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Toolbox Talks
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Driving for Work Awareness

For anyone who drives for work, even occasionally: why the vehicle is a workplace, and the planning, checks and habits that prevent crashes.

  • SeriesToolbox Talks
  • AudienceWorkers who drive a vehicle for work
  • Duration20–30 minutes
  • CodeHAZ-DRV
  • Version1.0 · 865 KB ZIP

About this package

Vehicle incidents are the most common cause of work-related deaths in Australia, and many happen on public roads. When someone drives for work, the vehicle is a workplace and the business has duties for it, alongside the road rules.

This talk covers planning trips, fatigue, distraction including phones, speed, pre-start vehicle checks, load restraint, breakdowns and reporting. It applies to light vehicles; heavy vehicle drivers also have specific fatigue and load laws.

Learning outcomes

After the session, participants will be able to:

  • Explain why vehicle incidents are a leading cause of work-related deaths, and that a work vehicle is a workplace
  • Plan a trip, including rest breaks, weather, road conditions and remote travel
  • Recognise and manage fatigue when driving, and stop before it becomes dangerous
  • Avoid distraction, including phone use, and follow the road rules and workplace rules
  • Carry out a pre-start check of the vehicle, and restrain loads properly
  • Respond to a breakdown or crash safely, and report incidents and near misses

Training outline

MODULE 1

The vehicle as a workplace

  • Why driving for work matters
  • Duties of the business and drivers
  • Heavy vehicle laws, briefly
MODULE 2

Before the trip

  • Trip planning
  • Pre-start vehicle checks
  • Loads and restraint
MODULE 3

On the road

  • Fatigue
  • Distraction and phones
  • Speed and conditions
  • Breakdowns and crashes

What is in the package

Training

  • Editable PowerPoint presentation with speaker notes, plus PDF
  • Facilitator guide with a running sheet, discussion prompts and model answers
  • Participant handout with the key points to take away

Records and assessment

  • Attendance record form, to capture who attended, when, and who facilitated
  • Excel attendance register
  • Multiple-choice theory assessment, to record understanding if your business wants to
  • Answer key for the assessment
  • Certificate template

Start here

  • Read Me First guide
  • Product overview
  • Permitted use terms
  • Version information

Practical activities

  • Pre-start: workers complete a pre-start check on a work vehicle using the handout checklist
  • Plan the drive: workers plan a long regional trip including breaks and contact points

Delivery requirements

  • A facilitator such as a supervisor, leading hand or WHS adviser who has read the facilitator guide and knows your site's arrangements for the topic
  • A screen or projector, or printed slides or handouts: it works in a crib room, site office or on a video call
  • Your own site procedures for the topic, to point to during the session

File formats

  • PowerPoint (.pptx), editable, with speaker notes
  • Word (.docx), editable
  • Excel (.xlsx) attendance register
  • PDF copies of the slides, guide, handout and forms
  • Delivered as a single ZIP download

Questions about this package

Can we add our own site procedures and photos?

Yes. The slides, handout and guide are editable, and the facilitator guide marks the places to add your own procedures, contacts and photos of your workplace.

Do we have to use the assessment?

No. It is there if your business wants a record that each worker understood the key points. The attendance record on its own shows who attended and when.

Can we edit the documents?

Yes. Presentations, guides, workbooks and templates are supplied in editable formats so you can adapt them to your workplace. The copyright notice must stay.

Can we use the packages outside Australia?

Yes. The hazards and the controls in each toolbox talk apply in any workplace. The duties slide and the facilitator guide's "check before you deliver" table refer to Australian WHS and OHS laws, licences and standards, so a business elsewhere should swap those for its own country's rules. Everything is editable.

Do participants get a certificate?

Yes. The package includes an editable certificate template, an attendance record (Word, plus an Excel register) and an optional 10-question multiple-choice assessment with an answer key, so you can record who attended and, if you choose, that each worker understood the key points. It is a certificate of completion issued by your business, not a nationally recognised qualification.

Can we deliver it face to face and online?

Yes. The packages are designed for face-to-face sessions and work over a video meeting platform. The facilitator guide notes where an activity needs adjusting for online delivery.

Can we run it more than once?

Yes, as many times as you like, for your own organisation's workers.

What is your refund policy?

Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law are not affected. See the Refund Policy for how we handle a package that is faulty, not as described, or not what you ordered.

Do we get future updates?

You keep the version you bought for as long as you use it, and corrections to that version are made available to you. A new edition, for example following a significant change in the law, may be sold separately.

More answers on the home page, or contact us.

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