The WA Performance Based Standards (PBS) Scheme is designed to enable the transport industry to achieve higher productivity and safety through innovative and optimised vehicle design. It focuses on how well a vehicle behaves on the road, through a set of safety performance standards, rather than assessing a vehicle based solely on prescriptive mass and dimension limits. It also enables transport operators to access roads with vehicle combinations that would not otherwise be approved, such as longer PBS vehicles that are demonstrated to perform within the same envelope as shorter prescriptive vehicles.

The WA Performance Based Standards (PBS) Scheme - Application and Approval Process outlines the process to have a PBS vehicle introduced in WA.

All PBS vehicles in WA must comply with the standard operating conditions and must be maintained in such a manner to ensure that the physical characteristics are not modified from those stated in the approved vehicle specifications. We conduct PBS vehicle audits in accordance with the WA Performance Based Standards (PBS) Scheme - Audit Framework to ensure vehicles have not been altered from the approved design.