RV FEATURE
When I was learning to drive , my initial training came from my father . Later , I took lessons from a professional to ensure I hadn ’ t picked up any of my dad ’ s bad habits . Eventually , I got my licence and I was let onto the roads .
Despite the good intentions of those who taught me , none of that training involved any awareness of the laws that govern towing a large articulated vehicle such as a car and caravan .
Yet , in Victoria , once you obtain your full licence , you can drive a vehicle weighing up to 4.5 tonnes and tow a trailer weighing up to nine tonnes if the manufacturer allows it , despite the fact the biggest vehicle you had driven to that point was no larger than a Corolla .
My driver training was Victoria-centric . There was no need for me to know the road rules in another state or territory , but I do recall knowing the laws in each state were slightly different . Then , in 1999 , the National Road Transport Commission developed the Australian Road Rules , a set of model rules intended to form the basis for all state and territory road rules across Australia .
As the name suggests , these rules are meant to ensure consistent standards across the country . If you learned to drive in Victoria , you should be able to drive in New South Wales and , for want of a better phrase , play by the same rules . In reality , this is not quite the case .
If you combine poor knowledge of towing laws with potentially different laws in each state , that dream road trip around Australia could turn out to be more expensive than you ever expected .
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