The transport sector needs help to mitigate the risks of psychosocial harm in the workplace. Transport workers are subject to long periods of isolation, high-pressure working conditions, circadian disruption and sleep deprivation, causing stress, anxiety, depression and fatigue.
Furthermore, leaders within transport companies find it difficult to obtain the right tools, resources and systems required to address these issues to improve their staff’s wellbeing in the workplace.
Late last year, the ACC Injury Prevention Grant became available. After forming a collaborative group with other grant applicants, we successfully secured funding to develop the HARMfree Transport programme.
Involved in the collaborative group are:
• NTA and NRC, who together have the largest representation of transport company members, contacts and clients throughout the New Zealand transport industry.
• Kelly McLuckie from Success Formula, has more than 20 years’ experience within transport, logistics and construction. Kelly brings extensive experience in strategy and solution architecture, project management, culture change, leadership and organisational growth, business and information management, and team development. She is backed by qualifications in HR and change management.
• Rachel Lehen, managing director of Fit For Duty, has more than 13 years specialising in occupational sleep and fatigue management. Rachel has regularly led fatigue management masterclasses and has presented at several industry conferences speaking about fatigue management. She is skilled in helping businesses identify, understand and manage workplace fatigue.
• Charles Dawson, CEO of AutoSense, has vast experience working with large and small commercial businesses, including driver training. Charles is passionate about assisting organisations and individuals in developing strategies that promote strong governance, planning, and personal development.
A wider project steering group has been formed, consisting of industry experts, health and safety managers and transport company representatives, ensuring we have the right people to help with the design and development of the programme.
This project collaboration is an incredible combination of experienced industry experts, health and safety professionals and key transport company representatives. They will help qualify content before integration, so you can trust the materials to use in your company.
We identified early on that this project must be cognisant of the needs of Maori, Pacifika and other ethnic groups to ensure their voices are heard in the design and implementation of the HARMfree Transport interventions. These workers make up a disproportionately high number of injuries. Our combined networks will provide an extensive reach into transport- sector diversity. A multilingual approach will maximise reach and effectiveness.
Our collective goals are to provide transport companies with an opportunity to bring about behavioural change in the workplace and reduce and hopefully eliminate psychosocial harm. Expected outcomes for members will include increased use of best-practice guidelines, greater engagement across all staff on the development of GWD (good work design) and an enhanced understanding of dynamic risk with a significant reduction of harm and injuries in the workplace. Helping New Zealand’s transport companies create safer workplaces and share best practices will have many positive flow-on effects, including safer drivers and vehicles on our roads.
The focus will be on reaching and engaging with an organisation’s health and safety champion. We realise that not every company has the resources to employ a dedicated health and safety person. That person might be an owner- driver or someone in the company wearing many different hats. Too often, companies communicate their own interpretations regarding health and safety in the workplace. That’s why it’s important to have a place to go for up-to-date transport-sector training tools and links to professional expert advice.
The HARMfree Transport online portal will consist of existing industry resources, tools, information, relevant industry news, training materials and qualifications, which will be tailored to the needs of the transport industry in a language that is understood. Most importantly, the programme will be designed to connect transport-company health and safety champions through an online forum to share knowledge and learn from each other. The forum will provide an environment that encourages health and safety and HR experts to reach out for support from their counterparts across the transport industry.
NTA’s Road Safety Truck and the AutoSense Eyes Up NZ programme will also integrate with HARMfree Transport.
For more information on becoming a member or expressions of interest in becoming a HARMfree Transport supplier, please contact info@harmfree.nz or call 0800 338 338.
