AfMA Fleetdrive Issue 19 | Seite 7

Are you aware of how to keep your drivers safe and how to manage risk in the mobile office? WORDS BY DANIEL BRAID AND AUSTROADS W ork health and safety legislation in Australia and New Zealand clearly defines vehicles as a workplace. Vehicle use in road traffic is by far the most significant contributor to work-related traumatic injury so it’s important your organisation is aware of the obligation you have to keeping your employees safe. In consultation with Safe Work Australia, Austroads has initiated a project to reduce work-related road trauma and contribute to best practice road safety management by: • fostering a strategic partnership between WHS and RTS authorities, and • raising awareness of WHS duties in road transport. This report outlines the “learning by doing” approach taken in the project – meaning that the best way to promote change is to put it into practice. The report includes an engagement strategy to support ongoing work in the area and is itself supported by a communications plan and evaluation plan. The draft work health and safety guide produced through this project closes a gap in the provision of work health and safety guidance on managing vehicle use in road traffic. Meanwhile the goal of the engagement strategy is “to help sustain dialogue amongst national stakeholders through the remainder of the national road safety, and workplace health and safety, strategies in Australia and New Zealand, and ensure work-related road safety is a principal focus of each of these strategies through to 2030.” ISSUE 16 2019 / WWW.AFMA.NET.AU 7