The Importance of Attending Events

I’ve mentioned before in my blogs how one of the best things I do in my role is attending events where speakers are expert in their field and they explain new or maybe not so new facts. This can include both safety and recruitment. Over the last week I’ve been fortunate to listen to people talk about the responsibilities and accountabilities under various laws relating to transport and construction.  Below is my quick review.

Transport Liabilities

Chain of Responsibility is a legal requirement under the Road Transport (Compliance and Enforcement Bill ) 2005 which means every person in the transport supply chain activities may be held responsible for breach of the road laws.

The people and activities this covers:

• Consigning – a person or company commissioning the carrying of goods
• Packing – placing goods into packages, containers or pallets
• Loading – placing or restraining the load on a vehicle
• Driving – the physical act of driving a heavy vehicle
• Operating – conducting a business which controls the use of heavy vehicle
• Receiving – paying for the goods or taking possession of the load

Design Liabilities

Safework NSW has a Safe Design of Structures Code of Practise – July 2014. The Code states that a designer must design for safe construction, safe use and safe maintenance.

People mentioned under the Code include:

• Architects, building designers, engineers, building surveyors, interior designers, landscape architects, town planners and all other design practitioners contributing to, or having overall responsibility for, any part of the design (for example, drainage engineers designing the drain for a new development);
• Building service designers, engineering firms or others designing services that are part of the structure such as ventilation, electrical systems and permanent fire extinguisher installations;
• Contractors carrying out design work as part of their contribution to a project (for example, an engineering contractor providing design, procurement and construction management services);
• Temporary works engineers, including those designing formwork, falsework, scaffolding and sheet piling;
• Persons who specify how structural alteration, demolition or dismantling work is to be carried out;
• A person conducting a business or undertaking who alters or modifies a design without consulting the original or subsequent designer will assume the duties of a designer.