11 minute read
How to stay safe and compliant with a mobile workforce
By Chris L’Ecluse, Transport Solutions Specialist at Teletrac Navman
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Keeping staff safe is essential for managers and executives across all industries. When you’re in charge of managing a mobile workforce, with staff working in remote areas of Australia for days or even weeks at a time, ensuring the safety of all team members is easier said than done.
In Western Australia alone, twelve workers lost their lives on the job between 2018-19. Recent industrial manslaughter convictions of employers have made it clear that businesses need safety systems and risk management plans to protect their staff, or risk legal consequences in the case of an incident.
With the passing of the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA), actioned through Legislative Assembly on 3rd November last year, vehicles and driver cabins are now legally considered part of the workplace. This means that managers and operators need to be proactive in mitigating risks for their staff, or they potentially face serious charges. For businesses and body corporates, the maximum fine that can be issued under these new rules is $10 million, and individuals found guilty of negligence can face a maximum fine of $5 million and up to 20 years’ imprisonment.
As Unions WA secretary, Owen Whittle, says, “If a negligent driver causing a fatal accident can be charged with manslaughter, so too should an employer that badly mismanages a dangerous workplace.” Greg Busson, CFMEU Mining and Energy WA Secretary, mirrors this sentiment, stating, “We need real disincentives like jail time for employers for risking workers’ safety... A slap on the wrist isn’t enough.”
WA is now aligned with New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania by joining the harmonised work health and safety (WHS) regime, designed to provide a consistent set of safety laws for businesses in all states to follow. This provides a clear set of guidelines to build a comprehensive safety policy around, even if operating interstate.
Here’s what you can do to keep your staff safe and business out of legal trouble.
Automated Vehicle Maintenance
In any workplace, it’s up to managers to ensure their facilities are in top condition for staff. In a mobile workforce, fleet operators take on the responsibility of keeping their vehicles safe and secure.
Maintaining the condition of your fleet via paper pre-trip checklists and manual maintenance scheduling creates potential hazards if paperwork is lost. It also means that new issues that arise are not always captured or flagged quickly with other staff, which opens yourself up for serious trouble.
By adopting a smart fleet management system, fleet managers can access engine and vehicle maintenance data in realtime. Back-office employees can create a comprehensive history of each asset and fully understand the state and condition of all vehicles without needing to physically inspect each individual truck or chase up previous paperwork from weeks before.
With digital pre-start checklists, maintenance staff know well ahead of time when things may need fixing or replacing. Having this data delivered in real-time means your maintenance strategy will shift from reactive to proactive, so you can address potential faults instantly, rather than after the fact.
Team members can pull the vehicle off the road, do the necessary repairs to rectify the problem at hand and get it back on the road swiftly.
Smart, AI-enabled, fleet tracking systems will also save you hours chasing up vehicle conditions, previous schedule history or diagnosing faults, and ensures your operations don’t come to a grinding halt when a vehicle is unexpectedly out of action.
Road Safety Policies
Part of keeping your drivers safe is creating a road safety policy, which is always available to everyone. When adopting a fleet management system into your operations, it’s essential that you update existing policies to align with use of the technology to protect drivers and other staff.
A physical policy document kept in a driver cabin, while ideal in theory, can be easily misplaced and needs to be updated manually. This makes it tricky for everyone across the fleet to access the updated paperwork, especially for those working in remote areas. Making the switch from paper-based policy documents to in-cabin devices means that drivers, contractors, and operators don’t have any excuse for not being able to view or access the road safety policy.
No matter where they are, everyone can access the same documents which can also be updated in real-time so there’s no lag in a driver or contractor receiving the latest safety protocols.
Ensure all staff members are regularly reminded of the guidelines and where they’re located. A weekly or fortnightly team meeting centred around driver safety is a fantastic way to ensure all staff are prompted regularly about your safety policies.
It’s also important that you encourage your team to share any confusion around the guidelines, as keeping these rules clear and top of mind will help to mitigate risk.
Connecting With Staff
Communication around safety doesn’t just apply to policies and procedures. It’s also about talking to each employee and taking the time to understand any concerns they may have around driver safety.
It’s important that you look at the habits and behaviours of each driver, as some may be more prone to risk taking compared to their teammates.
Telematics lets you understand each driver’s habits and the circumstances surrounding their behaviour. You can use these insights to create a safer workplace overall. For example, if you notice that several drivers in your fleet have issues with speeding, you can create a custom driver training program tailored to their needs. This can be paired with digital driver scorecards based on each person’s behaviours, which empower drivers to feel invested in their own progress and improve their score over time.
For many of your drivers, the uncertainty around reporting and compliance can be exhausting. Having to wade through permits and contract conditions is not only time-consuming but can lead to important details falling through the cracks. Digitising this process with incabin devices not only reduces paperwork but helps to reduce infringement penalties caused by the complexities of complying with customer requirements, which ultimately keep your staff safe on the road and ensure jobs are completed as efficiently as possible.
EWDs take the stress out of monitoring, allowing drivers to get on with the job. These in-cabin devices accurately record all working hours so you can stay informed of driver wellbeing and compliance. All fatigue-related data is available for admin staff to view in the back office via the fleet management system, so if a driver is due to take a break, the system automatically notifies the driver via their in-cabin device, alerting them to pull over and take some time to rest.
Last year, 182 Australian workers lost their lives in the workplace, with 25 casualties occurring within the transport, postal and warehousing sectors. With trucks and fleets legally considered part of the workplace, it’s up to managers and operators to do everything in their power to keep staff safe, or risk serious jail time.
By digitising your maintenance checklists, creating a comprehensive road safety policy and using smart fleet safety technology such as EWDs, you can mitigate potential risks and hazards, eliminate any uncertainty around reporting and keep your fleet safe all year round.
WA
TRANSPORT
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VOLUME 27 | NUMBER 6
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FROM THE PUBLISHER
Well winter has certainly set in right across Australia. Lots of rain and snow and record cold days – global warming?
In this edition we cover the exciting INSTRUCKTA truck which expands into a cutting edge education tool which Transafe WA will introduce to the public and schools in order to help people understand how to share the road safely with trucks.
On Page 2 we focus on how to keep your mobile workforce safe and compliant. In WA alone, twelve workers lost their lives on the job in one year and recent industrial manslaughter convictions of employers have made it clear that businesses need safety systems.
On Page 6 we look behind the upcoming introduction of a ban on demeaning slogans on vehicles and how this could affect the transport industry.
On Page 9, Main Roads Heavy Vehicle Services talk about their upcoming Industry Information/Awareness Sessions and state that they want to work with industry and listen to your concerns and ideas before making decisions that affect you.
As always, thank you to everyone who contributes supports and reads the magazine.
Best,
Karen
CONTENTS
2..............................................How to stay safe and compliant with a mobile workforce 6..............................................The end of demeaning slogans on vehicles in WA 8..............................................Construction underway to fix one of WA’s most dangerous intersections
9..............................................HVS Industry Information / Awareness Sessions 12 ...........................................WA’s critical need for increased truck safety education 13 ...........................................Report reveals PBS vehicles involved in fewer major crashes 14...........................................Major boost for Western Australian renewable hydrogen 17............................................10,000 more interstate vehicles roll into Western Australia
18...........................................Can I pay my drivers a flat rate? 19...........................................Time to sweat – crackdown on impaired drivers 20.........................................New fundraising record set for NTI’s truck restoration
21 ...........................................Hall of Fame – Steve Grahame
Every Month
7...............................................Questions to WA State Government 10...........................................Fair Go for Owner Drivers 16...........................................Birds Eye View 22.........................................HCVC 24.........................................WA Transport History Endorsed by
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IN THIS ISSUE:
Steering towards better sleep New AMMS operating conditions Should international drivers get more training? Driver distraction or suicide?
WATM • June 2021
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