The trucking industry will be granted a reprieve under impending greenhouse reporting measures to come into force on July 1. The
The trucking industry will be granted a reprieve under impending greenhouse reporting measures to come into force on July 1.
The Federal Government has amended its National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme (NGERS) following concerns by the industry the original method would significantly disadvantage national operators.
Under the original measure, the industry was required to report its consumption levels once it used 2.5 million litres of diesel.
The industry argued this would be too much of a burden on interstate operators because the threshold would be calculated at a national level. Operators would be forced to combine the consumption levels of each state or territory they passed through, meaning many would hit the 2.5 million litre threshold in no time.
But under the amendment, consumption levels will now be attributed to the state or territory in which fuel is purchased, meaning facilities in different jurisdictions will be counted separately.
The Government has also simplified the process of reporting so operators will no longer need to submit their ACN (Australian Company Number), ANZSIC (Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification) and other facilities and corporate structure declarations.
Australian Trucking Association (ATA) Chairman Trevor Martyn says the Government has advised the change is a direct response to industry lobbying.
“In our submission to the Government we argued that a transport facility at the national level would create an unequal reporting burden on transport operators by imposing an effectively halved corporate-level mandatory reporting threshold on transport companies,” he says.
“The Government listened to our concerns and implemented changes to the regulations that will eliminate mandatory reporting for some companies.”
The NGERS legislation was enacted last year and the final regulations will be approved by the Climate Change Minister Penny Wong prior to the July 1 start of the first reporting period.
Trucking operators consuming in excess of 2 million litres of diesel per year are advised to assess whether they will exceed mandatory reporting thresholds by contacting the Department of Climate Change (reporting@climatechange.gov.au) or an industry association.