South Australia Farm Gate Grain Transport Mass Exemption Notice 2025 (No.1)

HEAVY VEHICLE NATIONAL LAW

South Australia Farm Gate Grain Transport Mass Exemption Notice 2025 (No.1)

1.        Purpose

This notice grants exemptions for heavy vehicles operating at general mass limits or under mass management accreditation, at concessional or applied higher mass limits under the Heavy Vehicle (Mass, Dimension and Loading) National Regulation (MDL Regulation), or under specified notices, while transporting grain directly from a farm to a grain receiver.

1.        Authorising provision

1.       This notice is made under the following provision of the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL):

1.       section 117 – Regulator’s power to exempt category of class 1 or 3 heavy vehicles from compliance with mass or dimension requirement.

1.        Title

This notice may be cited as the South Australia Farm Gate Grain Transport Mass Exemption Notice 2025 (No.1).

1.        Commencement

This notice commences on 3 February 2025.

1.        Expiry

This notice expires on 2 February 2030.

1.        Definitions

1.       Unless otherwise stated, words and expressions used in this notice have the same meaning as those in the HVNL and its regulations.

1.       In this notice:

Stated route or network means the network specified in the relevant primary Notice unless the vehicle meets the definition of a general access vehicle under this Notice.

Farm gate means the point at which the vehicle or combination leaves the farmer’s property where the grain was harvested and enters the approved route network.

Grain receiver means the place that the grain is delivered to directly from the farm.

Normal mass limit means a mass limit that would, but for the operation of section 10 of this notice, apply to the vehicle or combination when operating under:

1.       General Mass Limits; or
2.       Concessional Mass Limits;
3.        Higher Mass Limits under the HML Application Notice; or
4.       The mass limits specified in a Primary Notice.

HML Application Notice means the South Australian Class 3 Road Friendly Suspension Mass Exemption Notice.

Note: The HML Application Notice applies mass limits from Schedule 5 of the MDL Regulation. The mass limits in that notice differ from those in Schedule 5.

Primary Notice means the notice that applies to the operation of the vehicle if it is not a general access vehicle operating at General Mass Limits.

Note: In this instance, a primary notice would include, for example, a compliant B-double or Road Train operating at General Mass Limits under a Class 2 authority, or an eligible vehicle operating as a Class 3 vehicle under the HML Application Notice.

1.        Application

1.       This notice applies to a heavy vehicle that meets all the requirements in this section.

1.       This notice applies to a heavy vehicle operating as a general access vehicle or under a Primary Notice under the following provisions of the MDL Regulation:

1.       General Mass Limits (GML) set out in Schedule 1; or
2.       Concessional Mass Limits (CML)set out in Schedule 2; or
3.        To a vehicle operating under the HML Application Notice.

1.       This notice does not apply to:

1.       Performance Based Standards vehicles; or
2.       Pig trailers.

1.       This notice applies in South Australia.

1.       A heavy vehicle to which this section applies and that complies with the conditions of this notice is an eligible vehicle.

1.        Exemption

1.       A heavy vehicle operating under General Mass Limits, and complying with the conditions of this notice, is exempt from Schedule 1 of the MDL Regulation to the extent that a conditional mass limit is provided under this notice.

1.       A heavy vehicle operating under Concessional Mass Limits, and complying with the conditions of this notice, is exempt from the following mass requirements in Schedule 2 of the MDL Regulation to the extent that a conditional mass limit is provided under this notice:

1.       Subsections (3)(a) and (3)(b); and
2.       Subsection (4) in conjunction with the table in subsection (8) as it applies

to:

1.             tandem axle groups fitted with dual tyres on all axles, and
2.             triaxle groups fitted with dual tyres on all axles.

1.       A vehicle that is referred to in section 7(2)(c) and is operating under this notice is exempt from the following provisions of the HML Application Notice:

1.       Section 9 Conditions - Axle Mass Limits

1.        Areas and routes

1.       For a heavy vehicle operating as a general access vehicle at General Mass Limits or Concessional Mass Limits, this notice applies to all roads and road-related areas in South Australia.

1.       For a heavy vehicle that is not a general access vehicle and operates under a Primary Notice, the stated routes, areas and networks specified in that notice.

1.       For a heavy vehicle operating under the HML Application Notice, this notice applies the stated routes, areas and networks under that notice.

Note:  Commodity Routes as published in the NHVR National Network Maps are not approved for Higher Mass Limits operation.

1.    Conditions – Farm gate mass concession

1.       A heavy vehicle operating under this notice must be transporting grain directly from the farm gate to a grain receiver.

1.       Except for the specific exemptions provided in this notice, a heavy vehicle operating under this notice must comply with all conditions of access that normally apply to it, including:

1.       For a vehicle operating under General Mass Limits; all other conditions imposed by Schedule 1 of the MDL Regulation; and
2.       For a vehicle operating under Concessional Mass Limits; all other conditions imposed by Schedule 2 of the MDL Regulation; and
3.        For vehicles operating under the HML application Notice, all the conditions of that notice, including conditions applied by the network.

Note: Both Schedule 2 Concessional Mass Limits and the conditions of the HML Application Notice require Mass Management Accreditation.

1.       The loaded mass of a heavy vehicle operating under this notice must be less than 105% of the normal mass limit that would apply to the vehicle.

Note:  This section accommodates excess mass that may result from field loading conditions, providing an allowance over the mass the vehicle would normally operate at, so long as the vehicle meets the other conditions of the notice.

1.       The mass allowed under subsection (3) is only applicable to the first and second load carried by a heavy vehicle from a given paddock on a given day.

1.       If the first load carried on a heavy vehicle from a given paddock on a given day under this notice is more than 100% of normal mass limit, the mass of the second load carried by the same heavy vehicle from the same paddock on the same day must be less than the first load.

Jose Arredondo

Manager Network Access Policy

National Heavy Vehicle Regulator