New National Heavy Vehicle Regulator CEO Nicole Rosie is just over four months into the role when she sits down with Big Rigs for her first industry media interview.
She may be a recent arrival from across the ditch and still relatively new to the many moving parts of the Australian road freight industry and its multiple jurisdictions.
But it’s clear that this C-suite heavy hitter, who has always wanted to return here since a 13-month stint with WorkCover Queensland in 2000, has hit the ground running, undaunted by the massive task ahead with the game-changing Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) reform looming.
“It’s right in my swim lane; I feel I have a lot of expertise in the areas that this role covers,” Rosie told Big Rigs.
“It’s a narrower focus [the NHVR], but it’s broader and deeper. You have a much bigger industry and you move much bigger stuff and it’s more economically important for the country because of the size and complexity of the export markets.”
After racking up more than 20 years’ experience in complex regulatory senior management roles for a vast array of Kiwi multinationals such as Vector, Toll NZ, Fonterra, and also WorkSafe New Zealand and KiwiRail, Rosie took the helm of New Zealand’s all-encompassing transport regulator, the New Zealand Transport Agency in 2020.
The five-year stint was an experience she describes as “pretty full on”, involving five ministers, five Chairs, Covid, “the worst weather events in the history of the country”, and major political shifts in transport direction.
“I’ve done a really big job and it had been very intense for a while and that is the biggest transport job in New Zealand,” said Rosie, whose CV also includes a Master of Public Health in Law and Public Health from Harvard University.
“This opportunity came up, and I was really interested in whole-system approaches in national roles. This is a federal role covering the whole country and uses a lot of my expertise, so thought, ‘there you go, that’s fate isn’t it’.
First impressions and major issues
Rosie said the pressure the industry is increasingly under to deliver has been one of her first major issues she’s struck.
“With freight at the heart of supporting a rapidly growing economy there’s a “tension” between how you deliver on that demand while meeting increasing obligations – sustainability, higher interdependence with the public and other operators,” she said.
“These [issues] are not unique to Australia. The difference here is the distances, the amount of freight and the size of the task, and you’re at the frontline of some innovation.
“So, you’re wanting to solve that problem by allowing your trucks to get bigger relative to other options, such as rail.”
That complexity is only magnified by state-based approaches to rules, assets and permitting.
But Rosie emphasises that while the NHVR sits at the centre of the system, it “doesn’t hold many of the levers”.
The states and jurisdictions create most of the rules and own the assets.
“We can influence that, and we will influence that, but we are not necessarily the solver. What I will say from all my past experiences that regulators are really important in that because they hold the balance of power and they can be a huge influencer of positive change.
“But they can’t do that by themselves. The reality is, effective regulators have to activate and work with all those players to make change.”
Data sharing and working closely with other agencies are top priorities for the NHVR under the new CEO. Image: NHVRNHVR’s role in transport system
Rosie draws a pie chart into four equal slices to help Big Rigs understand her approach to the transport system and how she sees NHVR’s role within that.
In the top left-hand corner she writes ‘Resilience and maintaining the system’ and in the top right, ‘Partnering and creating frameworks’.
“Other people can do these things but regulators have a role to influence that by making sure the infrastructure owners are supporting a resilient system, that they’re maintaining that system, and if we’re concerned about safety on that system, we should be raising it with those infrastructure providers.
“And we also have to partner with others to oversee digital standards. You’re not going to manage the system properly if you’ve all got different cameras.
Underneath, Rosie writes the two main roles for the NHVR: ‘Services and access’ and ‘Regulation toward three outcomes: safety, productivity and sustainability’.
In terms of ‘services and access’, Rosie sees the NHVR role in making it easier for operators to transact on those services, such as access: “That’s our job. How do we make it easier, faster, more transparent.”
Rosie said one of the big changes she hopes to install is for the regulator to get “very focused” on identifying what is the problem the data is showing, and then what are the solutions to the problem.
“Because the solutions to the problem may not be to get the SCOs to do more enforcement or more roadside education.
“The solution to the problem may well be somewhere else, either to hold an operator to account or, in some cases the way the supply chain is working is fundamentally driving unsafe behaviors, and therefore it would be a discussion with the top of supply chain, which might be a Coles.
“I think if we can get very deliberate about that, we don’t have to necessarily use our hard tools.”
Rosie also emphasised the importance of data sharing to help tighten up everything from driving standards in the various jurisdictions to linking ABNs to risk data to help the ATO stamp out sham contracting.
More focus higher up the chain
Rosie said there will also be a focus on fleet bosses, both in education and ensuring they meet their chain of responsibility obligations.
She sees the NHVR’s role as one to create expectations that they are operationally excellent, not just in their business, but through their supply chain.
“In my past roles we’ve set up industry forums – we’ve got industry leading industry.
“Good players in the industry respond really well to that and then, of course, we’re not beating up the poor driver for something they can’t control.
“You can be assured that I’m very aware that the frontline drivers are not always the best party for us to be issuing the enforcement notice to.
“If you’re just looking at the symptom of the problem, which is potentially the driver in the truck and whacking them when they have no ability to change any of those things, you’re not going to change the system and improve it.
“And our job is to keep the system safe and to continuously improve it so that we can create a safe, productive and sustainable industry.”
Rosie said there will continue to be roadside education but there will be a lot more work done earlier. Image: NHVRNuanced approach to education and enforcement
If the NHVR is working at its “operational excellence level” Rosie said the primary point of education should not be at the side of the road.
“Your primary point of education and inform should be before the person gets in the truck, with the operators, making sure they are providing the right tools, information, maintenance, operational excellence, maintenance, quality, labour conditions; all the inputs that then create safety and productivity within the supply chain.”
Rosie said there will continue to be roadside education but there will be a lot more done earlier.
“That could look like us providing the industry with better intelligence information about what are your key risks, what are your key controls, and what are we seeing in relation to that.
“It might be we start to provide a lot more information about the types of things we’re seeing on the side of the road that are systemic, i.e. we’re seeing a lot of people with brake failures, for example.
“Here’s what we’re seeing. This is what our expectations are. This is where you can get help.”
Rosie says you can also now expect the NHVR to get more “deliberate” about its regulatory intervention strategy under her helm.
“And typically, our frontline teams should be being very focused on those critical risks in those key controls. And if you’re seeing something that’s not significant in a control context, of course an education and engage discussion is probably the right answer to the problem.
“But if you are dealing with brake failure on a 68-tonne truck, that is not an educate and engage issue. That’s quite a significant critical control failure.
“In the discussions I’ve had with the sector they lack that nuance.
“They do talk about minor infringements but then often they’re talking about brake failure in the same sentence.”
Will the new safety management system help or hinder?
With so many details still to be hammered out, Rosie wouldn’t be drawn on the specifics of the new opt-in safety management system (SMS) which is part of the new HVNL reform due to be in play by mid-2026.
But conceptually, she said the regulator sees it as “very positive”.
“If you think about what I said earlier about operational excellence is the basis for safety, productivity and sustainability, the base level of accreditation being a safety management system is basically putting in good basic operational practices into organisations.
“If it can be more based on observation and actually ensuring those things are in place, rather than a tick the box exercise, that should substantively improve the performance of the sector – I think it’s a huge opportunity.”
Don’t fear the new fit to drive duty
Rosie was quick to allay truckies initial concerns that they could be pulled from the cab by safety and compliance officers (SCOs) if they were considered physically unfit to drive.
“You’d have to have a criteria to be able to assess things; we can’t do blood tests, blood pressure, we don’t have any of those powers,” Rosie said.
“We’re not doing a police roadside health assessment; we’re not anticipating any substantive change in what our SCOs do, other than to support a driver if they put their hand up for help.”
Rosie said the new fit to drive laws are designed to protect the driver, not punish.
“If they were talking to me, I’d say this is a really good thing for you, and I’ll tell you why,” Rosie said.
“There’s already an obligation on the operator under the work, health and safety laws and under the HVNL for the operator to ensure their drivers are fit to work.
“There’s a primary obligation on them, and that still remains. So, this is an ‘and’ on that obligation, which is really saying, and there is a fitness for work requirement on the driver.
“Part of the understanding I have as to why this is being put in place is to empower drivers who are feeling like their bosses up the line might not be looking after the fitness to work, to put their hand up and go, ‘Hey, I don’t feel like I’m safe and I don’t feel fit to drive. Can I please not drive?’
Rosie said truckies should also not fear ramifications from employers.
“With the combination of it being in the law, and this test coming in, we can become clearer about what our expectations are with operators and what they should be doing to support fitness to work with their drivers.”
A code of practice is one avenue the NHVR is looking at which Rosie said also gives drivers an added layer of protection.
“Just like they drive in and raise mechanical issues with us because their bosses are not doing the mechanical checks, they can come in and say they don’t feel safe to drive and we can then support them and/or put a note in the file around the operator or even visit the operator to follow those things up.”
Rosie said the consultation phase around the new fitness laws has emphasised to her the importance of the industry working together to improve driver fitness.
“If you’re on the side of the road dealing with the problem, it’s too late. That’s the area you can anticipate the NHVR doing more work in – I’m very big on supporting.
“I care deeply that we are supporting these drivers. They are really important to Australia.”
The post What to expect with Nicole Rosie at the helm of the NHVR appeared first on Big Rigs.
