The blue warning icon may show up if a BFM driver exceeds 14 hours in 24 or a Standard Hours driver exceeds 12 Hours. It is important to remember that this is not a breach of the driver’s work and rest hours option but a warning that if the driver were to have an event during the period of excedence, you (The Employer) would struggle to prove that the driver was not fatigued. Think of it also as a “near-miss” in WHS parlance.
LogChecker does not automatically create Non-Conformance Reports (NCR’s) for warnings, this is left to the discretion of the employer/user with the option of leaving the warning unattended, or, click on the “Add NCR” Button.
History: This feature was created after various transport authorities confirmed that they would charge drivers for “being fatigued” regardless of whether the driver was in breach of the driver’s work and rest hours option.
The National Heavy Vehicle law (NHVL): Sections 225, 226 and 228 of The NHVL:
225 What is impaired by fatigue
A driver is impaired by fatigue if the driver’s ability to drive a fatigue-regulated heavy vehicle safely is affected by fatigue.
226 Matters court may consider in deciding whether person was impaired by fatigue
(1) When deciding whether the driver of a fatigue-regulated heavy vehicle was impaired by fatigue, a court may consider any of the following—
(a) any relevant cause of fatigue or sign of fatigue that was evident, and the degree to which it may indicate that the driver was impaired by fatigue;
(b) any behaviour exhibited by the driver that may have resulted from the driver being impaired by fatigue;
Examples for the purposes of paragraph (b)—
• the circumstances of any incident, crash or near miss
• poor driving judgement
• inattentive driving such as drifting into other lanes on a road or not changing gears smoothly
(c) the nature and extent of any physical or mental exertion by the driver;
(d) whether the driver was in breach of the driver’s work and rest hours option.
(2) Subsection (1) does not limit the matters the court may consider when deciding whether a driver was impaired by fatigue.
(3) A court may consider the driver to be impaired by fatigue even if the driver has complied with—
(a) the requirements of this Law, including, for example, the maximum work requirements and minimum rest requirements applying to the driver; or
(b) any other law.
228 Duty of driver to avoid driving while fatigued
(1) A person must not drive a fatigue-regulated heavy vehicle on a road while the person is impaired by fatigue.
Maximum penalty—$6740 and 3 Demerit Points