During the pandemic Australia and the rest of the world saw the importance of the transport industry to keep things running.
Transport workers were busy making their way across closed borders and dealing with immense risk to themselves and their families to make sure critical supplies made their way around the country.
With legislation now in effect that will give us a once in a lifetime opportunity to make lasting change, it’s a reminder to look at our recent past and how we can use those learnings to inform how we can make transport safer and fairer.
A spotlight was shone on the health impacts of the pandemic on workers over the last few years. But beyond the health impacts, we saw how critical supply chains are to the lives of all Australians, and how easily these supply chains can be unnecessarily interrupted.
During the Covid pandemic, the TWU wrote to then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison several times warning of the possibilities of supply chain havoc, with confusion around testing requirements, rest stops closing, and a shortage of essential supplies.
Those warnings were ignored and in the beginning of 2022 we saw supermarket shelves empty and planes grounded as a lack of free and accessible testing wreaked supply chain havoc.
State and federal governments were full of praise for how the transport and logistics industry kept the country going, and transport workers and operators can be immensely proud of those efforts.
The transport industry did its part. Next time we need to make sure governments support that work.
We know there will be a next time. Whether it’s a pandemic, floods, fires or anything else, transport is essential to keeping things running and we need to ensure that work can continue safely and sustainably.
The Transport Workers Union of Australia has a proud tradition of standing up for the safety of all transport workers. And we’re also proud to stand together with employers, industry associations and others who are equally committed to a safer industry for all.
Safety for all
Transport Education Audit Compliance Health Organisation Ltd (TEACHO) is a not-for-profit organisation working in our industry to deliver improvements in health and safety in practical ways.
These include the BlueCard skills passport to improve training and skills outcomes, Steering Healthy Minds Mental Health First Aid training for peer-to-peer mental health support, and research to inform better policy. All of these are crucial pieces of the puzzle as we work together as an industry to improve road transport.
The TEACHO Board is made up of four Employer Directors, two Independent Directors and three Directors from the TWU, all with truckloads of experience in the industry.
And we all have one common goal.
When we think about safety, we often think of the danger on our roads, the potential for accidents and physical injury or death.
With trucking the deadliest industry in Australia these are of course massive challenges we are working as an industry to address.
But we are now learning more about psycho-social hazards and psychological injuries which also hugely affect those in the transport industry.
TEACHO commissioned a multi-stage research project on Infection Control, Transport Workers, and the Supply Chain, which was undertaken by the Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation (CHETRE), at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), with a team of experts from UNSW and Sydney University.
The comprehensive research, which aimed to investigate the risks, transmission dynamics, training solutions, and implications for the transport industry makes a number of key recommendations, which include:
- TAILORED APPROACHES: tailor infection control activities, including pandemic prevention, to the different modes of activity across the transport sector – because as we know, the transport industry is diverse and requires diverse solutions
- ONGOING EDUCATION AND TRAINING: provide ongoing education and training programs that ensure consistent and adequate adherence to infection prevention and control measures, even during non-pandemic periods
- ESSENTIAL SUPPLIES: collaborate with government agencies to create stockpiles of essential supplies, including PPE and sanitization equipment, strategically located across transport networks – we saw the havoc that a lack of PPE and other essential equipment led to in our supply chains during covid
- INDUSTRY INPUT: engage transport sector leaders in pandemic focussed planning and decision-making, actively seek their input, fostering ownership and cultivating a sense of responsibility – the people who work in transport every day are the best placed to offer solutions
- EARLY DETECTION: implement routine health monitoring and testing for transport workers, enabling early detection and containment of potential outbreaks
- CLEAR AND CONSISTENT GUIDELINES: the transport industry advocate for the development and implementation of clear and consistent infection prevention and control measures for borders throughout Australia to the federal government – inconsistent measures which were constantly changing caused havoc during covid for those crossing state borders
These recommendations are practical and they would work to both protect transport workers and operators, and ensure our supply chains are prepared.
You can read a full copy of the report on the TEACHO website https://teacho.com.au/news-activities/
The report has been submitted to the Commonwealth Government COVID-19 Response Inquiry, and shared with state and federal parliamentarians, industry associations and regulators.
If we are faced with a similar situation in future, these measures would mean we can be confident that employers are prepared, the workforce is safe and we can all continue to do what we are here to do – keep the country moving.
Subscribe to the weekly Owner//Driver newsletter here.
Michael Kaine is the national secretary of the Transport Workers Union of Australia. Contact Michael at: NSW Transport Workers Union, Transport House, 188-390 Sussex Street, Sydney, NSW 2000. twu@twu.com.au