The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHR) is working with current and potential electronic work diary (EWD) providers – along with jurisdictional partners – on a review of the EWD Standards.
The regulator told Big Rigs that the overhaul began in 2024, with 12 of the 13 approved diaries also undergoing voluntary independent assurance assessment since May of this year that is expected to take four to six weeks.
The 13th work diary provider, OneRoad EWD, was granted approval in May this year, after the assessment program had begun, said a regulator spokesperson.
It is only the second review of its type since EWDs were first introduced as an alternative to the paper diary in 2018.
NHVR’s Chief of Safety and Productivity Kelli Walker said the testing focuses on a range of critical safety criteria, including ensuring system behaviour aligns with expected outcomes for fatigue monitoring, data recording and reporting, privacy principles, and functional and compatibility usability testing of EWD mobile applications on approved EWD devices.
Walker said the 12-month review of the EWD Standards had identified “potential areas for improvement”.
“The NHVR also had potential areas for improvement and concerns brought to our attention by providers regarding whether all systems were optimally operating against the requirements of the HVNL and the Standards,” Walker added.
“There are several areas where providers and other stakeholders have identified concerns around system functionality and the ease of usability, as well as identifying areas where improvements could be made to the EWD system overall.”
Walker, however, said there is no evidence there is any safety risk relating to the current EWD functionality and framework.
“Nor any evidence that drivers or operators are being fined or prosecuted because of EWD functionality issues.”
Big Rigs approached all 13 approved EWD providers with questions for this story but only received a handful of responses.
Hubfleet founder James Doherty told Big Rigs that he was still “eagerly awaiting formal inclusion” in the review and looks forward to contributing.
“We believe that meaningful industry input, especially from widely used systems like ours, is absolutely essential to ensuring the review produces balanced and practical outcomes for all stakeholders, and helps to maintain the integrity and trust in the EWD system as a whole,” Doherty said.
Doherty added that he had no specific concerns around his system’s functionality and ease of usability. He said Hubfleet’s EWD undergoes rigorous internal testing before each release.
“We remain fully confident that our app meets all regulatory requirements and is safe for drivers to use across all operating conditions. Crucially, the NHVR has not raised any concerns with Hubfleet directly regarding our system’s functionality, usability, or compliance.”
Chris Hawtin, Marketing Manager at Step Global, said his company fully supports the current NHVR review.
“If issues are identified it may provide a reason for the NHVR to update the EWD Standards, creating greater uniformity across the industry,” Hawtin said.
“Our hope is that if an issue is identified with any provider, the solution will be to address the EWD Standards. This approach ensures the NHVR can maintain certainty that all EWD platforms are operating using the same, updated guidelines, fostering a more consistent and reliable environment for all users.”
Hawtin said one of Step Global’s specific concerns is that while the NHVR provides a template for core features like the compliance page and reports, it doesn’t prescribe a uniform look and feel for all functionalities.
“This leads to a wide degree of variability in user interfaces (UIs) and operational processes across different providers.
“As more providers enter the market with new UIs and slightly different workflows, this variability can potentially lead to driver confusion, increased training burdens for operators, and inconsistencies if drivers switch between different EWD systems. We believe this is an area that warrants ongoing discussion and collaboration within the industry.”
Anthony La Malfa, Founder and Managing Director of Netcorp, was surprised that his Netcorp EWD, the only free offering, was called up for further testing after it recently passed a rigorous six-month approval process.
“Being an EWD that was approved only three months prior to the assurance testing notification, I assumed that we went through the most rigorous testing of all,” La Malfa said.
“After making enquiries as to why this was happening, we were assured by the NHVR that this process was being performed to align all of the EWD offerings and to ensure they all continued to meet the required specification.”
He also stated that Netcorp had already made a significant investment into its development and approval process to get Netcorp’s EWD into truckies’ hands, without any commercial intentions for their product.
Steve Shearer, Executive Officer of the South Australian Road Transport Association, said he hopes the assurance testing goes beyond the basic technical specs.
“A key couple of questions is does NHVR require all EWDs to be assessed for correct analysis of work-rest rules compliance using a standard set of data established by the NHVR, and does that standard dataset incorporate various types of breaches and involve a driver switching between Standard Hours, BFM and AFM and doing some two-up driving over a 28 day period?
“I bet they don’t have something in place that guarantees that’s being done comprehensively. I’ve asked multiple times and gave up asking. They were never able to tell me how they’re doing it – and I suspect that hasn’t changed.”
Drivalink EWD founder Steve Squires said he has concerns that the company chosen to conduct the assurance testing is an IT testing company with little or no knowledge about the rules and regulations related to heavy vehicles, and lacks a framework for the testing.
“The re-testing they are doing only scratches the surface, as it’s not what I would call a complete test of the systems,” Squires said.