The NTC (National Transport Commission) has the responsibility for with advancing the productivity, safety and environmental performance of Australia’s road, rail and intermodal transport system through being an inter-governmental agency.
The NTC is an independent authority that provides recommendations for reforms to be approved by the Standing Council on Transport and Infrastructure (SCOTI) and also plays a key role in the implementation of reforms once they have been approved and works to ensure that the planned reform outcomes are realised.
Last week the NTC welcomed the announceent of the establishment of a new research centre that will focus on the affects of fatigue in the workplace. This is the NTC media release at http://www.ntc.gov.au:
The National Transport Commission (NTC) has welcomed the federal government announcement of the establishment of a new Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Alertness, Safety and Productivity.
The new CRC will build on Australia’s strengths in sleep and alertness research by bringing together expert knowledge, state of the art technologies, and key industry partners.
“Fatigue is a major cause of death and serious injury on our roads,” said NTC Acting Chief Executive, George Konstandakos.
“The outcomes of this research will help us better understand how the impact of fatigue on workplace safety can be reduced.
“We look forward to working closely with our reform partners to use the findings to provide industry with practical tools and evidence based policies to help manage fatigue safely.”
The NTC will be an active participant in the CRC and will actively engage with its work to help ensure that future reforms continue to be informed by the best available scientific knowledge.
“There is a lot more to learn about how fatigue impacts upon our safety and productivity and the NTC looks forward to assisting the CRC’s work,” said Mr Konstandakos.
Source: http://www.ntc.gov.au/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsId=386
Worker fatigue is an ongoing is an ongoing issue in all industries but when fatigue is experienced by people that work as truck drivers the consequences can prove to be fatal – not just for the truck driver but also road users in the vicinity.
Australia has a strong commitment to researching fatigue in an effort to further understand its effects in the workplace and to devise strategies and procedures to reduce the incidence of fatigue related injury in all industries.
Peter Cutforth is a Director at Urban E-Learning, a global elearning and web strategy firm based in George St Brisbane. Peter's interests extend to training, safety and compliance, online marketing, and Mobile Apps.
