In his RNZ report, Phil Pennington raises some interesting points about workplace vehicle deaths. For the full article go to Research into work-related deaths involving vehicles overdue, say advocates.
Why are workplace vehicle deaths such a big deal?
In Pennington’s article, WorkSafeNZ’s reports show that more than 70 per cent of work-related fatalities involved vehicles. Peter Bateman’s article in this month’s Safeguard magazine also highlights the following issues:
1. The trucking industry is renowned for breaking road rules around speed and fatigue.
2. Having three agencies looking after vehicle incidents (NZPolice, NZTA and WorksafeNZ) causes confusion and loopholes.
3. It wasn’t until 2018 that that NZPolice had the authority to investigate health and safety factors beyond the crash site.
What does this mean for Business Owners?
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, a vehicle is a ‘place of work’. Since it’s hard if not impossible to eliminate vehicles you need to work out what are you reasonably able to do to minimise the risk to workers who drive. Also, it’s highly likely that NZ will move towards the Australian model where road rules around truck drivers and company vehicles were tightened up over eight years ago.
It’s time to review your vehicle policy and ask the following questions:
- What licences are our workers required to have?
- What happens if someone loses their licence?
- Do we have a vehicle emergency policy?
- Do we track our vehicle movements?
- What happens if someone is overdue from a trip?
- How do we check that our vehicles are safe and well maintained?
- How do we manage driver fatigue?
- What happens if someone is breaking the road rules? For example, speeding, drunk driving or not wearing a seatbelt.
- What happens if someone gets a ticket or demerit points in a company vehicle?
- What is our policy on drivers using blue tooth and mobile phones?
- What happens if our workers use their own vehicle for work use?
Workplace vehicle deaths are a problem that needs to be addressed. If you have any questions or anything else to add to the questions around your in-house vehicle policy email sarah@employmenow.co.nz or call 0272 007 680.
Have a safe and productive week.
Best,
SB