The recently launched Construction Logistics and Community Safety – Australia (CLOCS-A) initiative has just digitised its certification process and is gearing up to transform the booming construction sector…for the better.
The CLOCS-A Standard might be a relatively new initiative Down Under, but in the UK the equivalent CLOCS program is in its 11th year and has significantly improved construction industry safety outcomes.
The original program was born when Transport for London set out to reduce the disproportionately high number of accidents involving construction vehicles. At the time, data showed a staggering 20 people were killed or injured every day in collisions.
“In the UK there was like a 47 percent reduction in fatal and serious crashes between heavy vehicle drivers and volatile road users,” said Director of the National Road Safety Partnership Program (NRSPP), Jerome Carslake when speaking with Fleet Auto News a few years back.
Since then, Mr Carslake has been instrumental in getting a local version of the initiative off the ground in Australia, helping develop the CLOCS-A Standard with funding from various state governments and the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR).
The program aims to reduce road trauma associated with transport logistics, through the use of a best-practice guide for everything that goes in and out of a construction site. This involves bringing developers, contractors and transport operators together to improve safety outcomes.
“This is very much a systems approach, it’s not just trying to put everything on the truck driver,” Mr Carslake said.
“This is the management of logistics, the sites, and the community. This isn’t just about what the driver does, it’s about getting everyone around them to actually share the responsibility for road safety.
“It was all developed very collaboratively with industry and the construction sector.”
From a transport perspective, the program focuses on offering protections for vulnerable road users like pedestrians, cyclists and passenger car drivers, using proven safety technology and driver training.
While this means transport operators will likely be required to fit additional safety systems to their trucks, the benefits of CLOCS-A accreditation include risk mitigation and a competitive advantage for projects that require certification.
All systems go
In July last year the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CITLA) took ownership of the program, operationalising CLOCS-A for real-world use, under the leadership of CILTA CEO Karyn Welsh.
“We were involved as part of the initial steering group, and we also saw synergies with CILT UK and their relationship with CLOCS over in London,” Ms Welsh said.
“They did training for CLOCS in the UK, and they did a good job, so it allowed us to tap into some of that work and share the complementary benefits too.”
A lot of work has gone into simplifying the accreditation process, Ms Welsh explains, which involved the development of digital systems that will allow companies of all sizes to get accredited – regardless of technical ability.
“Transport operators realistically might not have the same technical skills as you would find within a corporate company, so we had to keep that in mind and keep the process simple,” she said.
“It’s a complex system on our end, but it’s complex for a reason – to take complexity away from the user.”
The CLOCS-A model in Australia uses a tiered accreditation structure featuring bronze, silver and gold options – each with unique compliance requirements. A client’s project will be given a rating by an Auditor, and the various participants in that project will be required to have CLOCS-A accreditation at that level or higher.
The CLOCS-A team has just turned on its new digital system, which at this stage includes a project assessment tool, project rating tool, and various auditing tools.
“The digital system puts the entire auditing and compliance process into an online system, and then there are various tools and guides too,” Ms Welsh said.
“The benefit to the auditor and the company doing the audit is that it’s all in one place – they’re all uploaded to the company profile. Nothing can go missing.”
The objective now, Ms Welsh says, is to hit the pavement and promote the CLOCS-A Standard, which she and her team are busy doing.
“So we’ve got to get into the forums to promote what we’ve done and we also want to train our CLOCS-A Champions within each accredited construction and transport site – and to have these experts train others,” she said.
“The feedback and interest and support has been really positive and encouraging so far.”
