Chain Of Responsibility In Transportation And Risk Management – Zenith Low Loaders

Understanding Chain of Responsibility in Transportation

The chain of responsibility is a type of policy that has been implemented in the Australian transportation legislation in order to put legal obligations on the seminal parties involved in transport supply chain. The chain of responsibility was conceptualized initially in order to apply in the heavy vehicle segment for regulations like speeding, fatigue as well as mass, dimension and loading (Mirowski & Scanlan, 2018). This concept was undertaken in order to minimise the unlawful behaviour by truck drivers who are controlled by the parties involved in the transport supply chain. The chain of responsibility provides Stern warning to the elite parties that they cannot increase or create incentive that may lure the driver to take unlawful actions. 

Zenith Low Loaders takes the issue of risk management very seriously. In order to deliver the promised efficient transportation without compromising on safety the drivers and operators are thoroughly trained before they are taking an assignment. The company policy also dictates that the drivers and operators can take longer periods of rest in order to eliminate the chance of fatigue. The heavy vehicles operated by the company are also monitored by a GPS in order to adhere to the prescribed speed limit on the basis of Road conditions, weather and load. Work safety is Paramount at all the time and in order to take an assignment the drivers and operators are required to have a commercial vehicles drivers medical as well as the fatigue management self assessment test (O’Neill, 2014). In addition to that Zenith Low Loaders has also developed the system that identifies as well as assesses the responsibilities of the different involved parties in the supply chain under the chain of Responsibility in order to develop a system that can enable in managing fatigue. The company also regularly maintains the vehicles and checks the dimensions and weights that fall under the compliance as well as the Assurance conditions that have been made in the commercial arrangements. The chain of responsibility enables to improve safety and compliance by making the involved parties manage the risk which will create a fair market which in turn will increase the productivity and protect infrastructure. It will also protect individuals against the demands of the offroad parties. 

I am the prime contractor and i am responsible for engaging the drivers with heavy vehicles under service contract. I am part of the supply chain system and can be prosecuted under law for actions, demands or inactions. 

Chain of responsibility is useful for identifying the pressure points made by off road parties that can influence a driver to undertake any unlawful activities. On the other hand risk management can be define there is identification, prioritisation and evaluation of the risk which is followed by coordinated application of several resources for monitoring controlling and minimising the effects of risks. The chain of responsibility is necessary because it holds the Offroad parties accountable for their actions and decisions. Risk management is also necessary as it helps in minimising the impact of unfortunate events (Walker, 2014). 

How Zenith Low Loaders Prioritizes Safety and Compliance

Zenith Low Loaders interacts with alot of recognised party which are involved in the supply chain and have obligation towards fulfilling the chain of responsibility. Apart from the employers and company directors, the company also works with consignor and consignee or transported goods. Davc company is also involved with exporters importers as well as primary producers. The drivers are also considered an important party. Other involved parties include transport operators, schedulers, loaders, unloaders and loading managers. 

5 potential penalties that can be faced due to breaches are namely:

1. Warning/ education
2. Improvement notices
3. Court imposed fines
4. Prohibition orders
5. Licensing and registration sanctions 

Authorised official and police can take part in chain of responsibility investigation of the business practices and solar systems in order to monitor the legal obligations of the company and whether they are being effectively manage (Petroccitto, 2017). This involves examination comma preview of the company records, procedures, business practices as well as documents in order to ensure that the supply chain operations are in compliance with the law. The investigation begins when information is obtained pertaining to breach of code of conduct by involve party in the supply chain that can result in safety hazard or even a compliance risk. Chain of responsibility investigation are undertaken after events like roadside intercepts, crashes or regular monitoring of operations.  

The management is committed to word allocating resources as well as providing opportunities for fatigue management which will help in putting up practices and policy like fitness for duty assessment, work and rest hours, appropriate preposition, system reviewing loading as well as unloading time, avoidance of demands as well as in sentence that main cause fatigue due to breach of work and rest requirement in a commercial arrangement (Jones, 2015). 

The measure dimension minus the assessed dimension gives the dimension measurement adjustment which is nothing but the vehicle dimension limit. The Mass limit on the other hand is dependent on the mechanical structure of the vehicle like axle mass limit and axle spacing (Farnsworth & Partner, 2016). According to the company policies the load is not place in such a manner that it makes the vehicle unstable which will increase the probability of the load to dislodge from the vehicle. In accordance to the type and size of the load, suitable vehicles with proper version which can provide adequate steering, stability and braking are allowed. Using load restraints is a must. The drivers and operators both have responsibilities to minimise occurrence of a risk. The driver needs to verify that the lord is in compliance with the requirement of the vehicle and also idiotically monitor if the load is secure (Ross, 2014). The operators are responsible for utilising appropriate vehicles for transportation and loading process without compromising stability. They are also expected to load restraint systems that conform to the performance standards. 

1. Information collection
2. Networking
3. Presentation
4. Feedback based review system 

1. Documentation
2. Third party contracts as well as interaction
3. Incident reporting
4. Internal safety audits  

It is necessary to stop the unsafe activity immediately in order to ensure everybody safety followed by immediate review of the activities for risk assessment which will enable to identify a controlling measures. The identified issue needs to be reported and documented. In case where beaches have occurred it is necessary to interact with driver as well as with different partners in the supply chain in order to design a system that can be implemented for ensuring workplace safety and minimise the chances of bridges. The effectiveness of the systems need to be regularly tested in order to scale them again the performance metrics. It is also advisable for the company to deal with off road parties that will be unable to demonstrate save as well as compliant practices (Mirowski & Scanlan, 2018). 

References

Mirowski, L., & Scanlan, J. (2018, May). Mobile application based heavy vehicle fatigue compliance in Australian operations. In Australasian Database Conference (pp. 303-308). Springer, Cham. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-92013-9_24 

Ross, A. (2014). Workplace law: Truck stops. Proctor, The, 34(8), 40. Retrieved from: https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=816022159421815;res=IELHSS 

Jones, S. (2015, October). Chain of responsibility and the heavy vehicle freight industry: benefits, challenges and opportunities. In Australasian Road Safety Conference, 1st, 2015, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Retrieved from: https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:NV-H0Qzv1YMJ:scholar.google.com/+NHVR&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&as_ylo=2014 

Farnsworth, G., & Partner, H. R. (2016). From Your. Retrieved from: https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:mWr7EklxVZIJ:scholar.google.com/+NHVR&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&as_ylo=2014 

Petroccitto, S. (2017). Delivering a safe, efficient and productive heavy vehicle industry. Retrieved from: https://ipweaq.intersearch.com.au/ipweaqjspui/handle/1/3118 

Burke, M., Williams, J., & Fischer, N. (2016). Heavy vehicle driver fatigue: Evidence-based policy making. Journal of the Australasian College of Road Safety, 27(1), 39. Retrieved from: https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=843034281556071;res=IELHEA 

Swart, E., & Sinclair, M. (2015). Fatigue management-lessons from international legislation and practice: transportation engineering. Civil Engineering= Siviele Ingenieurswese, 2015(v23i8), 57-62. Retrieved from: https://journals.co.za/content/civeng/23/8/EJC177736 

Vo, S. A., Scanlan, J., Mirowski, L., & Turner, P. (2018). An approach of verify heavy vehicle driver fatigue compliance under Australia chain of responsibility. In Proceedings from the Future of Information and Communication Conference 2018(pp. 307-314). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Retrieved from: https://saiconference.com/Conferences/FICC2018 

Newnam, S., Goode, N., Salmon, P., & Stevenson, M. (2017). Reforming the road freight transportation system using systems thinking: An investigation of Coronial inquests in Australia. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 101, 28-36. DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2017.01.016

Potter, J. (2015, October). Heavy vehicle safety: the role of roadworthiness. In Australasian Road Safety Conference, 1st, 2015, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Retrieved from: https://trid.trb.org/view/1399425 

Kannan, S. (2014). Access to PBS mass limits for truck and trailer combinations. Retrieved from: https://trid.trb.org/view/1323034 

Walker, C. (2014, October). OBTAINING THE GREEN LIGHT FOR “HIGHWAY MONSTERS”: THE ROLE OF INDUSTRY SELF-REGULATION IN PROGRESSING VEHICLE INNOVATION, PRODUCTIVITY AND SAFETY IN THE ROAD TRANSPORT SECTOR. In 13th International Symposium on Heavy Vehicle Transport Technology, San Luis, Argentina. Retrieved from: https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:_Ofx_5QzrEIJ:scholar.google.com/+NHVR&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&as_ylo=2014 

O’Neill, S. (2014). Getting serious about the’chain of responsibility’. MHD Supply Chain Solutions, 44(4), 56. Retrieved from: https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=599395236039643;res=IELBUS  

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