Among the many occupational accidents that happen in Australia every year, driving has proven to be the most dangerous. In 2018, vehicle collisions accounted for the highest number of deaths and fatal injuries from all the work-related accidents. Whether these injuries are from human error, poor weather conditions, or acts of God, the effect remains: these injuries can not just harm your diligent workers—they can harm your business in more ways than one.

Injuries can lead to expensive lawsuits, harm your reputation, and do much more damage than you’d think. Whatever it results in, these are adverse effects you absolutely cannot afford. To that end, we have created this list of tips and tricks to ensure that the risk of vehicle-related accidents is minimised.

With no further ado, here they are:

1. Regular inspections and maintenance

Whether you have your own fleet of vehicles or use Mining vehicle hires from another company, you have to inspect your vehicles for issues on the daily. Some spot examinations you could perform on a daily basis are checking the brakes, tire treads, horns, and reverse alarms.

Should any issues arise, you should immediately take it in for maintenance. Construction and Mining vehicles hires, in particular, should be regularly inspected, especially since they are used in difficult terrain and possibly unsafe conditions. A reliable company like Lewis Auto Hire can also perform more in-depth inspections to discover and address any problems in the vehicles.

2. Warning systems

Warning systems do a lot more than sound the alarm when you’re reversing. Certainly, these can alert other drivers of Construction vehicles moving in reverse, but there is more that you can do. More often than not, operators of heavy machinery wear some kind of ear protection to drown out all the noise. While this can serve to protect their hearing, it may make them oblivious to audio signals.

As such, you must install redundant warning systems. It can be as simple as attaching mirrors on the vehicles and as complex as the installation of camera systems. There are also trucks with emergency brake systems which can come in handy in emergency situations.

3. Constant vigilance

Lapses in focus and attention are too often the cause of workplace accidents. As such, it is important to create an environment of constant vigilance at worksites. Playing loud music and using the phone on the job, for example, could lead to distractions and accidents. Urge your workers to avoid practices that endanger their focus and the focus of other workers.

It might also be useful to have workers remove phones from their person while they are on site.

4. Training and certification

The untrained and inexperienced are at the greatest risk of making dangerous mistakes. As such, it is important that the workers you hire are fully licensed and trained to operate the machinery at your worksite. It also helps to gauge their past experience for working at a site like yours. After all, a residential housing project is different from a Mining site; each requires a different set of skills and talents developed over time to navigate safely.

Conclusion

Safety should be your number one priority at all times on your site, even above the completion of projects and fulfilment of quotas. That makes it paramount to take these concerns into consideration, to reduce the risk of accidents and injuries. Not only would you be protecting the lives of your workers, but you would also be protecting your bottom line.

Lewis Auto Hire specialises in mine spec vehicle hire for the Mining, Oil & Gas, and Civil Construction industries in Australia, with locations in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Perth and Sydney.

For all of your mine spec fleet hire needs, contact us to learn more about our contracts and what Mining rentals we have available for you.