New Fatigue Management Regulations for drivers

[chook]

Yes Mr Lane certainly was!
That is the whole point of fatigue management, not work diaries etc but proper management of fatigue.
We have procedures that a)prevent excessive hours to begin with, b) if for some unplanned reason excessive hours are going to be worked (usually breakdowns) then those involved do not drive home they are taken home by taxi or company car & picked up the next day.
We also have Fitness for work procedures which cover things like partying all night & coming to work next day (don't bother), having a second job (if you do you may put your primary job at risk if there is a fatigue risk). This particular procedure impacts on our employee's who are members of ESO's as we don't want people at work who have spent all night/ week at an incident (leave is given - comes off employee's AL entitlement).
So as you can see the management of fatigue is a big issue not just on the fire ground, and it can be managed it just takes a bit of planning & organisation.
Finally everyone is responsible for their safety, so if you are tired - don't drive! And insist on proper fatigue management provisions, I know its hard sometimes (been guilty myself ) but I know that the most important person is me & at the end of the day I'm the best one to look after myself
Take care keep safe
cheers

[misterteddy]

This is the comment and advice from the CFSVA on this topic in the May 09 Newsletter.....interesting approach. Can't say as I ever recall them advising us to NOT respond to incidents....bring on the new world order

http://www.cfsva.org.au/Portals/0/2009%20May%20-%20CFSVA%20Bulletin%20Colour.pdf

[bajdas]

I heard that a review & standard for fatigue management was being done. Maybe introduced in the basic workplace laws.

I understood the new law would apply to ALL workplaces and a call for public comment / submissions had been made.

But, I cannot find any information in a google search.

If a review with submissions requested is true, then good on SACFSVA.

Now, what is the UFU and Ambo Union take on this ??

As usual, the SASESVA is silent....   

[chook]

Its already covered under SA legislation section 19 of the OHS&W Act "safe systems of work" covers fatigue management.
Quite simply if there is an accident and it is proved that there was excessive hours or insufficient rest breaks/ rest periods - then a guilty finding.
The diaries actually help provide evidence of compliance, so getting an exemption would in fact be counter productive IMHO.
Also be aware that current legislation in SA has a presumption of innocence, proposed National legislation (Model OHS) may have the opposite slant i.e you are guilty now prove otherwise (as in NSW & QLD).And those most at risk are the ones who only drive heavy vehicle on a rare occasion(Only drive when we go on a call out).
So whining about it is just a waste of time - for those who have had the dubious pleasure of attending a heavy vehicle accident know what fatigue can do, or are emergency service drivers "super human"? 
cheers

[rescue5271]

So is it fair that Volunteers go and buy these books?? why cant we just use the appliance log book and change drivers every 3 hours?? So how would it work if we where to say go into Victoria drive CFA appliances and the same driver drives all the time as was the case in a the Victorian fires of 2009 as CFS only pick one person to drive..We can only hope that we will be exempt as is the case in other state's...

[chook]

Personally I don't think its fair to pay for the books yourself - however they are issued to the individual not the company (in this case CFS) & industry drivers pay for theirs! (and their licences, medicals etc).
And no crossing state borders wouldn't make any difference - in fact if you cross under a SAFETYCAM in a heavy vehicle you are logged automatically anyway & that network is rapidly expanding in the eastern states anyway.
So to go back to your statement of one driver allocated - then CFS must change its management plans (two up is acceptable under the legislation). Quite simply two drivers allocated 1 drives while the other rests (not in the truck if not fitted with a sleeper cab). Therefore if you drive (or do other work) from Adelaide to eastern Victoria ( nine hours?) then both drivers would need to rest prior to going to the fire ground & conversly when returning to SA. Its not that hard to manage really, when I travel from Leeton to Berri, I must leave here first thing in the morning & either drive straight thru to Berri(with a break every two hrs) report in then go straight to the accommodation or over night at Mildura (we are only permitted to work/driver a total of 8 hrs with a recommended driving time of 3.5hrs in rural areas! Times are a changin

[Alan J]

As I understand it from contacts interstate, no exemptions have been granted
interstate services. Other than under red/blues.  Same as us.
Implementation delays only, to allow communication from HQ to brigades & units.
Could be wrong, but that's what I understand to be the case.

Tried to get a new log book the other week.
They will only issue me one if I hand in my old one to have the remaining pages
cancelled. This will be a marathon session at the counter, because I have only
used 2 lines out of 100-odd pages in the old one.  It occurs to me that CFS &
SES drivers could possibly 'break' TSA by handing in our unused logs at about
the same time. 
cheers

[RescueHazmat]

I was wondering if any other Brigades had been told / found out for themselves the affect that the this new regulation will have on drivers. It only effects trucks with a GVM of 12t and over, which would include most if not all 34/34p, pumpers.

Examples that came to mind are: (1)If I work a normal day shift (7 - 3.30)then later that afternoon I get paged at 5pm to respond with a strike team to a large grass,scrub fire that is 20km from our station. We spend 12 hrs on the fire ground before being stood down, under the new regs, I can not now drive home nor can any other driver who is in our crew. A vehicle from the station is then required to deliver another driver to the fireground to bring the truck/crew home.

(2) I am now a truck driver for my day job, I complete a normall shift of 9 hrs. Get a page that evening and put in 3.5 hrs at a fire. Under the regs I can drive to the fire as i can use the exemption seeing as it is a classified emergency, however, i can not drive home or return to my day job as a driver for another 12 hours.


I suppose I more curious as to why CFS has not raised this issue with the brigades, I only came across it by chance reading the Saturdays Advertiser, then last night at brigade, I spoke to one of our members who is a member of SAPOL and discussed it with him.

I believe the brigades also now are required to keep a drivers log, and all drivers are responsible for obtaining and holding a drivers diary. (filled out only if driving further than 100km radius of station) - strike team deployments

Further information at transport.sa.gov.au then follow link to "Heavy vehicle driver fatigue"
 

As with most laws/regs, i'm sure a sub-clause in tiny tiny writing makes Emergency Service personell, in the act of an Emergency Incident, exempt from such regulations.

[Shiner]

So is it fair that Volunteers go and buy these books?? why cant we just use the appliance log book and change drivers every 3 hours?? So how would it work if we where to say go into Victoria drive CFA appliances and the same driver drives all the time as was the case in a the Victorian fires of 2009 as CFS only pick one person to drive..We can only hope that we will be exempt as is the case in other state's...

Why shouldn't the volunteer have to pay for the logbook, your license does not restrict you to only driving CFS trucks so why should they pay?

As far as I can work out and from brief discussions with the Traffic Inspectors (rather than SAPOL as this is not their area of specialty), it is as mentioned above, the only exemption from the whole system is for the travel TO an emergency incident and not to get home again.

I'm guessing we will be seeing a bit more of situations such as we experienced at Bookmark this season where upon coming off the fireground, we waited for a coach to bring all crews and drivers home (the coach brought fresh drivers up with it to take the appliances home).  While I support what is trying to be achieved here, it does extend the day somewhat by the time the coach drops off at several locations etc - there is only one plus point and that is the consumption of BEER on the coach.

Perhaps in this situation, the crews should be coached up as well and utilise 'local' appliances - might work in some situations.....

Also interesing your quote about the Vic fires and only 'one' driver - I can see this being the case if you only had a single qualified driver on the crew, we had three on our crew (two CFS and the MFS chap) and drove for one-day each to share the load.  However, in this case the daily trips would of been within 100km of the base so not really relevant to the legislation.

[Master of Disaster]

Funny that you metion about getting your old log book pages cancelled,I work for DTEI or TSA or whatever they are called today and we had ten blokes at the Murray Bridge office and it went into meltdown, about 2 hours later we were done.