Assessing fitness to drive – some helpful tips

The demands on heavy-vehicle drivers can often be significant when they must interact with both the vehicle and the external environment at the same time. In this article, we examine how you can assess a driver's fitness to drive and provide some helpful tips regarding the different approaches.

An element of fatigue compliance under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) is making sure that a driver is fit to drive, in the sense of not being adversely affected by fatigue. This obligation may also arise under general Work Health and Safety (WHS) law, as well as an overriding general obligation to ensure the safety of all participants in the road transport industry.

Driver fatigue is a safety hazard. Most people are well aware of the causes of fatigue but sometimes less conscious of the implications. Under the HVNL and WHS laws, all parties in the chain need to take a pro-active approach to managing their responsibilities, including assessing a driver's fitness