ARRB Webinar Series: the Hanson Approach to Chain of Responsibility (Cor)

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ARRB webinar series: The Hanson Approach to Chain of Responsibility (CoR)

Angela Juhasz: Good afternoon everyone or good morning depending on where you’re joining us from today. My name is Angela Juhasz and I’ll be your friendly webinar moderator today. Today we’re covering the Hanson Approach to CoR and I’ll introduce our presenters in just one moment after attending to a few housekeeping items first.

Today we have two presenters, so we have Steve Williams and John Aspinall joining us from Hanson. A little bit of background on our presenters today. The first presenter to speak is Steve Williams who developed the Hanson CoR training packaged and delivered the initial roll out of the Hanson and Hymix sites throughout the country regions of New South Wales. He also developed an audit tool designed to measure how well a company is meeting their CoR obligations. Steve has over 38 years’ experience in transport and training including 30 years with the Hanson Group.

After Steve we have John Aspinall who will be the second presenter. John continues to develop and deliver the training package through New South Wales for the Hanson Group including refresher training as required, particularly if the NHVR introduces changes and updates. John also conducts audits with Hanson’s contractors with the aim of improving their level of compliance and overall fleet safety. John has over 40 years’ experience in transport and training including 28 years with the Hanson Group.

Together Steve and John will give an overview of how Hanson developed and delivered a simple CoR training program that delivered benefits to the company and to the employees. John will also give an overview of how he helps contractors meet their CoR obligations and a warm welcome to both Steve and John today.

Ladies and gentleman, today’s presentation will be approximately 30 minutes in length. As usual, we are recording this session so please don’t worry about taking notes. We will send out the recording and the presentation material to you once the webinar has concluded.

Now ladies and gentlemen, we welcome your feedback and questions along the way. Webinars are more enjoyable if they’re interactive so please don’t be shy and send through your questions and we’ll monitor those at our end and I will ask those of the presenter as we move through the presentation. So without further ado I’m going to hand over to our presenters today, welcome Steve and John. Thank you so much for your time. How are you both going today?

Steve Williams: We’re well thanks Angela.

John Aspinall: Thanks Angela, very well.

Angela Juhasz: Fantastic. Alright, I’m handing over control to both of you now and momentarily we’ll be able to commence the presentation. I do thank you both for your time, I understand it is indeed very, very precious so the fact that you could devote some time to present for us today is very exciting and indeed I’m sure I speak on behalf of the whole audience when I say we’re really looking forward to hearing about the Hanson Approach to CoR.

Steve Williams: Thanks Angela, good morning or good afternoon to everyone. Under the CoR regulations what responsibility does a company, its employees, managers, directors, contractors, suppliers and customers have? How and when do these responsibilities have to be met? How do you ensure that you or your employees are not the weak link?

So what is the Hanson approach to CoR? I’ll briefly detail how we developed and rolled out a simple, effective CoR training program across our New South Wales operations covering employees and contractor drivers. John will then detail how he’s helping our sub-contractors and customers understand and comply with the CoR regulations. John will also speak on the ongoing nature of the CoR training.

Hanson will share its CoR training package with the transport industry and it’s available on the NRSPP website. But firstly I’ll give you a brief overview of our company and operations and a glimpse of the demands placed upon our transport division.

Who is Hanson? Hanson is part of the Heidelberg Cement Group and operates some 2500 sites over five continents employing some 53,000 people. As a global company we have international, Australian and regional policies, standards and regulations to consider and comply with.

Our training has to cover all these yet still offer solutions to local issues. Our answer was to develop a standard training package delivered individually to our sites. This resulted in a consistent message but also offered flexibility to help our people solve their local and sometimes unique issues.

Hanson in Australia includes the Hanson and Hymix brands operating in all states with over 225 concrete plants and 55 quarries and directly employ 3000 people.

Our sites range from virtually one man operations through to some of the largest concrete plants in Australia in areas from major cities to remote locations including mine sites. We deliver to sites ranging from suburban backyards to some of the largest and most complex building projects in Australia. We also undertake deliveries underground. We’ve even barged trucks across bays and harbours to reach waterfront properties.

Some of our operations have restricted operating hours and curfews on vehicle movements. Some have restrictions on the number of vehicle movements per hour to and from site. Similarly some building and delivery sites have restrictions on delivery times and limited space to queue trucks. Conversely some delivery sites only accept deliveries at night or weekends. Occasionally we have to co-ordinate deliveries around tide heights.

Our fleet varies in size from cars and light commercial vehicles through rigid trucks, semi-trailers, trucks and dogs and in some states the B doubles and road trains. We operate over 800 light vehicles. The heavy fleet numbers some 1500 trucks delivering more than 1.4 million loads and travelling more than 63 million kilometres per year.

The majority of our trips are short in nature as concrete is a perishable product with limited working life. Our concrete trucks only average about nine or ten kilometres to the job site but usually complete around four to five loads per day.

If the site is closer some trucks may complete up to ten loads per day. In special cases we may travel up to two hours to supply a customer – supply concrete to one of our customers. This also presents several technical and logistical challenges. Concrete plants often load hire trucks. The tippers typically travel 100 kilometres from the quarry to the tip point, usually completing four to five loads per shift. They’ve also imported specially aggregates from interstate as well as loading our fleet our quarries load ex bin customers. So over 12 months the ex bin customers will take several hundred thousand loads out of our quarries. We also use-sub contractors to meet peak demand.

All this adds complexity to our CoR obligations. We cannot control the actions of our ex bin customs nor can we fully control the actions of the foreign concrete trucks and drivers. However we must empower our people and knowledge and tools to act responsibly and to be able to prove that they and Hanson as a company have taken reasonable steps to prevent these drivers from breaching the regulations.

Now you have an inkling of the complexity of our transport task. But what is CoR and why was it brought in? In the past it was the mainly the driver shouldering the responsibility or the blame when regulations were breached be it speeding, truck mass, load restraint or driving hours. And yes, sometimes the driver was his own worst enemy. There were also times when enormous pressure was exerted on some drivers to deliver what was not legally achievable. The driver may have been given unreasonable deadlines leading the driver to exceed work hours, forego rest breaks or work more than six days straight.

Often speeding became almost mandatory if the driver was to meet deadlines. Trucks were overloaded and load restraint almost non-existent as the driver cut corners to save time.

The principal of CoR is to ensure that everyone in the supply chain shares some responsibility to ensure road transport laws are not breached. Under the CoR laws if you exercise or have the capability of exercising control or influence over any transport task you are deemed part of the supply chain and have a level of responsibility.

The law recognises that multiple parties may be responsible for offences committed by drivers of heavy vehicles and can investigate a longer supply chain and up and down the corporate chain of command. The onus is on everyone in the supply chain to show they have taken reasonable steps to prevent a driver breaching the regulations.

You can have site signs like this one above to highlight to drivers that they must comply with the regulations. You can even make it a condition of entry to your site; that alone is not nearly enough. You must still show that you and your employees took reasonable steps to not cause any breach of the regulations.

Under CoR complying with transport regulations is a shared responsibility and all parties in the supply chain are responsible for preventing breaches. This approach recognises the effects of the actions and inactions and demands of other parties in the transport chain. Anyone, not just the driver, who has control over the transport task can be held responsible for breaches of road laws and may be legally liable.

CoR is similar to the legal concept of duty of care that underpins the O H S laws now also known as Workplace Health & Safety laws.

This approach has long been used by the courts to impose liability, negligence and damages claims. Under compliance and enforcement provisions everyone in the supply chain has a general duty to ensure the breaches of road transport rules do not occur. All parties need to make sure that their actions or inactions do not contribute to or encourage breaches of transport laws.

If a party’s actions, inactions or demands cause or contribute to the road safety breaches they can be held legally accountable. It does not have to be proven that you knew your actions or inactions caused or contributed to a driver breaching the regulations. It is considered that anyone involved in road transport ought to know the effect of their actions or inactions. Ignorance is not a defence. The ostrich defence will not save you. Putting your hands up and saying “It’s all too hard. I didn’t know that” won’t do you any favours in a court of law.

To put it quite simply influence equals responsibility which equals legal liability.

So we looked at a number of training options. We considered producing a DVD or an online program to be accessed by each site. Each had its advantages but failed to be able to address the local issues or individual challenges of our sites. We needed to develop a transferrable training program that delivered a consistent message to every operation and every employee but also considered and addressed any unique or local issues.

The two power point presentations developed cover key points of CoR. The key to successful delivery was visiting every New South Wales operation. The training delivered a regional program of local issues were discussed with people at the coalface. Employees were engaged before, during and after the training session.

The two presentations are very similar; they just have a slightly different focus. One presentation covers what drivers can and cannot do and the second presentation focuses more on what site staff can and cannot expect of a driver.

The slides are used as prompts to ensure that the key areas are covered. Just standing in front of a group and reciting the course outline won’t achieve the results. The presenter needs to be experienced, knowledgeable, credible and be able to relate to people in the field, look at their issues, understand those issues and offer workable solutions.

The site manager was also taken through his responsibilities and obligations under CoR with a focus on actions and inactions. What he can and cannot do and what he must do if he hears or sees someone breaching or causing a breach.

We also left each manager a list of resources including copies of MPC series of fact sheets that he’ll use as toolbox topics. These are available on the NRSPP website of the MPC website direct.

How do we meet those obligations? In a prosecution the courts would consider the actions of each party in the supply chain. This includes what measures those parties have in place to prevent breaches of road transport laws occurring.

Each person in the chain must be able to show that they took all reasonable steps to ensure a driver can perform their duties without breaching the mass, dimension, loadings, speed compliance and work hour laws.

Sometimes inaction or not taking the steps to prevent a breach is just as bad as an action that caused the breach of the regulations in the first place. If you hear of something that isn’t right you have to take the appropriate action. Just because you’re not at the coalface or not directly involved or do not directly interact with the driver does not absolve you of all responsibility.

The old cliché if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem certainly applies. The little diagram suggests if you’re not helping those bailing you will sink with them.

We are also heavily involved with our industry body the Cement, Concrete and Aggregates Australia or the CCAA in developing a DVD and information pamphlets for industry and customers. The CCAA is very proactive in developing and promoting safety initiatives and programs. Every year they promote safety initiatives by presenting awards at both the state and national level to worthy programs within our industry.

The major companies within the pre mixed concrete industry team together to develop a DVD and pamphlets presenting some common issues and challenges. Whilst these have a pre mixed concrete industry focus, the concept and message is transferrable across industries.

Please contact your own industry body, they may well have something similar or they may be able to develop this idea. A unified industry approach is usually much easier to sell to customers. These pamphlets are available on the CCA website which is and of course the NRSPP website.

The DVD was developed to help customers understand how sometimes the demands can expose themselves as well as their suppliers to charges under the CoR. The DVD explores three scenarios that demonstrate the situations often encountered in our industry that could lead to breaches in CoR regulations. Again, the concept and principle is transferrable across industries.

The DVD was produced by a combined effort of the major companies in our industry. The CCA launched the DVD to customers and sales staff of member companies at special screening and information sessions. Again, this DVD is available upon request via the CCA website, the website address on the screen.

I’ll now hand you over to John who will take you through the basics of the training presentation and the audit tool that we have developed.

John Aspinall: Thank you, Steve. Good morning or afternoon to everybody. The training was and continues to be developed – delivered face to face in the field with employees and contractors. Prior to the presentation I research that site’s workload, delivery area and any unusual demands to understand any special local issues. Often a walk or a drive around a site will help you to understand some local issues or challenges. I start the session by handing out printouts from before the presentation and I find that some people like to jot down some notes as we go through the slides.

I open the training session by talking about my past with the company and within the transport industry. I talk about what used to happen in the industry and how this cannot happen any longer. I continue the face to face training with employees and engaging them in discussions about the local issues and discussing regional solutions.

At the end of the presentation we usually have a question and answer session and general discussion. I’m also happy to answer questions during presentation. I find that by addressing issues as our people raise them it keeps them involved in the session.

The message is delivered consistently but also tailored to each operation. To our people comply with – to help our people comply with the regulations and cope with their own sometimes unique workplace needs. I use the slides more as prompts to ensure that during the session I cover all topics and points. I find that by keeping the session flexible and less formal or rigidly structured encourages more feedback and involvement.