The local government fleet safety program

Road crashes are the most common cause of work-related death, injury and absence
from work in Australia. In Western Australia between 1999/2000 and 2003/04 there was
an annual average of 489 lost time claims due to work-related crashes each year and 11
deaths making up 45% of all work related fatalities (WorkCover WA 2006).

In Western Australian the collective Local Government fleet is substantial, with 138 Local
Governments surveyed having 14,576 vehicles worth $460 million. During the period
1995 to 2005, there were 340 injury claims related to road crashes in Local Government
fleet vehicles and in the past five years vehicle damage claims worth more than $11
million dollars were recorded.

This report looks at an innovative approach to workplace-related road crashes within the
Local Government sector in Western Australia.

Integrating fleet policies into an occupational safety and health (OSH) framework to
reduce the risk of injury and death, reduce costs (Seljak and Maddock 2002) and protect
an organisation in relation to OSH regulations (Murray, Newman, Watson, Davey and
Schonfeld 2003).

Background research, baseline data, a demonstration project and a reference group of
diverse Local Government representatives helped guide the development of a resource
kit containing model policies based on ?best practice?, to assist Local Governments in
adopting fleet safety policies.

This approach will be of interest to fleet managers and the resource kit suitable for
application within the public or private sector.