The HVIA used a recent trucking conference to test its latest heavy vehicle safety programs
The Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia (HVIA) has facilitated a load restraint masterclass at last week’s Trucking Australia 2022 conference to test its latest safety course for heavy vehicles.
The session serves as a key piece of research for the HVIA to help inform a project funded by the NHVR’s heavy vehicle safety initiative.
The outcomes of the well-attended session will also feed into an online load restraint training course that the HVIA is currently developing.
At the end of this process, the HVIA wants to produce an interactive online training course, but it still requires more resources to properly aid performance in the area.
HVIA’s Steve Power chaired the session in front of an audience of industry leaders and was joined by roadside enforcement experts Russell Greenland and Jarrad Murphy from the NHVR safety and on-road compliance team.
“Load restraint is a fundamental principle of the chain of responsibility,” Power says.
“The session agenda was cast to explore the safety culture, training and communication issues that typically cause load restraint failures – with potentially catastrophic results.”
Power says the industry’s ability to question the status quo in the load restraint area is key to ensuring there aren’t grey areas for members going forward.
“This isn’t about avoiding fines or managing reputational risk; it’s about very real risks and potential consequences, such as making sure no one is harmed,” Power says.
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Greenland also says that members should use the master code, which is an industry code of practice that was endorsed by the NHVR in 2018 and was a result of a joint project between the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) and the Australian Logistics Council (ALC).
“We assume that you know what’s in that master code because it has been produced by industry. If you haven’t got these systems in place, you are leaving yourself very vulnerable,” Greenland says.
Greenland is urging operators to consult the load restraint guide and go through the four processes of the angle and thickness of the webbing, the type of buckle used and the friction material underneath.
The HVIA’s online load restraint course is intended to be available to all operators to reinforce and test comprehension of the load restraint guide’s fundamentals.
“It’s one of many courses we will deliver through HVIA training on the back of the success of HV101,” Power says.
The online course is scheduled to be launched at the Brisbane Truck Show in May next year, but the HVIA is also expecting to have it ready for initial testing sooner than that.