Reporting a vehicle safety or non-compliance issue

Should I make a report?

Reports from the public, industry and other regulators help us effectively administer RVS legislation. We would like to receive reports about:

potential systemic safety issues related to the design or manufacture of road vehicles
the potential need for a vehicle safety recall
any concerns regarding the progress or performance of existing vehicle safety recalls
alleged breaches of RVS legislation including (but not limited to), Australian Design Rules (ADRs) non-compliance, failure to comply with conditions of an approval, importing or providing vehicles to the Australian market without the necessary permissions.

How will my report be used?

The information you provide may be used to assist us in identifying potential issues with road vehicle safety, recalls or breaches of RVS legislation. Information provided may also assist us when we undertake compliance monitoring activities.

You may be contacted further if we need additional information (but not if you report anonymously).

Please note we do not provide engineering or legal advice, or advice on the safety of individual vehicles. Importantly, we do not assist with disputes between vehicle owners and manufacturers, suppliers or dealerships.

Not all matters reported to us will be investigated. Your report will be assessed to determine if the matter will be pursued further. When a matter is not immediately pursued, the information you have provided will help us to identify any trends regarding the reported matter.

Before reporting your concerns to us

Before reporting your concerns please consider the following:

Read and understand the owner's manual for your vehicle. Sometimes a concern can be quickly resolved by understanding how particular features of your vehicle operate.
See if your vehicle is subject to a recall. You can search for your vehicle on the Vehicle Recalls website or contact the vehicle manufacturer.
Contact your dealership or supplier and discuss the concern or issue directly with them.
Contact the vehicle's manufacturer. Most manufacturers have a customer service section that may be able to assist. After reporting a concern to the manufacturer, distributor or supplier you should allow a reasonable time for them to reply and address the concern.

How do I make a report?

You can report a road vehicle safety or non-compliance issue by:

submitting an online vehicle safety or non-compliance report without a ROVER account
submitting a safety or non-compliance concern while signed in to ROVER, the department's online application and approval portal
downloading the Vehicle safety or non-compliance report form and sending the completed form to the department via email or post. (You will be notified by email that your report has been received.)

The Director
Compliance and Enforcement
Vehicle Safety Operations Branch
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts
GPO Box 594
Canberra ACT 2601

When a vehicle safety or non-compliance report is submitted, a record is created in ROVER. Each report is assigned a unique reference number for identification in the format REP-YYYY-MM-######.

If a report requires further information and the report hasn't been submitted anonymously, we will email the entity/individual who is the subject of the report.

Collection, use and disclosure of personal information?

The department collects, and may use the personal information in a Vehicle Safety or Non-Compliance Report to assist in identifying systemic vehicle safety and legislative non-compliance issues. In some cases, the information provided may be used to support compliance monitoring and various enforcement responses.

If you do not want your report to be disclosed, select 'no' to the question 'Can this information be disclosed to other parties?' If you are agreeable to having your information disclosed in some circumstances and not others, select 'no' and add an explanation in the free text field 'Comments and any other matters' at the end of the report form.

Please note, when submitting a report, if you agree to disclosure, your personal information may be disclosed to:

vehicle manufacturers or suppliers
State and Territory vehicle registration authorities
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), or State and Territory consumer protection agencies
Australian Border Force
Australian Federal Police or State and Territory law enforcement bodies
State and Territory emergency services or Coroners.

Personal information may be disclosed to an overseas organisation. For example, where a vehicle manufacturer or supplier is outside of Australia.

If you provide personal medical information, it is likely to be disclosed. For example, if you report a crash where you were injured and we provide your report to the vehicle manufacturer, your injury information will be included.

For more information on how the department protects privacy, please see the department's online privacy policy. This policy contains information regarding complaint handling processes and how to access or seek correction of personal information held by the department.

Further information and resources

For information about how we undertake compliance and enforcement under RVS legislation please refer to the Compliance and Enforcement webpage.

For information relating to vehicle recalls please refer to the Vehicle Recalls website.

The department is not a consumer advocate and is unable to assist with disputes involving dealerships or vehicle suppliers, compensation or re-imbursement of costs related to problems with your vehicle.

For issues relating to customer satisfaction, vehicle quality, warranty, repairs or durability please contact the relevant consumer protection agency in your state or territory. Contact details for these agencies can be found on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission website.