Essential Energy

Briefly describe your organisation:

Essential Energy is a state-owned corporation responsible for electricity distribution across regional NSW and parts of SE QLD

What sector does your organisation operate within?

Energy (electricity distribution service provider)

What size is your fleet or the number of staff who generate your transport or travel?

Appx 4000 units

Describe what road safety means to your organisation?

Road and transport activities are amongst the highest risk activities we undertake.  Improving road safety and mitigating the risks associated with operating motor vehicles are critical for keeping our people safe.

Does your organisation have a 5 star or safer vehicle purchasing policy?

Yes.

Supporting Actions Delivered By Essential Energy:

Essential Energy's Contributions to the NRSPP & Points of Contact

Chris Dhu

Head of Fleet

Essential Energy has been part of the NRSPP Utilities Forum since 2017.

  1.  Essential Energy have participated and provided templates to the 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 Utilities Forum
  2.  Essential Energy presented at the 2018 Utilities Forum kindly hosted by APA Group in Sydney
  3.  Partner of the Utilities Forum Executive since 2017

Chris Dhu

Head of Fleet

NRSPP Steering Committee Partner 2021 To Present

What are the opportunities Essential Energy’s can bring to the leadership of NRSPP?

Safety is a core value at Essential Energy. The business is committed to the communities we are a part of, providing vital services and support. As a part of this commitment, Essential Energy has a high awareness of road safety and the related trauma incidents can cause in the community. We are committed to a continued focus on transportation safety, which rates as one of the highest risk factors in our business.

Essential Energy has transformed its fleet function to meet the future needs of the business and the communities we are a part of. This transformation has included the application of asset management principles and practices to our fleet (mobile assets). We have shared the improvements from this transformation in the form or a case study with the NRSPP, and more recently have been involved with Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW) in developing the Road Safety in Your Workplace toolkit as part of the #towardszero campaign.

Essential Energy continues to engage with industry through programs such as the NRSPP in the pursuit of improved fleet and road safety. For example, we recently commenced active discussions on the establishment of industry accepted and benchmarkable fleet and road safety risk indicators, allowing business to self-assess relative to their peers, identify strengths and opportunities to learn from and share that knowledge back with industry.

The NRSPP’s charter outlines that one of the steering committee’s 21 members should be from a utility, which I don’t believe is represented on the committee currently. Utility fleets have nuanced demands representative of entities that operate road going industrial plant, equipment and vehicles. Essential Energy’s fleet has a primary design function that is to maintain and operate one of Australia’s largest electrical distribution networks, with land transportation required to complete this function. This is very different to the primary design function of a lot of fleets (transportation of goods, services or people) and means we must confront challenges like mass and balance of function in a considered way.

Chris Dhu

Head of Fleet

Commencement Date: 15/11/2018 Sector: Essential Energy https://www.essentialenergy.com.au/

Email: chris.dhu@essentialenergy.com.au

Phone: 13 23 91

What action(s) could your organisation do to support road safety through the NRSPP & by when?

  1. Participate and support NRSPP leadership and initiatives such as the Utilities Forum
  2. Develop Case study on:
    1. journey to no mobile phone use policy
    2. how Essential Energy approaches journey management in relation to is managing its GVM GCM issues
      Explore converting the case studies into webinars
  3. Thought leadership/Case Study on Bull bars
  4. Q&A Involvement

Supporting actions delivered by Essential Energy

Essential Energy has been part of the NRSPP Utilities Forum since 2017.

  1.  Essential Energy have participated and provided templates to the 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 Utilities Forum
  2.  Essential Energy presented at the 2018 Utilities Forum kindly hosted by APA Group in Sydney
  3.  Partner of the Utilities Forum Executive since 2017
  4.  Developed with NRSPP the Case Study: The Essential Energy Road Safety Journey: Mobile fleet condition and performance influences road safety outcomes in July 2019
  5. Expanded on the case study through the webinar: The Essential Energy Road Safety Journey August 2019
  6.  Essential Energy Head of Fleet, Chris Dhu, Joined NRSPP Program Manager Jerome Carslake on the webpanel Webinar: Embedding a positive road safety culture in your workplace March 2020