Dangerous Goods Data Sharing Initiative  

About the initiative 

The Dangerous Goods Data Sharing Initiative is a national initiative being led by the National Bulk Tanker Association (NBTA) and other industry and state government participants, in collaboration with Transport Certification Australia (TCA). 

As part of the initiative, telematics and associated data from freight vehicles carrying different classes of dangerous goods are collected by TCA and visualised through TCA’s Telematics Analytics Platform to provide insights into movement of dangerous goods across Australia.   

By collecting data on vehicle types and the dangerous goods classification, combined with telematics data received from on-board telematics devices on the vehicles, TCA can analyse and visualise detailed information on the vehicles moving dangerous goods in Australia. This will include:    

• mapping the key routes and areas of travel intensity for specific commodities;    
• assessing the comparative volume of transport on specific routes for different commodities;  
• identifying the travel times between key origins and destinations;     
• understanding the impact of disruptive events and tracking changes over multi-year periods.  

Purpose   

The purpose of the initiative is to provide a reliable database that will support evidence-based discussions between the transport industry, road managers and other government authorities with regards to road access planning, infrastructure management and efficient transport.     

How data is collected  

The participating transport operators agree to their telematics service provider sharing telematics data from their enrolled vehicles with TCA. The telematics data will be shared and held by TCA strictly in accordance with the conditions of the consent agreement.  

TCA gives a clear undertaking that all data will be aggregated and anonymised to ensure commercial confidentiality. TCA will not enable the subsequent identification of individual vehicles, or the company ownership of vehicles. The voluntary data received by TCA will not be used for enforcement purposes.  

The Dangerous Goods Data Sharing Initiative uses historical data collected during 2021 and adds ongoing data from 2022 to the database.  

For more information on industry-led data sharing initiatives, please contact TCA.