About safety management plans

Responsible duty holders for road-based public passenger services must have a safety management plan (SMP) and ensure it is implemented.

What is an SMP

An SMP is a documented plan that helps keep people safe when providing or using a public passenger service. It shows how the responsible duty holder has identified hazards and will manage safety risks to meet legal obligations.

Your SMP must:

  • identify hazards that could affect your service
  • assess the risks they pose
  • outline the actions needed to eliminate or reduce those risks
  • clearly identify who is responsible for taking the actions.

Your SMP helps you meet your safety obligations under Chapter 6A of the Transport Operations (Passenger Transport) Act 1994.

Who must have an SMP

Every responsible duty holder must have and implement an SMP for the public passenger service they are responsible for. If you are responsible for multiple public passenger services, your SMP must cover the hazards and risks relevant to each service.

More than 1 responsible duty holder for the service

A public passenger service may have more than 1 responsible duty holder. This can happen where different businesses have overlapping responsibilities for providing the service. For example:

  • 2 or more bus operators contract or sub-contract services to each other
  • a taxi management company (operator) works with a booking service provider
  • a limousine licence holder who is a booking entity authorisation (BEA) holder sub-contracts work to another limousine licence holder who is also a BEA holder (both are a booking service provider of a service).

In these cases, responsible duty holders can work together to agree who is best placed to develop and maintain the safety management plan for the service. If agreed, you do not need separate plans. Consider:

  • the tasks or responsibilities each person carries out, including whether they do so all the time or only occasionally
  • the type of safety risks involved in the activity
  • each person's ability to eliminate, control or reduce those risks.

Where a responsible duty holder follows another responsible duty holder's SMP for a service, they must satisfy themselves that the SMP:

  • captures the hazards and risks relevant to the service
  • includes appropriate actions to control those risks
  • meets legislative requirements.

Following another responsible duty holder's SMP does not remove a responsible duty holder's legal responsibility for meeting their own safety obligations. Safety responsibilities can't be transferred to another person.

You can also maintain your own separate SMP if that works better for you.

When passenger transport is not your main business

You may provide public passenger services even though passenger transport is not your main activity.

If the transport meets the definition of a public passenger service, you must have an SMP that covers the safety risks associated with providing that service.

This may include services such as:

  • community transport services
  • courtesy transport services
  • free transport to locally significant events.

If you already have a safety plan in place to meet other legal requirements, such as the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 or other laws, you may be able to adapt this to meet the SMP requirements.

Learn more about who needs to follow the safety duty requirements.

Who must comply with the SMP

All duty holders must follow the parts of the responsible duty holder's SMP that apply to them, so far as is reasonably practicable.

Duty holders for a road-based public passenger service include:

  • an operator of a service
  • a registered operator of a vehicle used to provide the service
  • the driver of a vehicle used to provide the service
  • a booking service provider for the service
  • a driver contracted by a volunteer association
  • a holder of a personalised transport service licence, including taxi service licence, limousine licence or booked hire service licence
  • a local nominee—for foreign authorised booking entities.

A responsible duty holder must advise other duty holders of their roles and responsibilities under the SMP and ensure anyone responsible for actions in the SMP understands what they must do.

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