Regulator extends five-year access for high-productivity Performance Based Standards trucks

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator has replaced its 2026 No.3 high-productivity instrument with a new five-year authorisation granting Performance Based Standards (PBS) trucks access to specified networks in three states. The National Class 2 Performance Based Standards (High Productivity) Authorisation Notice 2026 (No.4) commences on 23 October 2026 and expires on 22 October 2031. It was registered in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette on 22 October 2026 under official reference C2026G00693.

The 23-page notice is made under section 138 of the Heavy Vehicle National Law, which gives the Regulator power to authorise the use of stated categories of class 2 heavy vehicles, and under section 23 of Schedule 1 of that law, which allows the Regulator to amend or repeal instruments. It expressly revokes and replaces the National Class 2 Performance Based Standards (High Productivity) Authorisation Notice 2026 (No.3), and is signed by Jose Arredondo, Manager Network Access Policy at the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.

The authorisation applies only to PBS vehicles holding a PBS vehicle approval issued under the national law, and only in the participating jurisdictions named in the instrument. It is framed as an access authority rather than an exemption from prescribed mass or dimension limits: where a network condition is more restrictive than the vehicle’s own PBS approval, the stricter condition prevails — for example, a network may admit vehicles no higher than 4.6m despite a greater height recorded in the approval.

Three jurisdictions, three schedules

The notice is organised into a body of general conditions plus one schedule each for New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. Each schedule lists the networks on which an eligible vehicle may operate, together with the vehicle configuration, mass level and bridge assessment tier that apply to each route.

• New South Wales: networks identified by mass level (GML, CML, HML, QML 1 or QML 2) and vehicle configuration, including quad-tri and quad-quad B-doubles not exceeding 30m and A-doubles with a tandem axle dolly.
• South Australia: networks defined by reference vehicle, with total combination mass and length caps and a reference ID tied to the Reference Vehicle Information Sheet – South Australia.
• Victoria: networks defined by reference vehicle and split between general freight, volumetric and cubic categories.

Network names in all three schedules are published on the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator National Network Map, and definitions are drawn from the National Class 2 Road Train Authorisation Notice and from the National Transport Commission’s PBS Scheme Network Classification Guidelines and Standards and Vehicle Assessment Rules.

Mass and length ceilings

The schedules set graduated mass and dimension limits that scale with PBS level and vehicle length.

• South Australia ranges from 50.5t at 20m for PBS Level 1 reference vehicles to 163.0t at 60m for PBS Level 4B twinsteer combinations.
• Victorian networks run from a 20m, 50.5t quad semitrailer network to 36.5m, 113.5t general freight and volumetric networks.
• Euro VI vehicles with a complying steer axle or twinsteer configuration may exceed the listed South Australian mass by up to 0.5 tonnes, and Victoria grants the same 0.5-tonne allowance to Euro VI complying steer axle vehicles.
• Total combination mass is capped at 74.5t on four South Australian PBS Level 2A networks regardless of that allowance.
• In New South Wales, PBS Level 1 Tier 1 truck-and-dog and B-double combinations up to 20m may run on the Great Western Highway between Emu Plains and Marrangaroo at PBS Level 2 mass limits up to 57.5t where the vehicle approval permits it.

Telematics, braking and vehicle conditions

Compliance with approved intelligent transport systems is a condition of access, with the required system varying by jurisdiction and mass tier.

• New South Wales: Road Infrastructure Management for vehicles at GML, CML or QML 1 Tier 1 limits; Intelligent Access Program or Telematics Monitoring Application for Tier 3 and for HML or QML 2 limits.
• Victoria: On Board Mass Management Category B or C for vehicles above 68.5t or quad semitrailers exceeding 46t gross combination mass, plus Intelligent Access Program or Telematics Monitoring Application generally.
• Victorian vehicles must carry antilock braking to Australian Design Rule 38/01 or later on all axles except convertor dollies, certified road friendly suspension, and — for prime movers built after 2007 — emissions control to Australian Design Rule 80/02 or later.
• Victorian vehicles longer than 26m need permission from the Department of Transport and Planning’s Over Dimensional Load team before crossing a railway or tramway track.

All approved systems must be certified by Transport Certification Australia, and any required system must be operating while the vehicle works under the notice.

Prohibited configurations

New South Wales networks exclude several vehicle types outright: prime movers with twin steer axles, prime movers whose drive axle group has more than two axles in contact with the ground, combinations including tri-axle dollies, PBS vehicles approved under section 8 of the Heavy Vehicle (General) National Regulation for non-compliance with the Pavement Vertical Loading Standard (A1), and any PBS vehicle higher than 4.6m.

For freight operators, the practical effect is a single national instrument with a five-year horizon, replacing a shorter-lived predecessor and consolidating network, mass, dimension and telematics requirements for three jurisdictions in one place. Operators running high-productivity combinations must check each route against both their PBS vehicle approval and the schedule conditions, since access can be narrowed — but not widened — by the network itself.

Source: Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 22 October 2026, Government Notices (official reference: C2026G00693).