The scheme to regulate heavy vehicles in residential areas applies to any vehicle that has a gross vehicle mass (GVM) over 4.5 tonnes and is longer than 7.5 metres. Heavy vehicle parking on residential land is regulated by the Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Regulation 2000 (the Regulation) and heavy vehicle parking in residential streets is regulated by Rule 200 of the Australian Road Rules (the Rules).
The Regulation provides that the following kinds of heavy vehicles, whether loaded or unloaded, are prohibited from paeking on residential land:
The Regulation also provides that vehicles with a GVM over 3.75 tonnes, longer than 6 metres or higher than 2.6 metres are prohibited from parking on residential land containing multi-unit dwellings such as townhouses and apartments.
The Regulation provides exceptions where the vehicle is not parked on land for longer than is reasonable such as:
In addition, the Rules provide that a heavy or long vehicle cannot stop on a road in a built up area for longer than 1 hour, unless the driver is engaged in dropping off or picking up goods.
It is an offence under the Regulation to operate a refigeration unit on a heavy vehicle that is parked on residential land. The purpose of this provision is to protect the emenity of residential neighbourhoods from noise generated by large refigerated trucks.
There are certain times of the night when heavy vehicles must not be operated is residential areas. The Regulation makes it an offence for a person who is not an 'existing operator' to opertae a heavy vehicle on residential land beetween 10:00 pm and 6:00 am. It is also an offence for an 'existing operator' to opertae a heavy vehicle on residential land between 12:00 midnight and 5:30 am. These offence are intended to protect the amenity of residential neighbourhoods from noise associated with operating heavy vehicles at night.
You may be an existing operator if you were granted an existing operator certificate under the transitional arrangements that were put in place when the heavy vehicle parking scheme first came into operation in 1997, and you have not changed your address or replaced your heavy vehicle since then. Existing operator certificates were specific to particular vehicles parked at particular premises and were not transferable. A certificate ceased to have any effect if the operator no longer operated that vehicle or resided at that premises.
Only one heavy vehicle can be parked on residential land at any given time. It is an offence under the Regulation to park 2 or more heavy vehicles on residential land, or to park a heavy vehicle on residential land if another heavy vehicle is already parked there. It is however permissable to park 2 heavy vehicles on residential land if one of those vehicles is plant or equipment that is parked on the other vehicle and their combined height does not exceed 3.6 metres.
You must not park your vehicle in front of your home or close to neighbouring properties. It is an offence under the Regulation to park any part of a heavy vehicle on residential land so that it is front of the setback line of the front boundary, or less than 1.5 metres from any other boundary of that land. The purpose of this provision is to ensure that heavy vehicles parking on residential land do not encroach on surrounding properties or unduly affect the visual amenity of the streetscape.
Repairs and maintenance to heavy vehicles complying with the Regulation and Rules are not restricted on the residential land, however such work must be carried out in accordance with existing environment and noise legislation.
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