Personal and family health reasons given as national regulator starts search for successor
National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) CEO Richard Hancock has resigned.
In an announcement late this week, the regulator’s Chairman Bruce Baird says the move it was due to personal and family health reasons and that the board had accepted it “with immediate effect”.
Chief Financial Officer and General Manager Corporate Services Melinda Bailey will be acting-CEO until a permanent replacement is announced.
“It is essential that we all continue to work towards efficiency, safety and productivity in the heavy vehicle industry,” Baird states.
“The NHVR is continuing to work with industry and all levels of government to develop a longer-term plan to permanently address issues and concerns associated with the changes to the new laws and keep Australia’s heavy vehicles moving.”
The development comes at a difficult time for the NHVR, which has endured intense industry criticism in its first month.
The organisation was forced to return the handling of permits to the states when its systems were unable to cope last month.
The Chairman of the Australian Trucking Association David Simon wished Hancock well saying Hancock had worked hard to build effective relationships with the trucking industry.
“Richard was a breath of fresh air when he joined the NHVR, because of his strong consultative approach and his willingness to try new techniques for reaching out to trucking operators,” Simon says.
“Richard made an important contribution to untangling many of the problems with the original draft of the Heavy Vehicle National Law. The original draft had more than 1,020 issues.
“Many of those were fixed before the law came into effect, although there are still serious problems.”