Road freight transport in the spotlight

WorkSafe will be looking at safety issues in the road freight transport industry over the next 12 months with visits by inspectors to both large and small companies in the metropolitan and regional areas of Western Australia.

WorkSafe has previously explored the specific issues of fatigue management in road freight transport and workers in isolated locations.

“This inspection program aims to look at all the other workplace safety issues that exist in the industry, particularly those occurring at depots, warehouses and so on.”

Statistics show the industry suffers a high rate of work-related lost time injuries, with 551 lost time injuries per year on average over the past five years.

Many are serious enough to keep employees off work for 60 days or more, often the result of body stressing such as muscle strains, back conditions and tendonitis caused by manual tasks.

WorkSafe said other causes of injury involve slips, trips and falls, including falls from truck cabins and from the back of trucks, as well as being hit by moving objects such as items falling from trucks during unloading or as a result of unsecured loads.

Inspectors will look at WorkSafe’s priority areas including manual tasks, slips, trips and falls, working at heights, noise, machine guarding and hazardous substances, as well as safety issues around the safe movement of vehicles, mobile plant, emergency procedures and new and young workers.

Attard said it is a real worry that over three-quarters of all injuries in the industry result in five or more days off work, indicating that if you get injured in this industry it is very likely to be serious or of long duration.

“As with all WorkSafe proactive inspection programs, raising awareness is the main objective, but inspectors will take enforcement action if they find breaches of the laws.”

For further information, go to www.worksafe.wa.gov.au.

Image credit: ©Max Blain/Dollar Photo Club

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