Page 44 - Australian Defence Mag March 2020

44 LAND WARFARE VEHICLE SAFETY RIGHT: Safety around the vehicles is everyone’s
responsibility under new legislation.
CHAIN OF RESPONSIBILITY
Another change brought in has been an expan- sion of what BRIG Ashurst calls the ‘chain of re- sponsibility’, referring to individuals other than a driver who are involved in the tasking or use of a heavy vehicle.
“The National Heavy Vehicle Law and embedded chain of responsibility has been in place since 1 Oc- tober 2018,” BRIG Ashurst said. “What that means is everyone in the chain of command with influence over a driver task – whether they’re in uniform or a third party contractor – is actually responsible and liable for road safety.
“It’s from the person who gave the driver the task all the way to the driver themselves. The days of truck drivers being pushed to their limits, or loads coming off on a highway – too often the driver has been a scapegoat. This is a systemic approach. The chain of responsibility is a system, and everyone in that system is responsible and ac- countable.”
Whilst Army has always had regulations and chains of command governing heavy vehicle op- erations, the main difference between now and five
years ago is the dissemination of information all the way through the ranks. It’s a deep cultural shift happening in parallel to the number of new vehicles hitting the road.
“How do we empower and inform every individual operator?” BRIG Ashurst asked. “We’ve got to make sure the culture is right for all these new vehicles we’re operating.
“That’s not to say the culture was wrong before, but we didn’t have this number of heavy vehicles before. It’s a ma- turing of the system.”
MARCH 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
TRAINING AND TECHNOLOGY
Part of this cultural shift is happening in Army’s approach to training, which is moving beyond course delivery to a ‘continuous learning loop’ involving new technologies.
“The Chief of Army has tasked Army’s Forces Command to lead how and when training is conducted and associated assurance activities,” BRIG Ashurst said. “They’re leading the way with a program called Army’s Training Transforma- tion, which is enabling us to move from simply delivering a course to achieving a continual learning loop.”
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