Transport and logistics
Business continuity planning for Queensland transport and logistics operators.
A continuity plan for a Queensland transport or logistics operator sets out what happens when the Bruce Highway closes, a driver is unavailable, or fuel or a key vehicle is lost. It should name your alternate routes, your fallback drivers and your customer notification process before you need any of them. For a small fleet operator this is usually a handful of pages, built around the two or three routes and clients that matter most.
24-72 hrs
typical Bruce Highway closure duration after a significant flood event in a wet season
1 vehicle
loss of a single truck or van that can remove 10-25% of a small fleet's daily capacity overnight
Days, not hours
how long a driver shortage from illness or licence issue can take to resolve without a bench of backup drivers
The state of play
Where the industry sits right now.
Queensland's transport and logistics sector is unusually exposed to a single piece of infrastructure. The Bruce Highway is the primary freight corridor linking Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast, Wide Bay, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns, and it closes somewhere along its length most wet seasons due to flooding, landslip or crash-related incidents, sometimes for a matter of hours and sometimes for several days. Operators who route freight along this corridor without a mapped alternate route or a plan for what to tell clients during a closure lose both time and customer confidence every time it happens, which for freight-dependent regional towns is more often than most southern-based clients realise.
What actually stops you trading
The disruptions that hit this sector hardest.
Bruce Highway or key route closure
Flooding, landslip or a serious crash closing a primary freight route can strand deliveries for a day or more. An operator with no mapped alternate route or client communication process loses the delivery and often the client's confidence in future reliability.
Driver shortage or unavailability
Illness, licence suspension or fatigue management breach can remove a driver from the roster with little notice. Small fleets without a backup driver arrangement or relief driver network cannot cover a contracted run at short notice.
Vehicle breakdown or fleet loss
A single truck failure represents a large proportional capacity loss for a small fleet. Operators without a maintenance contingency or hire vehicle arrangement lose the run entirely rather than just delaying it.
Fuel price spike or local supply disruption
Sudden fuel price movement or a localised supply disruption following a weather event affects margin directly and, in a severe case, can affect a business's ability to complete a run at all.
Telematics, booking or EPOD system outage
A freight booking platform, telematics system or electronic proof of delivery tool going down can stop dispatch and invoicing even when every truck is running fine, creating a cash flow and customer service problem out of a pure technology failure.
Chain of Responsibility breach or serious incident
A fatigue, loading or speed compliance breach carries shared legal liability under Heavy Vehicle National Law for the operator and potentially the client. A serious road incident involving a company vehicle also requires an immediate, documented response.
Who is asking for a plan
The pressure is already on.
Clients, insurers, regulators and prime contractors increasingly want evidence, not assurances.
Heavy Vehicle National Law and Chain of Responsibility
Operators and the businesses that engage them share legal responsibility for fatigue, loading and speed compliance, which makes documented operating procedures a practical legal safeguard, not just good practice.
Client and contract delivery service level agreements
Freight and courier contracts increasingly specify delivery windows and penalty clauses for missed deliveries, pushing operators toward documented contingency routes and communication protocols.
Insurer requirements for fleet and goods in transit cover
Insurers underwriting fleet, goods in transit and public liability cover for transport operators are asking more detailed questions about maintenance schedules, driver management and incident response before pricing risk.
WHS Queensland duties for driver fatigue and vehicle safety
Work health and safety obligations extend to driver fatigue management and vehicle safety, requiring a documented approach that a continuity plan can incorporate directly.
Why planning is worth the afternoon
What it costs to work it out on the day.
A missed delivery window during a Bruce Highway closure costs more than the immediate penalty clause in a contract, it costs the client relationship, and in a sector with as many operators as Queensland has, a client with a bad experience during a closure has plenty of alternatives to switch to next time.
A small fleet losing a single truck to breakdown loses proportionally more capacity than a large fleet would, and an operator without a hire vehicle or subcontractor arrangement pre-negotiated loses the whole job rather than just delaying it, which is the difference between a manageable cost and a lost contract.
Chain of Responsibility liability is shared, not limited to the driver or the operator alone, meaning a serious compliance breach can expose both the transport business and its client to legal consequence.
A documented, followed process is a genuine defence in that scenario, not just paperwork.
Operators who can demonstrate a mapped contingency plan for route closures and driver shortages are increasingly winning and retaining contracts over operators who cannot, particularly for time-sensitive regional freight where the client has already been burned by an unplanned closure before.
A realistic morning
A Rockhampton freight operator faces a multi-day Bruce Highway closure.
A six-truck regional freight operator based in Rockhampton learns the Bruce Highway has closed south of Mackay after heavy rain, with deliveries booked for Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast over the next three days.
Dispatcher checks the plan's mapped alternate inland route and reroutes two trucks already loaded for southbound delivery.
Client communication template is sent to the three affected clients, giving an honest revised delivery window instead of silence.
Remaining loads scheduled for the closure period are held at the depot rather than dispatched, avoiding trucks stranded on the closed route.
Inland route adds roughly six hours to transit time per run, but all rerouted deliveries arrive within the revised window given to clients.
Highway reopens. Backlog is cleared within a day using the two relief drivers named in the plan's backup driver list.
The operator delivered every load within a revised but honestly communicated window, retained all three affected clients, and avoided the reputational cost that a competing operator down the road incurred after leaving clients without any update for the full closure period.
What good looks like
What a plan for transport and logistics should contain.
How we fix it
One app. Your risks, and what to do about them.
The ResilientQLD app has two modules. The Risk Register works out what could stop you trading. The Disruption Playbooks tell whoever is on shift exactly what to do when it happens. Enter your business once, use it on a phone or a laptop, and export a printed copy for the wall.
Risk Register for routes, fleet and drivers
Track route dependencies, fleet capacity and driver coverage in a Risk Register so a single point of failure like one critical highway corridor is visible before it becomes an unplanned closure problem.
Disruption Playbooks for closures and breakdowns
Ready-made playbooks for route closure, vehicle breakdown and driver shortage mean the dispatcher on shift can reroute and communicate immediately rather than working it out from scratch.
Works from the cab or the depot
The app runs on mobile and desktop, so a driver or dispatcher can check the plan from the cab of a truck or the depot office without needing a laptop open.
Printable plan for client and insurer confidence
Export a clean PDF plan for only $1,299 first year, then $999 per year to show a client during contract negotiation or an insurer at renewal that route and fleet contingencies are genuinely documented.
Questions we get asked
Straight answers.
How often does the Bruce Highway close in Queensland?
It closes somewhere along its length most wet seasons due to flooding, landslip or serious crashes, with durations ranging from a few hours to several days depending on the severity of the event.
Do transport operators need a business continuity plan in Queensland?
There is no single law requiring one, but Chain of Responsibility obligations, client service level agreements and insurer requirements all push operators toward having a documented contingency plan.
What is Chain of Responsibility and how does it affect continuity planning?
Chain of Responsibility under Heavy Vehicle National Law shares legal responsibility for fatigue, loading and speed compliance between the operator and the businesses that engage them, making documented procedures a practical legal safeguard.
How can a small fleet operator plan for a highway closure?
Map an alternate route for every regular delivery corridor in advance, prepare a client communication template for delays, and decide in advance whether to hold or reroute loads once a closure is confirmed.
What should a transport business do if it loses a truck to breakdown?
A pre-arranged hire vehicle or subcontractor fallback lets the business cover the run rather than lose the job entirely, which is why this arrangement should be agreed and documented before a breakdown happens, not during one.
Get your plan sorted before you need it.
Most operators finish the first version in an afternoon. Start in the app, or have a 20 minute conversation with us first.