Chain of Responsibility Course | Practical CoR Training for Australian Transport Operators

This is a practical Chain of Responsibility course for Australian organisations that need to understand duty holders, executive duty, transport safety risk, and evidence expectations.

Participants learn how Chain of Responsibility duties apply to their role under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL), what practical evidence the business should keep, and how shared responsibility works across the supply chain.

Under the HVNL, the safety of transport activities relating to a heavy vehicle is the shared responsibility of each party in the chain of responsibility. A duty under the HVNL may not be transferred to another person — which means every party must understand and actively discharge their own obligations.

For broader context on how CoR works in practice, see About Chain of Responsibility.

This course is useful for anyone who influences a heavy vehicle transport activity, including:

• Owner-operators and transport managers
• Executives and senior managers with due diligence obligations
• Consignors and consignees
• Loaders and packers
• Schedulers and route planners
• Contractors and sub-contractors

Each role carries different responsibilities under the HVNL, and the course is structured to address those role-based differences. Participants leave with a clearer picture of what their specific duty requires and what evidence they should be keeping.

For a deeper look at how different duty holders fit together, read Chain of Responsibilities: What Australian HVNL Duty Holders Need to Understand.

The course covers the key duty types and operational areas that matter most for HVNL compliance:

• Primary duty — each party must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety of transport activities relating to a heavy vehicle
• Executive due diligence — executives of a legal entity must exercise due diligence to ensure the business complplies with its duties
• Duty holder functions — consignors, consignees, loaders, packers, drivers, operators, schedulers, and prime contractors
• Prohibited requests and contracts — a person must not ask, direct, or require a driver or party to do something that would breach the HVNL
• Fatigue, speed, mass, loading, and vehicle standards
• Contractor management and corrective actions

Training is delivered through cortraining.com.au, with MAEZ providing the advisory and risk pathway. For organisations that also need consulting support to close HVNL and CoR gaps, see Chain of Responsibility Consulting.

Knowing the duty is only the first step. The HVNL expects parties to be able to demonstrate that they have systems and controls in place. The course addresses what that looks like for different roles:

• Consignors — proof that freight promises and delivery schedules do not create unsafe transport pressure
• Loaders — loading controls backed by evidence, not assumptions
• Operators — daily fleet activity connected back to duties, controls, and review
• Executives — due diligence means knowing whether the safety system is actually working
• Consignees, managers, and schedulers — role-based controls, evidence, and Safety Management System expectations

The goal is to move beyond awareness and into practical, documented practices that hold up under audit or regulatory scrutiny.

For executives and managers specifically, Chain of Responsibility Training for Executives and Managers provides further guidance.

Training should lead to action. After completing the course, MAEZ can help review gaps in your current compliance setup and identify where controls, evidence, or documentation need strengthening.

Where appropriate, MAEZ uses CoRGuard — the SaaS Safety Management System platform — to turn training outcomes into controlled workflows. CoRGuard supports structured records, reminders, audits, maintenance tracking, driver diary checks, inductions, corrective actions, and evidence reporting.

This means training completion connects directly to follow-up: records, reviews, and actions that show the business is actively managing its CoR obligations rather than just ticking a box.

For operators preparing for upcoming regulatory changes, HVNL 2026 Changes and Chain of Responsibility Training Readiness offers a practical guide.

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 turns those gaps into practical controls and evidence.

• Find — identify what is exposed before an auditor or regulator does
• Fix — build SMS controls around how the transport business actually runs
• Prove — use CoRGuard where records, reminders, diaries, audits, and evidence need structure

MAEZ defines the risk, obligations, controls, and implementation pathway. CoRGuard is used when the business needs structured records and evidence workflows to support those controls.

To get started with a practical review of the controls, evidence, training, and SMS gaps that matter most to your operation, contact MAEZ.