Our regulatory role

As a regulator, our role is to improve safety and reduce the risk of harm in land transport. We do this by ensuring compliance with the rules.

What we do

We manage the entry of all users into the land transport system. Once they are in the system, we monitor their compliance. If they fail to comply with the rules and put the public at risk, we exit them from the system.

In a nutshell, we regulate:

• People – road user behaviour, driver licensing, load restraints.
• Vehicles  – classification and standards, entry certifications, motor vehicle registration, in-service certifications, dimensions and mass, WoF and CoF providers.
• Commercial users of the land transport system – operator licensing, rail services, dangerous goods, driving hours and logbooks, goods and passenger endorsements.
• Network management – road and rail network design and management, speed limit management, traffic control devices, roading standards.
• Revenue – fuel excise duty, road user charges, motor vehicle licensing, tolling, regional fuel tax.

How we do it

We are firm and fair in all our dealings, identifying and dealing with those who put public safety at risk and making it easier for those who want to get it right.

To do our job, we set clear expectations of our regulated parties and we regularly carry out audits, reviews and investigations to ensure they are compliant with the rules.

In cases of minor infractions involving unintentional non-compliance, we do things like providing more education and training or giving people a warning. In cases where there is intentional and serious non-compliance, we take formal action, which might include suspension or revocation of licences or appointments.

Read about what we regulate