Overheight trucks to be stripped of registration in new deal

Oversized trucks stuck in Sydney’s tunnels will be taken off the road as the government takes over power to apply penalties in a deal with the national regulator.

Overheight trucks that block the Sydney’s traffic tunnels will have their registration stripped after a deal was reached on Thursday to allow Transport for NSW new powers to apply penalties.

Only the National Heavy Vehicles Regulator (NVHR) had the power to deregister vehicles.

After a meeting with the NVHR boss, roads minister John Graham said the new agreement was designed to send a clear message to drivers and trucking companies.

“What we’re doing today is punishing the trucking companies and making sure the message get through because having registrations suspended and trucks off the road has a very serious economic impact,” he said.

“It’s a small handful of drivers, possibly new to the industry … those drivers are under heavy scrutiny and some of those trucks will be coming off the road as a result of discussions.”

On Tuesday morning, Sydneysiders suffered another morning of peak hour chaos when an oversize truck triggered Harbour Tunnel sensors. Picture: Nine News

In the meantime, motorists will have to wait months for more short term improvements designed to stop overheight trucks blocking the Harbour Tunnel.

Work to install $5 million worth of new sensors, signs, slip lanes and other infrastructure will start next month, but is not expected to be completed until December.

Separately, a business case to make bigger changes that will give trucks more chance to avoid the tunnel bottleneck is due back to the government in July.

Those changes are set to include moving sensors so trucks get more advanced warning they are overheight.

At 7.48am today (Tuesday 6 June 2023) a truck triggered the sensors on the southbound lanes of the Warringah Freeway, on the approach to the Sydney Harbour Tunnel. Picture: NSW Police

Roads minister John Graham has flagged tougher crackdowns. Photo: Kate Geraghty/ via NCA Newswire

The new deal came after Premier Chris Minns said the government will take back responsibility for stripping trucks of their registration unless the regulator gets tougher.

“Good drivers know the height of their truck and stick to the tunnel height limit,” Mr Graham said.

“Unfortunately, a small minority of drivers are holding the city to ransom,” he said.

“We have agreed to work with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator to increase awareness amongst truck drivers, but also to crack down on trucking companies who breach these rules. “We will be taking their trucks off the roads.”

That came after NVHR chairman Duncan Gay questioned whether the regulator actually has the power to deregister vehicles.

“If we have those powers, we have the responsibility to apply them properly,” Mr Gay said.

The government insisted that vehicles can only be deregistered after advice from the regulator that they were engaged in aggravated breaches of the rules.

Mr Graham said that since August last year, TfNSW has stripped just four trucks of their registration on referrals from the regulator.

One of these sanctions was thrown out by the court.