Decline in Serious Incident Claims in Transport
Chain of Responsibility training has never been such a crucial requirement for people in the road freight industry as it is today with safety incidents in the transport industry still too high. Figures released by Safe Work Australia in a recent report reveal that we have experienced a drop in the number of serious incident claims in the transport industry but safety incidents are still too high.
The crackdown on the transport industry as of late has undoubtedly contributed to the decline in the number of claims for serious safety incidents in the transport, postal and warehousing sector which have dropped considerably, but the industry still remains one of Australia’s most high risk to work in.
The report which was released by Safe Work Australia indicates that the rate of claims fell from 22.5 per 1000 employees to 19.1 in 2012-13 – thanks in part to the attention given to chain of responsibility legislation. Safe Work Australia has also stated that decline of around 15 per cent in the transport sector was still behind the telecommunications and arts and recreation services sector which experienced declines of around 22 per cent. This is despite the fact that the transport, postal and warehousing sectors rank second among all industries for incidence rates of serious claims.
The following from the report was featured in an article on Fullyloaded.com.au:
“In 2012-13, the Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry recorded the highest incidence rate with 21.0 serious claims per 1000 employees followed by the Transport, postal & warehousing industry (19.1) and Manufacturing (17.9),” the report states.
Safe Work Australia adds that the incident rate of injury and musculoskeletal claims made across all industries between 2000-01 and 2011-12 fell by 26 per cent, well short of the National Occupational Health and Safety Strategy’s target of 40 per cent.
Read more at: Fullyloaded.com.au
In addition to certain industries experiencing greater improvement than others, certain states and territories experienced more significant improvements than others. People in the South Australian transport industry will be particularly pleased with the results of the report which indicate that SA did experience vast improvement overall as the report went on to detail:
“South Australia recorded a 40% improvement and was the only jurisdiction to achieve the improvement target,” the report says.
Source: Fullyloaded.com.au
Safe Work Australia also reported more good news- the number of compensated fatalities also declined and continued to do so despite an increase in the employment rate. As the report notes this highlights a 41 per cent improvement in the incidence of compensated fatalities from injuries and musculoskeletal disorders between 2000-01 and 2011-12. It goes on to explain:
“This is more than double the target of a 20% reduction by 30 June 2012,” the report says.
The statistics are contained in Safe Work Australia’s Comparative Performance Monitoring report, which analyses work health and safety and workers’ compensation schemes in Australia and New Zealand.
Source: Fullyloaded.com.au
