Australia: Driver fined $17,500 for making false or misleading entries in work diary

In April 2017 a heavy vehicle driver was handed a hefty fine and ordered to pay the costs of the prosecutor after falsifying five work and rest entries in his work diary. The driver was caught out when he was randomly stopped by Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) inspectors at the Marulan heavy vehicle safety station. The driver's work diary was inspected as part of the RMS' basic fatigue inspection process. The entries saying the driver had stopped and rested were cross-checked against Safe-T-Cam images and found to be false.

The driver was directed to rest immediately and a breach report was issued to the driver.

Under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL), a person must not record something in a work record that the person knows, or ought reasonably to know, is false or misleading. The maximum penalty for one contravention of this offence is $10,000.

Under the amended HVNL, all parties in the chain of responsibility will have a primary duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that their conduct does not directly or indirectly cause or encourage contravention of the HVNL, including fatigue offences. Companies and their executive officers can be held liable for breaches by drivers and other parties in the chain. Fatigue offences are taken very seriously by the regulator and the Courts, as shown by the significant financial penalties and criminal nature of fatigue (and other) offences.

Technology such as Safe-T-Cams are being increasingly used to ensure that drivers are complying with their Chain of Responsibility (CoR) obligations.

A sure way to safeguard your business from hefty penalties is to foster a culture of CoR compliance within your organisation and verify that your CoR procedures are effective.

This publication does not deal with every important topic or change in law and is not intended to be relied upon as a substitute for legal or other advice that may be relevant to the reader's specific circumstances. If you have found this publication of interest and would like to know more or wish to obtain legal advice relevant to your circumstances please contact one of the named individuals listed.