Legendary Victorian operator Warwick Doolan is calling for urgent reforms to the oversize, overmass permit system, warning it’s strangling the sector and causing costly ripple effects all the way through the supply chain.
Doolan’s Heavy Haulage has a fleet of nearly 80 big rigs working out of depots in Western Australia, Victoria and Tasmania on some of Australia’s biggest and priciest infrastructure projects.
But Doolan, 77, is at his wit’s end over the red tape constantly putting the brakes on his operation’s ability to deliver the massive loads to clients on time.
Doolan said the final straw came on May 16, when one of his trucks was intercepted on Melbourne’s Dingley Bypass by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) for an alleged breach of an “ambiguous” height provision and a second one for an alleged length breach.
The combined total of the two resulting fines could be as high as $99,850, with the first court date on the matter scheduled for October 1.
The combination in question was made up of a prime mover and four-axle low-loader carting a machine from the Port of Melbourne in a flat rack container.
Doolan said the intercepted combination was assessed at 4.52 metres high, well within the gazetted allowable height of 5 metres with a length of 20.47 metres.
With the Class 3 (Miscellaneous) Permit, the load could have travelled down the same OSOM-approved route 30 metres long, 5 metres high and 5 metres wide.
Yet because the load didn’t have the right paperwork – a state requirement for freight being transported on a flat rack container – Doolan’s is alleged to have made “severe” and “substantial” risk breaches.
“The exact same freight can and does move along this exact route under a Class 3 permit, so if Doolan’s Heavy Haulage had obtained a Class 3 permit, there is zero risk?” asked the company’s frustrated WA-based Operations Manager, Mike Dunbar.
“There cannot be risk without a piece of paper and zero risk with one. If the same machine wasn’t on a flat rack, you wouldn’t even need the additional permit, you were covered under your Class 1.
“The ludicrous thing is that generic transport operators are pulling these things off the wharf on a drop deck and overloading because they don’t need any permit to do that.”
Dunbar believes the reason the Class 3 Permit on this occasion wasn’t obtained was simply due to the enormous time pressures operators are under.
“It could and often does take 28 days to acquire the permit,” Dunbar said.
“Meantime, the importer is paying for that sitting on the wharf.
“It’s a ludicrous scenario. We’ve had scenarios where it’s taken longer to get the permit than it is to ship [the freight] from overseas.”
A discouraged Warwick Doolan vividly remembers being “in the room” when the Heavy Vehicle National Law was introduced a decade ago, with the NHVR promising a one-stop-shop to expedite the processing of permits.
But more than 10 years on, Doolan said the exact opposite is now true.
“I’ve had a gutful of it,” said Doolan, an inductee into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame in 2010.
“I just don’t want to operate in this sort of area when you have these sorts of restraints. There’s got to be some sort of leeway.
“You shouldn’t have to work in a grey area to make a living, it’s just a shambles.”
Doolan said if he is ordered to pay the fines for the alleged May breaches, that’s at least a $1 million worth of work he needs to do to pay the bill, based on a 10 per cent margin.
“Right now, the industry is so tough, you’re probably getting three or four per cent; we’re almost back like general carriers but with more expensive equipment to maintain.”
Doolan said the Dingley Bypass incident is not an isolated one in terms of the red tape that’s choking the sector.
“All the biggest operators are experiencing exactly the same thing,” Dunbar added.
WA-based Dunbar said the WA permit system should be adopted nationwide.
“We can get a permit over here within 24 hours, sometimes 36 hours. It’s very unusual if we go more than 48.
“Anything to do with the NHVR you can be 28 days, 60 days, or 90 days. We’ve had people from Western Australia that I’ve been associated that have tried to move stuff from Queensland across the top to mining operations in Western Australia.
“We got the permit for the Western Australia leg within 36 hours, and it was 90 days before we got the permit from NHVR.”
Dunbar said the NHVR has not delivered on what it promised the heavy haulage sector in terms of a streamlined approval system – the exact opposite now exists.
“It’s a very complicated, messy, multi-tiered, multi-level bureaucracy that cannot deliver on what I believe its charter would be to improve the service to the oversize, overmass industry.”
To further illustrate just how tangled the web of red tape has become, Dunbar cites the example of an upcoming contract Doolan’s has to move a number of beams from China from the ship’s hook, which vary in weight up to 90 tonne.
They first take them to a lay-down area off-site, before moving them to an install position over a two-year period.
“To give you an example of how ludicrous it is, NHVR can’t keep up with the volume of permit applications they receive.
“So, we went back and said, ‘why could we not obtain a permit for the largest envelope that we require’, which I have to tell you happens in the Northern Territory and WA, then we get approval to move anything within that envelope.
“And they have said no, you need to make individual applications. So, hundreds of applications will be made to move items that would come underneath, within the parameters set on the maximum one.
“So, on one hand they’re saying we can’t keep up, and then on the next they’re saying no, we won’t look at it logically. You’ve got to do 90 permit applications, and when we put those in there’s no guarantee we’ll get them back in time to move them down the road.”
Dunbar said the permit headaches increase ten-fold if you’re crossing state lines.
“Heading up to Brisbane area and coming back down, that’s a disaster, that’s a nightmare.
“If you’re coming from Victoria, you’ve got to tick the box in New South Wales and tick the box in Queensland, and then along the journey there’s also local government they now feed into that can also hold it up.
“So, it’s a very tough space to play in and it’s certainly not the message that was delivered when the HVNL and NHVR was set up.
“It’s affecting mental health; there are people bailing out.”
Gary ‘Doc’ Dockrey, now 73 and retired after more than 40 years in the heavy haulage industry, which included driving, knows all too well the detrimental impacts the permit system can have.
For years he was passionate about his role as an operations manager, which included a three-year stint at Doolan’s, among many other major heavy haulage players.
When VicRoads was calling the shots in the state, he’d get permit approvals back in two hours – the slowest might be two or three days from South Australia, or Queensland.
“When the NHVR came in, I thought, ‘you beauty, a one-stop shop for a permit’, but was not the case, and it’s still not the case after all these years.”
After years of battling incessant delays, sometimes up to three months for some jobs, Doc didn’t realise the huge toll it was taking on his mental health.
He’d often clock off only to come home and still be trying to untangle what council he’d have to call up to get the paperwork for the third-party approvals.
Doc, who was still working at 69 for another heavy haulage operator, remembers the morning when it all got too much.
“It was around 6.30am and one of the operations guys said something to me and it was nothing to do with permits and I just flipped, I lost it.
“I loved that job, but I handed the keys to the boss and said I’d had enough.
“I knew after three or four weeks when I’d settled down that it was the permits that had got through to me.
“I never went to the quack – I’m old school – but I reckon I must have had a mental breakdown.”
Doc, who drove locally for a couple of years after that to get himself back on track, says he’d still be in the heavy haulage game if it wasn’t for the permit system.
Big Rigs sent a series of questions to the NHVR about the Dingley Bypass incident and the OSOM permit system in general.
But the regulator instead directed our line of inquiries to the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) in Victoria.
A DTP spokesperson said the department is cutting costs and red tape for operators.
“From January 1, 2026, structural bridge assessment fees will be removed ahead of launching our automated assessment permit system,” the spokesperson said.
“While we prepare for the system’s launch, our teams are continuing to process permit applications as quickly as possible.”
DTP said it supports the gazettal of the transport of flat racks on platform trailers and has been working with the NHVR to implement this gazette.
The reason these people get a job with the government is they want authority but are totally incapable of getting a place in private enterprise so they take a job as a public servant and that gives them the power. What a sad state of affairs the whole transport industry regulator has because.
What is also dissapointing, is there is no sign of the situation improving. No wonder why so many businesses are closing their operations and just walking away. All the years of combined experience is retiring and the new Cowboy generation is fast approaching.
I Agree
As could have been expected, the NHVR has become just another revenue-raising organisation. Under the claim of ‘safety’, fines are being issued willy-nilly, and the NHVR is crushing the industry. The NHVR has become a bloody joke; nothing like what was promised. As the saying goes: “How can you tell if a politician is lying? Their lips are moving”. To waken the government to their hypocrisy, I reckon we need another national blockade. Remember Razor-back?
This crap will never change unless we get rid of the 8 countries and only have one country AUSTRALIA now we have NSW,VIC,QLD,SA,WA,NT,ACT,TAS all this have they’re Owen rules and regulations,
only have cambera controlling everything especially in the transport industry.
I was under the impression it was going to be the case when we were force to change our licence to a national licence but was still control by your state.
Retiring was the best thing I ever did.most drivers getting out of it and importing drivers sorry DROVERS from overseas can only drive AUTOMATICS
Boys and girls it’s going to get worst……….
It’s probably all been done on purpose by gov .
To make it so overwhelming for the big rig company’s that they sell up and walk away.
I reckon the office nerds think they will get foreigners and there financially “secure” corporation’s to do the job cheaper and more efficiently.
If so there In for a rough ride !!
and unfortunately so are the people of Australia .
every industry that they touch is literally destroyed .
My hat goes out to all the truckers and haulage companies that built this country to what it is today ,
only to be shafted by these ridiculous morrons that wouldn’t know if there tail was on fire .
I feel your pain. I’m struggling to build an automated approval system that I manage right now.
Couldn’t believe what the guy before me had designed – pages and pages of boxes to fill and tick and sign. So much unnecessary work on both sides!
My approach has been to focus on simplicity.
– Don’t overcomplicate
– only ask for essential info
– keep the process as straight as possible.
If the govt want to improve productivity it needs to listen to guys like Doolan. This sort of problem is rife!
I have been involved in this industry for compliance for well over a decade. Anyone who actually knows about this information will be sitting and laughing at how the NHVR pass it to DTP and DTP pass it to NHVR. Firstly the DTP bridge assessments comments for not charging bridge assessments is irrelevant to the issue in this story. Doolan’s are talking about running under the National Class 1 Notice and this notice simply is for a single item (Indivisible load) It does not allow for oversize containers and as a flat rack is a load in itself and the load is also being carried then it is no longer an indivisible load. The easiest way to fix this is to allow a Class 1 to have a flat rack to be included as an indivisible item. If you start looking at additional items you will get people stacking general freight and other items – Whilst the law is clear on multiple items being carried (no longer than 19m from front of truck to rear of load, no heavier than GML 42.t and certain other things like the additional item cannot be wider or higher than the indivisible item – a simple change to the REGS for Indivisible item includes a flat rack only with a load would easily solve this. The NHVR cant simply change a Gazette for a condition without the road managers approval BUT it would not be hard to allow these flat racks to operate under the National Gazette for the up to 30m long up to 5m high and up to 5m wide to operate in the Victorian Gazetted OSOM Roads already approved for the same exact set up carrying a dozer without the Flat Rack. This would be the easiest and best measure, you may not get it across the other States but what a good Start to at least add this exemption for flat racks to the Victorian part of the National Gazette – Its a no brainier no risk as again any complying low loader as Doolan stated can use the same network higher wider and longer with a single (Indivisible Item) lets just add Flat Racks as the only exemption to the rule rather than having to apply for costly and timely delays for a class 3 permit all because the working in the law states it is not a class 1 anymore.
Just to add to my last comment I would like to point out that Doolan’s also as a business knows these rules about flat racks and whilst the law does not allow a flat rack with a load to operate under the Class 1 Gazette it does not excuse companies to simply ignore the law.
The issue here is there are oversized operators who decide to not operate without a permit who missed out on the job whilst others may decide to flout the law and simply take the job. This is an issue that is rife across the Heavy Vehicle Industry, The risk of being caught out and if I am a business who does get caught I put my hand up and take my medicine, other wise we are just encouraging operators who do the right thing to start questioning if they should change their ways and do what Doolan’s got caught doing.
I can see all sides here and their reasons, but I will re iterate that we need Victoria DoT to simply add an exemption to the Class 1 Gazette allowing Flat Racks with the indivisible item inside being carried to be exempt and treated as a Indivisible item.
To be clear don’t do it for out of gauge shipping containers and other containers that are enclosed as industry often grabs something like this and twists it to work around the law. A good first stage would be to allow Flat Rack Containers with a single large indivisible item to be exempt and classed as a indivisible item allowed to operate under the Victorian Schedule of the National Class 1 Load Carrying Vehicle Dimension Gazette only.
This would be a good start and low risk as we are not asking for Mass exemptions yet just allow the dimension for a flat rack that has no impact on infrastructure to start with.