Shamed
Well, I have been shamed into it. Oh! No! Not into crawling down Pitt Street in Sydney, naked with a feather in my ear. Nor have I been shamed into going on a diet or running a marathon (although I am in awe of those who do both of these things), nor even working harder or anything else.
No! I have been shamed into trying to write a new blog post. This particular one will contain a number of different topics, almost at random, as the subjects occur to me.
Firstly, let me deal with something that concerns me greatly.
Someone whom I consider to be a very close friend is doing it pretty tough with certain situations here in this country.
It could be repeated anywhere else in the world.
This concerns me greatly because the “knock on effect” of what some may consider “pranks” could be (and my very well prove to be) catastrophic. Driving a truck is by its very nature a pretty stressful occupation. All of us that are in the industry and on the road (as against in an office or a workshop) try to mitigate the effects of that stress as much as possible by leaving our personal concerns at home, or in the car or anywhere else but inside the truck. It is called closing the door on our troubles and leaving them outside of work.
Most of us achieve this pretty well.
What happens if our worries are in the truck? For instance, the load allocator/dispatcher has an personal issue with you and gives you the schnitzenkrugen loads continually, or the mechanic(s) are incompetent or take umbrage at you (for whatever reason) and ensure that you have continual “niggling” and annoying problems to deal with continuously that don’t pose a direct threat to your safety, but impact upon your nerves. If a loader (or loader driver) continually loads the truck badly so that you have to continually adjust it, this, too, impacts upon your nerves and (often times) on your sleep time.
I will tell you what the “worst case scenario” could be. Instead of being 100% concentrating on the job of ensuring the welfare of the public at large are safe (often from themselves when they do some unpredictable and abjectly stupid things right there in front of you), you may be distracted by these work generated concerns to the extent that you may not react as quickly as you normally would or, alternatively, make a poor choice or decision.
I speak from bitter experience.
No matter how hard you try to not let these other work related issues impact upon you, if they are allowed to fester and brew up, there comes a point when the cumulative effect can be such as to adversely affect your decision making processes – possibly with monumental consequences.
This is why we have managers in most companies. Strange as it may seem, their job is to manage – not just the profitability of the job, or the dispersal of equipment, and not just the customer accounts and so on and so forth, but also their primary objective must be for the welfare of their drivers. This is over, above and beyond the welfare of all other staff members, simply because if that driver is stressed out unnecessarily the consequences to the public don’t even bare thinking about. They could be bloody and monumental.
If a dispatcher or an allocator gets “their nose outta joint”, the impact will be on the company in terms of profit or loss, or in terms of other things that are correctable.
If a mechanic gets a huff and works slowly, it impacts the company and other staff, but no one dies. Few (if any) mechanics are that dead set dumb to deliberately mess with steering, brakes or other safety issue components, so the public won’t be at risk. Many, however, have been known to deliberately niggle drivers and, sooner or later they get caught out. I won’t mention just how they niggle for fear of giving some around me ideas!!!!!!!!!!!!
If a driver makes a bad decision, someone dies.
That’s it. Someone dies. Dead. No come back no more.
The impact of such an event, particularly if it can be traced (and it can be as there have been a number of such high profile cases right here in Oz), is on everyone. The family of the deceased, the driver and his or her family, the allocator, the manager, right through to the loader or anyone else that be shown to have had any input into the chain of events. In Australia this is enshrined in law. In other countries (at this stage) it is merely on their conscience. I am certain that this will change in the foreseeable future because, sooner or later, the public will demand it.
My suggestion is that all who read this particular post should do a “google” search on “Chain of Responsibility Legislation” on Australian sites and you will find why such legislation was introduced and the impact it is having on the road transport industry, right from the farm through to the final end of whatever the product is.
Each and everyone in this country who has involvement in any way, shape or form is held jointly responsible for anything that happens out on the road.
For example, if the farmer allows a truck to leave his farm overloaded (whether he has a means of checking legal weights or not) and the truck is involved in a collision resulting in loss of life, then the farmer is jointly held responsible and will go to prison.
If a dispatcher fails to ensure that the driver takes adequate rest breaks and there is a crash involving loss of life, then there’s a good chance both will go to prison.
If a mechanic signs off on sub standard work and a crash results in the death of someone, it is quite possible that the mechanic and only the mechanic will be held responsible and will, more than likely, go to prison on his or her own.
Just because these laws have not yet been introduced elsewhere don’t think for one minute that they won’t be. These laws were rigorously opposed by employer groups, by farming groups and by just about every other group known to man, but they are now a reality Downunder.
I have to say that such laws should never need to be passed if those charged with the task of managing do just that – manage.
If those who are charged with the task of allocation, dispatch with fairness and equanimity then there is no need to have such draconian legislation introduced.
If mechanics just do their job to the highest standards, then no one is at risk.
If anyone else involved with the welfare of the driver and his or her stress levels (such as loaders, forklift drivers and so on) just do their job with the minimum of fuss and are mindful that the driver ALREADY has enough on their plate, then the job is right.
If anyone who can has a negative impact on the driver they should be fully aware that they are risking, basically, their own loved ones, because, quite simply, it may be your loved one who makes a silly error in front of that driver and that driver may fail to respond quickly enough or make the right decision. Anyone want to take that one on?
All pretty simple stuff I would have thought!
This post has grown like topsy, so I will save the rest for another post!
Keep it safe, folks!
