Maintain your vehicles

The greatest serious injury risk to workers can be the use of vehicles.  We all have a responsibility for safety on site, any vehicle used as part of work is a workplace and the same legal obligations apply.

Many plumbers use vehicles as part of their everyday routine. Whether it be to transport materials, tools and plant or even getting yourself from point A to B, most will see this as an essential part of everyday being and perhaps take it for granted.

While everyone has a responsibility to use the roads in accordance with the law, your responsibility goes further to ensure that you are not exposed to hazards and that you are as safe as practicable.

And for those who run a business, It’s not just your work utes and vans.  Any vehicle that one of your workers, sub-contractors, visitors or others use in the course of your business is a workplace.  Your obligations will vary according to how much you can control that use, but you need to consider them.

There can sometimes be a complex arrangement between your business, your workers, labour hire firms or other contractors you supply labour to.  Whatever work health and safety (WHS) responsibilities you have in these arrangements also apply to the use of vehicles.

Master Plumbers, in conjunction with Austroads, has put all of this information into context by producing a guide the helps businesses manage their exposure to safety risks on the road.

This guide provides a step by step process to help you meet your obligations which, in turn should result in a safer and more productive workplace.

Click here to download the guide