Three safe states of working will guide the operation of Citywide’s extensive fleet of vehicles and build upon the current culture of safety.

Three safe states of working will guide the operation of Citywide’s extensive fleet of vehicles and build upon the current culture of safety, the company says.

‘Three Safes’ – Safe Vehicles, Safe Drivers, Safe Loads – is Citywide’s response to ensure delivery of changes in nationwide Chain of Responsibility (CoR) legislation that came into effect this week (1st October)

CoR is a nationally legislated program of compliance and enforcement of heavy vehicle road laws that aims to improve safety and reduce accidents across the road transport industry, in which Citywide operates.

“As a leading provider of essential civic services and infrastructure management and maintenance, we always have a significant duty of care to our people and to the communities in which we operate,” CEO Chris Campbell said.

"Every day, our people are out in the community operating all manner of heavy industry vehicles – including garbage trucks, tree chippers, elevated work platforms (cherry pickers, or ‘towers’), graders or jetpatchers, as well as numerous light vehicles.

“Because of the nature of our work, we know only too well how important it is to properly and safely operate and maintain our vehicles. This underpins the strong Safety Culture that Citywide has developed over the years.

“We are committed to meeting the national standards which apply to those vehicles as we conduct our activities.”

The introduction of Three Safes coincides with the federal government’s National Safe Work Month, which runs throughout October every year.

Under Citywide’s Three Safes rules:

• Safe Vehicles: ensures a process of comprehensive safety checks before vehicle usage with a complete ban on driving unsafe vehicles until they are serviced and deemed roadworthy;
• Safe Drivers: ensures every person operating a Citywide vehicle is fully authorised and is always in a fit state of health to drive and operate vehicles and their machinery; and
• The Safe Loads: rule governs the process for correctly restraining loads and ensures all vehicles do not leave sites overloaded.

“Safety will always be core to what we do, not just the safety and wellbeing of our people but also the communities we serve every day,” Mr Campbell said.

“Three Safes will become pivotal to how we fulfil our commitment to maintaining a culture of safety and to safely accomplishing our purpose of shaping liveable cities.”