What is Chain of Responsibility?

The idea behind it

Chain of Responsibility (CoR) recognises that a heavy vehicle's safety isn't only down to the driver. Unrealistic schedules, overloaded trailers, poorly restrained loads and pressure to skip rest breaks usually start somewhere else in the chain.

Under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL), every party whose actions, decisions or omissions can affect the safety of a heavy vehicle on the road has a duty to make sure their part of the transport activity is safe.

Who is in the chain

The law names the parties in the chain. Depending on what your business does, you may be more than one of them.

• Employers of drivers, and prime contractors who engage them
• Operators of heavy vehicles
• Schedulers of goods, passengers or drivers
• Consignors, who send goods, and consignees, who receive them
• Packers of goods
• Loading managers, loaders and unloaders

What the duty means

The primary duty is to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety of your transport activities. That means identifying the risks your part of the chain creates, such as fatigue, speed, mass, dimension, load restraint and vehicle condition, and doing what is reasonably practicable to eliminate or minimise them.

Executive officers, such as directors and senior managers, have their own due diligence duty: to take reasonable steps to make sure the business complies. Knowing the risks, having controls in place and checking they work are all part of that.

Showing you've done your part

If something goes wrong, the question is what each party did to prevent it. Good intentions aren't enough; you need records. That means checks that were actually done, signed by the person who did them, with the time and any problems found and how they were fixed.

Paper makes this hard. Forms are filled in after the fact, filed in different places and rarely looked at until there's an incident.

• Prestart checks that show vehicles were checked before each trip
• Safety declarations at the gate covering hours, mass, load restraint and dangerous goods
• Weight declarations with the weighbridge docket
• Fatigue stand-downs and safe driving plans that show work and rest were managed
• A record of who resolved each problem, and when

Where LOGFYX fits

LOGFYX gives each party in the chain the checks for their part, on the phone they already carry. Every record is signed and time-stamped, problems go straight to the person who can fix them, and the CoR Audit download brings prestarts, declarations, fitness for duty and mass verifications together in one file for an audit.