The best we can do?

3 March 2023

As part of our membership and industry support promise, the team at the Tasmanian Automotive Chamber of Commerce (TACC) – including myself – work predominately from our vehicles.
 
I’d say we’re on the road between 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the working week. Nothing new about that – we are in that line of business, and so is our industry.

And just like any other manager leading a workforce that operates from a mostly mobile workplace, the safety of my TACC crew while they are on the road is one of my biggest concerns.

Worksafe Tasmania statistics show a high percentage of workplace injuries, and worse, occur on our roads. Yet the only regulated vehicle roadworthiness safety benchmark we can use to apply to our mobile offices (our vehicles) is that they must be registered.

I’m trying my best to understand how industry can have a workshop or a factory potentially closed down because of a missing guard over a grinder wheel, yet an employer can readily ask a valued employee to hop in a car or ute that has never been roadworthy inspected – and share the road with other vehicles that are in the same boat.

Keep in mind, Tasmania’s average vehicle fleet age is 13.3 years, which is the highest in Australia. And the rate of fatal crashes per registered vehicle is four times higher for vehicles aged 15 years or older, than for vehicles aged five years or less.

The government has handed the roadworthiness responsibility to employers and has favoured targeted random roadside inspections as the best way to inspect vehicles for roadworthiness.

It’s not a level playing field and I’m very doubtful that this form of inspection is effective. 

Bottom line, is it really the best we can do?

Words: TACC State Manager Bruce McIntosh. As featured in the Mercury on 3 March 2023.