Unlike the NHVAS, TruckSafe safety management systems assist in creating, promoting, and maintaining a safety culture within your business. TruckSafe is about having the right systems in place to help ensure a safe working environment through regular vehicle maintenance, ongoing risk assessment, training, continuous improvement, and maintaining the welfare of staff.

The TruckSafe SMS is specifically written for CoR laws and provides an easy and flexible way to assist our members to comply with CoR legislation. It allows businesses to create and implement policies, procedures, and processes that are suitable for the business activities they engage in rather than a compliance ‘one size fits all’ approach. It also makes it easier for businesses to tie it in with their WHS systems.

Each TruckSafe Safety Management System (SMS) has a minimum set of elements that must be met in order to be certified. These elements are grouped within a series of components.

No problem! TruckSafe has a safety management system that is suitable for any size business, be it a large corporation or a small operation. We even have a special safety management system for owner-drivers. Even more important for owner-drivers, it gives them the structure and systems that the larger companies have without the additional systems not required by an owner-driver. When something goes wrong the authorities don’t discriminate between larger and smaller businesses.

TruckSafe certified businesses include all sizes, tasks and sectors using the TruckSafe safety management systems. Businesses choose TruckSafe for a variety of reasons – operational efficiency and system management, insurance and compliance needs, customer driven requirements or just to guide and support their business during either consolidation and/or expansion periods. A business is as good as the foundation it rests upon – TruckSafe assists with providing a good foundation for maintaining a safe operation.

Being a TruckSafe member and then becoming certified may assist in ensuring that your business has the right systems in place to minimise any breaches under Chain of Responsibility. Be aware though, that your business is only one link in the supply chain, and that breaches from other businesses in the chain may have an effect on you.

To help minimise this effect, it is strongly encouraged that any contractors you engage also be certified to a TruckSafe safety management system to maintain the high level of safety and compliance that you have set with your business.

Through the creation and implementation of a TruckSafe safety management system, your business will benefit from a more structured environment. TruckSafe sets a standard where everyone from the owner down has a role in creating and maintaing a safe workplace culture.

TruckSafe businesses are regarded as the best in the industry which helps when working with other companies – they can be assured that a TruckSafe certified member will have superior policies, procedures, and processes set in place that are being independently audited on a regular basis. Being a TruckSafe certified member can potentially put your business in front of another when tendering for a contract.

TruckSafe was one of the first compliance schemes to be Master Code compliant. The Master Code is a Registered Industry Code of Practice (RICP).

By becoming a member, developing an effective safety management system, and becoming a TruckSafe certified member, your business may be offered protection from certain litigation as you will be able to prove that you have complied with all relevant standards and procedures under CoR.

TruckSafe members have exclusive use of the Member Access portal that contains sample policies & procedures, sample manuals, forms and guides, and a directory of medical services. Additional information is being added to members access all the time.

We also have a seperate website devoted entirely to providing detailed information on the various components of the TruckSafe SMSs. Additionally we can refer you to a consultant that will be able to set up a TruckSafe safety management system up in your business. These consultants are independent of TruckSafe and will charge a fee for this service.

This is a tough question to answer because it depends on:

a) what policies, procedures, and processes you already have in place and documented; and

b) what resources you have available to focus on it.

General estimates show most members have needed a few months to plan, document, train and check their systems before applying for an entry audit. However, if you already have almost everything in place as a result of other compliance schemes that you are in, the whole process can be done in a matter of weeks.

Once your SMS is in place, you will need someone to capture the data (or tracking evidence) and you will also need to be continually monitoring and imporving your system along with running an audit program, internally, to make sure everything is operating as you expected. If you find any issues, you can get them corrected along the way.

These systems will take some time out of your day / week / month end processes. Most businesses are able to incorporate these tasks within the existing administrative and operational roles. Larger businesses will have dedicated resources. There are also some technology systems that can further refine and reduce the administrative tasks for data collection.

Membership fees are charged annually and are based on the number of employees you have across your business. Depending on the number of staff you have will determine which tier you fit in to.

For more information on membership fees please contact us.

You will have use of our Member Access portal where we provide everything you need to create, implement, and maintain your TruckSafe safety management system and access our exclusive Learning SMS website that provides detailed information on the methodology of creating your TruckSafe SMS.

You can also take the next step and be recognised for your hard work in creating and maintaining your TruckSafe SMS by completing an independent external audit to receive a letter and certificate confirming your certification to the TruckSafe SMS you are enrolled in, be listed here on the website as a certified member, and you can use TruckSafe to promote your business as being amongst the safest in the road transport industry.

We also have our member benefits program that provides exclusive discounts or benefits on products and services relevant to road transport businesses.

Membership fees are paid annually in advance by invoice. If you are experiencing difficulties with your payment we are able to provide some options to assist.

Once you become a member you have an unlimited amount of time to set your system up and undergo your entry audit. You need to ensure you remain a member to be eligible for an entry audit and keep your certification.

We provide some assistance to you to help set up your system including access to our Member Access portal where resources are available and our other Learning SMS website. If you wish to have someone set your system up for you we can recommend a suitable external consultant to so this for you, however these external consultants are not employed by TruckSafe and will charge you for their services.