Executive Summary
The National Road Safety Partnership Program (NRSPP)’s Heavy Vehicle Toolbox Talk (HVTBT) project collaboratively produced 23 Toolbox Talks (TBT) packages from Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative Round 6 funding. TBT are a critical information tool in the transport industry, particularly in improving safety performance, by sharing information direct with those most likely to benefit from it.
Typically kept to a small and manageable timeframe of 15-20 minutes, TBT are designed to convey important information and actively promote further discussion.
The purpose of the HVTBT project was to address a major issue where TBT are often developed internally by organisations, resulting in information not being evidence based and communication not being engaging or adult learning focused, resulting in a ‘tick and flick’ outcome from the workers they are targeted at.
The collaborative development process of the HVTBT was specifically designed to address these identified issues and make it easy for managers to facilitate an engaging TBT session with their drivers. The process for each topic involved Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) providing the research evidence base; Swinburne University Communications and Design for the engaging design; and, an industry working group to guide and ensure the content was peer reviewed by industry and to provide drivers for the supporting video.
This industry working group consisted of Bingo Industries, Heavy Vehicle Industry Association (HVIA), Holcim, Qube, Toll Group, Viva Energy and Zurich Insurance. Each TBT package included an overview booklet with aids to prompt discussion, a fact sheet for drivers and managers, participant self-assessment, discussion review sheet, poster, PowerPoint and video.
The TBT were released monthly through the NRSPP, where they are housed. There have been several flow-on benefits from the project, including State Transport Department replication and the humanising truck driver campaign released as part of the 2023 Brisbane Truck Show.