The dairy industry had shown enthusiasm and commitment to a new safety initiative, launched after dairy tankers were found to be 2.4 times more likely to be involved in a major crash than other freight transport, transport and logistics specialist insurer NTI said.
Key stakeholders across the dairy supply chain, including consigners, carriers and processors, have joined the initiative Spilt Milk: A National Crash Reduction Program for the Dairy Industry, which is funded through the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative supported by the Federal Government, and led by NTI.
NTI chief sustainability officer Chris Hogarty said four of the largest dairy carriers and three of the largest processors had signed on.
“While the dairy industry has a history of excellent, but isolated, initiatives to improve the safety performance of milk tankers, the aim of the ‘Spilt Milk’ project is to bring together key stakeholders, expertise and initiatives, to deliver whole-of-industry solutions to this whole-of-industry issue,” Mr Hogarty said.
“The goal is to reduce dairy tanker rollovers and improve road safety by working with drivers, fleet managers and consigners,” he said, noting a similar education program in Victoria’s forestry industry resulted in a 65 per cent reduction in rollovers, from 29 in a year to 2020 being rollover free.
Dairy tankers have unique engineering and physical attributes as well as a unique operating environment that make them particularly susceptible to rollovers — which make it difficult for even experienced drivers to predict.
“This is about protecting drivers and protecting the environment because dairy tanker crashes not only put those behind the wheel and road users at risk but can cause milk and diesel spills,” Mr Hogarty said.
“We need to improve education and training resources to better share knowledge about the best and safest ways for the dairy transport industry to operate.
“In the past, traditional rollover training has been difficult to access or too expensive and we know reaching drivers is critical to effectively address this safety issue.
“Keeping Australian industry moving toward a safer and more sustainable future is our priority and this program is another example of NTI working with industry to achieve that.”
NHVR chief executive officer Sal Petroccitto said the project had benefits for the entire dairy transport supply chain.
“Milk, like all harvest goods, must be secured to meet the loading performance standards and for the safety of the heavy vehicle industry and all road users,” Mr Petroccitto said.