Raising sector standards through driver competence

As an industry looking to eradicate risk to vulnerable road users from construction-related vehicle journeys, it is vital that we look closely at the competencies of those driving these vehicles.

In this latest Safety Forum in September 2022, Mark Cowan, owner of CLOCS Champion, MinTrain talked about driver competence within our sector (construction, aggregates, ready-mix, minerals extractives) and looked at how companies can start to measure their driver capability not just by training or skills but by competencies.

Currently, there is still no formal requirement for implementing competency beyond the standard safety card. Businesses don’t have to assess the competencies of their drivers and there are no regulated qualifications to operate or drive a tipper. The only requirement for driving a tipper/mixer/tanker is the standard site safety awareness card.

The session looked at introducing a measurable competency-based approach that gives an overall better understanding of workforce capability, including strengths, weaknesses, and where a training, development or upskilling intervention is needed.

A competency assessment isn’t just a driving assessment, it includes an operational assessment of a driver’s role and their whole journey, highlighting any extra training required. It is important to note that there is a difference between training and competency.

The discussion certainly generated a lot of discussion around the need for driver competence across the sectors and the general feedback was that many agree that a competency-based solution is needed.

It was suggested that the industry should consider everyone adopting a relevant common competency assessment framework (recognising competence required is context-specific) and for the CLOCS gate checks process to use a card reader (QR code) linked to a database of driver competency assessments.

Find a copy of the presentations here CLOCS Raising Standards.pdf.

Looking forward

It was another thought-provoking session with over 50 stakeholders tuning in, and the subsequent Q&A highlighted that there is a huge opportunity to make construction-related vehicle journeys safer.

And finally…

Our thanks to Mark at MinTrain and also those who attended, sharing insights and experiences. The voice of Champions is vital to the success of CLOCS so please contact the team if you have any queries, suggestions or concerns about any aspect of CLOCS.