– Under the current Road Traffic Act, only the driver was responsible for ensuring that the vehicle was safe and properly loaded, but now we want transport companies to bear joint responsibility. This is about road safety, but also about promoting a more serious working life in the transport sector, says Transport Minister Jon-Ivar Nygård.
The government presented its proposals today changes in the Road Traffic Law, which include, among others, by imposing shared responsibility on transport companies by enabling drivers to meet the requirements for securing cargo.
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– Inadequate load securing is often the result of a lack of training or procedures on how to secure the load, which can result dangerous situations for the driver and other road users. In proposing this proposal, we follow both the advice of the State Accident Investigation Commission and the actions contained in government action plan against social dumping in the transport sector, says the Minister of Transport.
Good training, good safety procedures, load securing guidelines…
Shared responsibility means that a transport undertaking that undertakes to carry out a transport task must actively help the driver to acquire sufficient knowledge to perform load securing, inter alia, through good training, good safety procedures, guidelines for securing loads, as well as ensuring that the driver has appropriate safety equipment. The proposal also means that the ministry will be able to specify more details in regulations rules regarding obligations transport company.
– The Act will be able to ensure this safety for drivers and contribute to increasing traffic safety road. The Norwegian transport industry ensures safe road transport, and the proposal of joint responsibility for transport companies will further raise standards in the industry, says the Minister of Transport.
The proposal also includes a proposal to require vehicle manufacturers to provide technical information about vehicles for use in vehicle inspections, which will facilitate the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2019/621 into Norwegian law, as well as minor legal amendments, technical clarification in the Law on traffic. It is also proposed that the Storting consents to the approval of the EEA Committee's decision to include the above-mentioned regulation to EEA Agreement.
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Source: regjeringen
