Introduction

Introduction

This guide supplies work health and safety information for road freight transport operators, drivers and those in the supply chain. The transport industry is an essential service provider for all Australians, but unfortunately records a high rate of fatalities and serious injuries.

Therefore, the industry is a focus area for SafeWork NSW under the Regulatory Priorities.

While road accidents are top of mind causes of fatalities and serious injuries, there are several high-risk activities for workers and others when the vehicle stops that contribute to incident and claims rates. Under the Regulatory Priorities SafeWork NSW continues to identify several key priority areas that cause serious injuries and fatalities in the transport industry. The key priority areas are:

  • at risk workers
  • musculoskeletal injuries
  • working at heights
  • access to and from vehicles
  • mental and physical health
  • traffic management
  • ancillary non-driving tasks.

SafeWork NSW’s Regulatory Priorities are informed by other key strategies including:

In February 2018, the NSW Government released the Road Safety Plan 2021. This was developed to set new road safety priorities and actions to help NSW work toward the State Priority target of a 30 per cent reduction in road fatalities by 2021 (compared to 2008–2010 levels).

In support of the 2026 Road Safety Action Plan an Employer Toolkit has been developed which provides workplaces with information about key road safety issues and risks, and ways to help you and your workers get around safely while using the road. It also supplies information to help you embed road safety within your workplace.

More information