What the new Master Code will mean for drivers

The new Master Code of Practice will soon be registered by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR). Many of you will have seen the consultation draft that was published a few months ago and some will have submitted feedback, which is being considered by the assessment panel and will lead to improvements in the final draft.

It’s a great example of working with industry to create a useful product and everyone who has taken the time to contribute should be proud of their efforts.

One thing that can never be said about this industry is that the people are shy about speaking up when they see a problem.

What does the Master Code mean for me?

If you’re a transport operator your business is a party in the Chain of Responsibility (CoR) and you should benchmark your own safety management against what’s in the code.

If you find your own approach is at least as effective as what’s in the code, well done, you can be confident that you’re compliant with your Primary Duty to ensure safety. If it’s not, you have a ready-made reference for improvement.

You don’t have to do exactly what’s in the code, but you can’t do a half-arsed job or it will come back to bite you. The code doesn’t create any new requirements in law, it’s there to help you make sure you’re on top of your safety game. The penalties for breaches of the Primary Duty are very steep and the ones for individual executives aren’t chickenfeed either.

You can also use it to assess what the other businesses you deal with are doing and whether their operations are causing a hazard that you and your drivers will have to try to manage.

What you do with that information is up to you, but the law says that if you should know about a hazard and you don’t do what you can to fix it, you’re just as responsible as the person who directly caused it.

Sometimes that will mean simply saying “NO! I’m not going to do it that way” and refusing a job because it isn’t safe. Most of the time though, the code will give both businesses a common ground for working with each other to improve things. There’s usually more than one way to skin a cat, but the first step is always recognising that it needs skinning!

What about the driver?

Drivers are NOT parties in the CoR. If you’ve been told that you are, it’s simply wrong. Owner-drivers are, because you control the operations of the truck, but not if you drive on wages, or if you operate through an ABN as a subcontract driver.

On the other hand, we are the hand on the wheel when something goes wrong on the road. If we’re not at the top of our game, a simple situation can turn into a major smash.

NHVR recognises this, so the code contains a lot of controls designed to ensure that drivers are properly supported to do their job and don’t have to be worried about whether others have done their job properly.

You still have to obey the road rules, check your load and load restraint, make sure you understand the signs of fatigue and you don’t drive when impaired, check the truck for faults and report them, make sure you don’t breach any of the many provisions in the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) that apply to drivers and so on.

That’s important and it’s all aimed at helping you to do your real job: keeping yourself and others safe, even if they do something stupid.

That’s your job and it’s a big one.

• It’s not your job to make the dispatcher look good by getting a load to a receiver in an unrealistic time, or taking on a load when you’re already exhausted or your mind is on other things going on in your life.
• It’s not your job to drive a faulty truck.
• It’s not your job to carry a load on a truck that’s not suitable, because it was the only one conveniently available.
• It’s not your job to deal with an unreasonable consignor or receiver who makes you sit in the truck in a queue for hours without being paid or even a chance to get out and take a break.
• It’s not your job to take a loaded container without knowing what the freight is inside it and whether it’s been properly restrained.
• It’s not your job to carry freight that’s poorly packed or loaded or is sitting on busted pallets that are likely to collapse.
• It’s not your job to do work that you haven’t been trained for.
• It’s not your job to take on loads that you don’t feel confident to carry or know how to restrain safely.
• It’s not your job to get into a new type of truck and try to work out where everything is or how it works while you’re on the road.
• It’s not your job to “harden up, princess”.

You can’t be punished for raising a safety concern, that’s covered by section 699 of the HVNL. If it does happen, give the NHVR Confidential Reporting Line (1800 931 785) a call or email and the information will go to the Investigations Team. Your details won’t be given to anybody outside NHVR.

Your employer and the businesses you service should have processes in place for acting on safety feedback. While nobody likes being told there’s a problem, it’s much worse if nobody does anything about it.

What’s the point of all this?

Driving is a dangerous job. According to NTARC about 14 trucks in every 1000 on the road were involved in a major smash over the last year. While the majority of these incidents were assessed by insurers as being caused by a light vehicle, we all know that the difference between a smash and a miss is often down to how well the truckie can manage the situation.

Sometimes it’s unavoidable, but in my experience, many could be either avoided altogether or the impacts reduced if the truck driver is on their game and the truck and freight are in good order.

The Master Code is a key tool for making sure that:

• When you get into your truck you’re ready to go and if you aren’t, you’re able to say so and be heard or someone will notice and give you a chance for a break or to seek support.
• You have decent rest facilities available when you need them.
• Nobody is going to put pressure on you to be unsafe.
• The truck is in good nick with all its systems working properly and all the right equipment on board.
• Delays are kept to a minimum and the scheduling is flexible enough to allow you to manage them without having to worry about consequences from the boss or anyone else.
• The freight is fit to be carried.
• Everybody is kept informed when things change or go wrong so alternative plans can be made.

In other words, that you have the best possible chance of keeping yourself and others safe when you’re out there at the pointy end of 100 tonnes.

Take a look at the Consultation Draft if you haven’t already and keep an eye out for the registered code.

It’s in everyone’s interest.

• Craig Minns is the Director of Onroad Safety Solutions, and a former policy advisor at the NHVR, and Trevor Warner is an experienced interstate truckie and administrator of the popular Facebook page, The Drivers Advocate.