Chain of Responsibility (CoR)

Chain of Responsibility is the principle in the Heavy Vehicle National Law that everyone with influence over a transport task, not just the driver, shares legal responsibility for its safety.

If your business consigns, schedules, loads, receives or manages heavy vehicle work, you hold a primary duty to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the safety of that transport activity. Pressuring a driver to speed, skip rest or run overloaded can make an office employee, a manager or a director personally liable.

Regulators ask one practical question after an incident: can you show your systems were working? That is why pre-start checks, fatigue records and defect-to-repair trails matter. Plain-English detail is in the Chain of Responsibility guide.

Last updated 10 July 2026. General information, not tax or legal advice.