Page 42 - Australian Defence Mag March 2020

42 LAND WARFARE VEHICLE SAFETY
MARCH 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
“Some of these trucks are designed to be in a warfighting environment where there is a risk of fire or indirect mu- nitions blasts,” BRIG Ashurst said. “The ability to load a container onto a truck using the truck itself to lift that con- tainer, for example – this is the sort of capability we now
“The Cell is making sure they’re abreast of all the latest policies and trends; they’re coming up with education pack- ages; and we have a direct relationship with council, state and territory responsible transport bodies,” BRIG Ashurst said. “It’s a one-stop shop. We’ve never had that before, but we needed a different approach.”
One of the major initiatives the Land Vehicle Safety Cell has undertaken is to embed a full-time liaison officer with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator in Brisbane. The officer is responsible for communicating Army’s op- erating procedures and for easing the regulatory burden introduced by the sheer number of vehicles arriving un- der Land 121.
“We currently have an NCO there,” BRIG Ashurst said. “He’s done a brilliant job. He has actually helped foster that relationship and helped increase that level of understanding.
“Of course, Army has all these massive vehicles and generated significant workload for the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator. So not only is he interpreting Army to the Regulator to help them understand how we operate, he’s also assisting with the workload.”
One of the major aspects of that workload is mapping routes that Army’s largest vehicles can actually take.
“If a bridge is not designed to take a certain weight, we’re not driving over that bridge,” BRIG Ashurst said. “We have to map all of that.”
“LIKE ANY COMMERCIAL
BUSINESS, DEFENCE HAS TO MAINTAIN COMPLIANCE WITH NATIONAL LAWS GOVERNING HEAVY VEHICLES.”
have that we never had before. “We decided we needed to get on the front foot of management.”
ENSURING COMPLIANCE
Like any commercial business, Defence has to maintain compli- ance with national laws govern- ing heavy vehicles. These include regulations on driver fatigue man- agement, mass and loading, regis- tration and vehicle standards.
Although compliance was traditionally managed within individual chains of command, Defence has now established the Land Vehicle Safety Cell to sup- port military personnel involved in the sustainment and operation of heavy vehicles.
BELOW: Working at height OHS considerations are now everyday business.
DEFENCE