The Heavy Vehicle Industry Association has revealed it is seeking feedback from its members on the ‘alternative standards’ omnibus instrument for the ADRs or Australian Design Rules which has been prepared by the Federal Department of Infrastructure
The HVIA said In late September that the Federal Department had advised it via the Vehicle Standards Consultative Forum (VSCF) that it had prepared a draft omnibus instrument to recognise a series of United Nations regulations as alternative standards for seven ADRs.
The Association explained that an omnibus instrument is a “legislative tool that addresses multiple matters by combining them into one cohesive document”, as a series of amendments, repeals, or new provisions.
It says that omnibus instruments are occasionally used by the Department to group together a series of minor, and sometimes unrelated, regulatory changes.
In this instance, the omnibus instrument updates the acceptable alternative standards for ADRs including ADR 3/04 relating to seats and seat anchorages, ADR 4/06 on seatbelts, ADR 5/06 for seatbelt anchorages, ADR 14/03 regarding devices for indirect vision , ADR 18/03 relating to Instrumentation, ADR 92/00 regarding external projections and ADR 93/00 regarding forward field of view.
The HVIA points out that each of these ADRs is applicable to category N heavy vehicles in some way, however the primary focus of these ADRs is on rigid trucks and prime movers.
The HVIA says it understands that the changes will not increase the stringency of the amended ADRs and there will be negligible change in the regulatory burden, although it says the Department is yet to conduct an impacts analysis.
The HVIA says that the Department has explained that the amendments will provide equivalent or better safety outcomes to the series of amendments already accepted in each ADR, that most of the changes between series of amendments are minor and the existing series of amendments to the UN Regulations accepted as alternative standards to the ADRs will be maintained as acceptable alternative standards, to avoid any regulatory impact for vehicles already certified to these ADRs.
The HVIA said that members wishing to understand the detail on any of the proposed changes to any of the listed ADRs are invited to contact HVIA chief technical officer Adam Ritzinger at a.ritzinger@hvia.asn.au, who will provide the Department’s draft explanatory statement for confidential review.
