The Australian Federal government’s proposed Road Vehicle Standards Act (RVSA) remains in chaos with widespread industry concern about new inclusions in the act. The Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA) says that the Australian government recently performed a complete reversal on private vehicle imports as part of the review of the previous Motor Vehicle Standards Act Legislation. This left a huge hole in the act and, according to AAAA, it appears that the government is looking for any vehicle-related issues to fill the hole and redirect attention to a review that has now taken three years without any clear result.
The proposed amendments to the RVSA affect modest changes to a vehicle height when done as part of a suspension upgrade under the Low Volume Concessional Scheme.
The AAAA recently produced a detailed video that highlights the Australian government’s changes and reveals what it believes to be the full consequences of this action on vehicle safety. The video shows evidence that suspension upgrades of up to 50mm make the vehicle safer for both the occupants and other road users. The suspension upgrade improved handling while maintaining the integrity of the vehicle’s electronic stability control (ESC) system.
In less than a week since this video message was distributed to Australian suspension manufacturers, as welll as being placed on the AAAA Facebook Page, YouTube Channel and Twitter feeds, this informational video has achieved more than 78,000 views, reaching 255,000 people, generating 3,000 reactions, comments and shares.
According to Stuart Charity, AAAA executive director, this massive reaction to the AAAA’s video addressing the current situation is a demonstration of the level of alarm at the government’s proposal.
“There is no doubt that there is significant concern from the people driving these workplace vehicles through to the innovative Australian companies that are ensuring that these vehicles are the safest possible for their intended end use. These upgraded suspension requirements are specific to Australian road conditions and it is imperative that scope for these independently tested modifications is included within the structure of the Road Vehicle Standards Act,” Charity said.
“This has the direct effect of ensuring that people are driving the safest possible vehicles, as opposed to them being exposed to the limitations of standard-equipped vehicles which demonstrate vastly inferior handling when operating in a fully loaded configuration – which is clearly highlighted in our video. How a Federal Minister and his Department could even consider not allowing the scope for such safety improvements to be made within this legislation is beyond any form of reasonable understanding,” added Charity. “We made this four-minute video to make it abundantly clear to the industry and the motorists directly affected by it, that world-class independent testing ensures that Australian vehicle fleets, specifically 4WD fleets, can gain locally engineered suspension modifications to make them among the safest workplace vehicles in the world.”
The video also highlights the lack of industry consultation from Paul Fletcher, the Federal Minister for Urban Infrastructure and his department, in relation their decision to not allow these safety modifications to be made within the structure of the Road Vehicle Standards Act.
Charity added, “The suggested changes will have the practical effect of shutting down the market for gross vehicle mass suspension upgrades on many vehicle platforms due to the new requirement to have every vehicle individually inspected by an independent engineer at a cost of at least $1,000 per vehicle. Under the current scheme, it had been agreed that suspension upgrades with a vehicle lift of up to 50mm would be permitted without the requirement of ESC testing under the Low Volume Concessional Scheme subject to specific volume limitations.”
AAAA Facebook: facebook.com/AusAutoAftermaketAssoc/videos/1622014341195007/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6316819122399305728
Twitter: twitter.com/AAAATweets/status/911051115763949568
AAAA YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/AAAAVideoChannel
