Just about the most important thing to you as a transport operator is your Transport Service Licence (TSL), without this you do not have a transport operation. Protecting it should be one of the highest priorities of your business.
Many operators might think that, with the number of transport services operating, the NZTA will not be able to monitor the state of them all to ensure they are fit and proper to hold a TSL. This thinking leads to the mistaken idea that it is possible to cut corners and let standards slip provided they don’t draw attention to themselves. The current regulatory environment is proving this assumption false. The NZTA has sent strong signals that it is maximising the use of its resources by targeting to risk. By using data collected for the Operator Rating System (ORS) along with complaints from the public and other industry intelligence, the NZTA has, and is using, very efficient tools to identify those operators it considers to be a risk to road safety.
Before you are targeted you need to be proactive in addressing the issues that could put your TSL at risk. You do this by continuously monitoring your drivers’ and vehicles’ compliance and safety so you get no surprises at a roadside stop, your vehicles pass first time at CoF and that your drivers are 100% safe and compliant.
If you’ve got one, or maybe even two, vehicles you may be able to keep track of all these compliance requirements in your head but the vast majority of operators need a system to help them. One of the things NZTA look at when investigating an operator is what systems do they have in place to manage compliance and safety and how effective these systems are. Unfortunately, many smaller operators have ad hoc systems, often little more than a cardboard box full of scribbled notes about customer pick-ups and deliveries, receipts for planned and unplanned maintenance (mostly unplanned), customer feedback and public complaints. When the NZTA checks vehicle maintenance records, what they find is disorganisation and chaos, generally a signal that things are not as they should be and a trigger to look deeper. Once an operator receives the 21 days’ notice of ‘intention to revoke’ from the NZTA advising them that they have just days to put their house in order or lose their TSL, or they are notified that they are subject to a Worksafe investigation, it is pretty much too late.
To safely manage their transport business, operators need an efficient and effective fleet management system. A system such as FLEETSAGE allows the operator to answer the following questions both honestly and positively;
- Are my vehicles safe and compliant?
- Are my drivers safe and compliant?
- Have I identified and addressed workplace hazards?
An effective fleet management system allows the transport operator to ensure that;
- All driving tasks and risks are identified, staff are trained to operate within the law and able to deal with all eventualities.
- Vehicle downtime, delays and CoF failures are minimised by ensuring maintenance is scheduled and minor issues are recognised and dealt with early through properly recorded daily walkaround checks.
- As both the truck cab and the public road, as well as the transport operator’s and their customers’ yards, are recognised as the driver’s workplace so risks and potential hazards have been recognised, identified and eliminated, minimised or mitigated.
A fleet management system is needed before any of this occurs as it gives both the operator and the relevant Agencies assurance that drivers and vehicles are safe and compliant and workplace risks have been identified and addressed.
Steve Bullôt