed to have been “ acting in a way to maximise profit, with little regard for fatigue management legislation. In order to avoid detection, the owner of the transport company attempted to maintain plausible deniability through wilful blindness to systematic breaches of the Regulation by drivers in order to avoid personal liability.” Under the current legislation, it is deemed that “ If the person in control of a heavy vehicle commits an extended liability offence, each influencing person is also taken to have committed the offence.” extended liability offence means – “an offence committed by the person in control of a fatigue regulated heavy vehicle because there has been a contravention of a fatigue management requirement in relation to the vehicle.” An influencing person means – “ the owner of the heavy vehicle or a person, other than the owner or registered operator, who controls or directly influences the operation of the heavy vehicle.” In both of the aforementioned cases, it is alleged the “person in control” is each driver, the “owner of the heavy vehicle” is Body Corporate or the Anonymous Transport Pty Ltd and the “person…who controls or directly influences the operation of the heavy vehicle” is the owner of the transport business, in this case, the Anonymous Transport company. Due to the outcome of the decision, we cannot provide or display the actual name of the company involved, which is irrelevant for the purposes of learning from these events anyway. It is worth noting that although the Department of Transport and Main Roads (Qld) prosecuted the Toowoomba based trucking company for offences between Qld and NSW, the National Heavy Vehicle Law also well known as Chain of Responsibility in Supply Chain circles, can be used in all states, apart from the Nothern Territory and Western Australia to prosecute others for fatigue breaches, with heavy fines for those found to have systemic breaches.
How this connects to MAEZ now
MAEZ helps Australian businesses turn Chain of Responsibility, HVNL, WHS, transport safety, and chartered risk obligations into practical training, advisory, audit, and implementation pathways. Where software is the right next step, CoRGuard at chainresponsibility.au supports the evidence workflow.
Operational message set
Find the gaps. Fix the system. Prove the controls.
MAEZ helps transport operators deal with the compliance risk they already know is there. We help get the Safety Management System in order, protect NHVAS accreditation, reduce fine exposure, and connect training, evidence, and CoRGuard workflows where software is needed.
Find
Identify what is exposed before an auditor or regulator does.
Fix
Build the SMS controls around how the transport business actually runs.
Prove
Use CoRGuard where records, reminders, diaries, audits, and evidence need structure.
Evidence path
From MAEZ advice to a working Safety Management System
Advisory work should leave a practical implementation trail. These examples show how CoRGuard supports records, fatigue and driver diary checks, maintenance, audits, document control, inductions, corrective actions, and evidence review after MAEZ identifies the gaps.
Training records
Connect training completion from cortraining.com.au to evidence and follow-up.
Driver diary checks
Connect fatigue and driver diary review back to manager visibility.
Corrective actions
Turn audit findings, hazards and incidents into tracked actions.
Frequently asked questions
Questions people ask about this topic
What is the purpose of $60,000 Fatigue Breach?
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT AND MAIN ROADS(Complainant) v Anonymous Transport Co. If the person in control of a heavy vehicle commits an extended liability offence, each influencing person is also taken to have committed the offence. Background In an unrelated case before the courts (2015), the owner of a transport company
Who should read this page?
This page is useful for owner-operators, transport managers, executives, consignors, consignees, loaders, schedulers, contractors, and anyone who influences a heavy vehicle transport task.
What does MAEZ help transport businesses fix?
MAEZ helps Australian transport and supply-chain businesses identify Chain of Responsibility, HVNL, WHS, NHVAS, training, audit, document-control, and Safety Management System gaps, then turn those gaps into practical controls and evidence.
Is Chain of Responsibility training handled on this website?
MAEZ provides the advisory and risk pathway, but Chain of Responsibility training is delivered through cortraining.com.au. Where software is needed, CoRGuard supports the Safety Management System evidence workflow.
How does CoRGuard fit with MAEZ consulting?
MAEZ helps define the risk, obligations, controls, and implementation pathway. CoRGuard is the SaaS Safety Management System platform used when the business needs structured records, reminders, audits, maintenance, driver diary checks, inductions, corrective actions, and evidence reporting.