Freight Assist Australia is a national bulk transport and logistics provider which, entering the sector in 2012 out of Victoria, has rapidly evolved into a nationwide entity.
The company specialises in the transport of general palletised freight including food, retail and packaged and bulk Dangerous Goods (DG) with safety being a focus front and centre.
“We don’t want to be a company that is reactive,” says Freight Assist Australia Site Operations and National Linehaul Manager, Raylene Dale. “We want to be proactive.”
Safety is extremely important for Freight Assist Australia. Raylene explains that there are therefore many operational processes in place to ensure this standard is maintained and increased where possible.
“We keep safety at the forefront of our operations every day across every shift,” she says. “It’s something that we toolbox in every shift, and the question to all staff at the end of each session is, ‘Do you feel safe in the depot?’”
These toolbox talks include daily discussions around safety which cover a range of topics such as congestion, inbound freight and outbound freight. Within these sessions, Raylene leads a ‘walk and talk’ which keeps all staff members involved.
“We talk about safety daily because we want our workers to go home the same way that they walked in the door,” she says. “We have different people looking at things such as if our DG signage is correct, if we have rubbish on the floor and whether we’re putting things away to ensure that we aren’t running anything over or tripping on things.
“Everyone attends these sessions and all of the leaders across each department will get involved with the rectification to make sure that the depot is safe.”
On the equipment side, Freight Assist Australia has installed driver monitoring systems across 23 of its prime movers. Raylene says this has increased fleet awareness significantly.
“We have in-cab monitoring on our local fleet as well as our linehaul fleet,” she says. “This includes alerts for mobile phone usage, drowsiness, drivers getting too close to the vehicle in front and much more. All of these notifications come directly into my inbox and are actioned by me straight away.
“There have been situations where a driver is using their Electronic Work Diary correctly but they seem tired on the monitor. So, I’ll ring him and say, ‘I want you to pull over. Have an hour, don’t worry about the freight.’”
Freight Assist Australia is also regularly replacing all of its trailers and prime movers to ensure it’s operating the latest and safest transport equipment. This is one of the core responsibilities in Raylene’s position.
“Our entire fleet is no older than five years old,” she says. “All of our prime movers are turned over for safety purposes and we’re now turning our trailers over as well. We keep an eye on the kilometres which get tracked by our National Maintenance Manager, and as they’re coming up to the five-year mark, we get additional services before looking at turning them over.”
As each day comes to an end at Freight Assist Australia, another one begins with an operational meeting structured around safety. Starting at eight o’clock, all site managers join a call to talk about safety, driver alerts and how they can collectively support all staff members and drivers. Constant monitoring of CCTV footage ensures everything else at Freight Assist Australia is up to scratch.
“We are running a very tight ship on safety,” Raylene says. “We spare no expense and there’s no shortage on how we ensure safety.”
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