The cattle industry in Queensland is the largest in the country.
Whenever you get livestock involved in a work environment there are things that are unknowns.
Live stock industry in Queensland has one of the highest fatality and injury rates of
all industries.
Cattle are obviously unpredictable animals.
They don't even have to see you, they just hear something behind them and they kick.
I've been kicked in the head before.
- kicked right in the side of the head right there.
The only reason we've got cross-loading is because of the National Road Transport legislation,
where road trains as they get closer to populated areas, they have to be made smaller or changed
to a different configuration.
We need the cross-loader to break down the six-deck trailers that we bring in on the
road trains in from the west, to put them on the B-doubles or two-deck trailers to run
them into the cities.
There is more cross loading going on than ever before.
My aim as a cattle producer when shifting cattle is to get them to the end destination
as stress-free as possible so we have a good product at the end, to do the movement as
quickly and as efficiently as possible and obviously we'd like to do the whole process
safely.
The potential for injury usually occurs while someone's working at heights, the driver's
fatigued or during the loading and unloading process.
Traditional cross-loading - it's been an issue that has needed to be addressed for some time.
Traditionally it's - it's just being done by backing two trailers onto one another.
Cross-loading happens in every condition, rain, hail or shine.
The old-fashioned cross-loading method is used on the side of the road somewhere which
becomes very unsafe for drivers, as well as the cattle.
Drivers are clambering along the sides of trucks, holding onto crates with one arm and
closing gates, pushing cattle up with the other.
So, we came up with this concept to minimise the risk of injuries in our drivers and streamline
the operation.
If they're loading better, there'll be no stress on the bloke doing it and there'll
be no stress on the animal.
So we decided that we'd come up with our own design and build it with the workplace health
and safety aspect in mind.
I had a conversation with our fleet manager, Mark Collins, and he and then in turn talked
to our boilermaker and they came up with the design, and we did it in our own workshop.
It's not rocket science, but it's something that should've been around years ago
We sat down and did up a basic drawing, coming up with a two-decker cross-loader platform
idea that we're able to side unload road-trains at and reverse our B-double onto.
During the construction, we consulted some our drivers who had some really good input,
which forced us to change a few things.
The input from the drivers was the need to be able to work this from the outside, trying
to keep them separated from the cattle.
We can minimise the risk significantly with this cross-loading ramp.
The idea of the cross-loader is the drivers can manoeuvre around without getting injured
and be standing free from the cattle.
The new cross-loading system provides a safe environment both for the cattle and for the
drivers or workers.
It's simple.
If you know anything about loading cattle, it's as simple as it gets.
Look, the whole process and development of the cross-loader, was based on an outline
of what Frasers had.
We thought it was a great idea and so did a lot of other people in the industry and
that's when we were approached by Peter Rodney, at Rodney's Transport to build one for him.
We spoke pretty in-depth with Frasers regarding the unit and they were very proactive in helping
us out and highlighting areas of improvements that could be made.
Some of the major design features we applied to the system is making sure that the drivers
had a safe platform to work on, so there was no tripping involved.
Expanded mesh was a good option for traction on the driver's boots.
There are handrails.
There are safety gates.
There are platforms that go from one trailer to the other.
The truck can pull up and nothing moves.
We incorporated sliding gates at the unloading side of the ramp and to close the cattle off
quickly once they entered the new trailer.
The system also has solar powered lighting; the facility can be utilized 24 hours a day
in any type of weather conditions.
Some of the considerations that we put in the cross-over platform was to enable the
drivers to able to cross-load top and bottom at the same time which obviously cuts out
our cross-loading time down by a half.
Some of the design considerations involved in the manufacturing process of the cross-loader
was trying to build it to an Australian standard including safety rails, non-slip flooring,
ladders and access to the unit.
At the end of the day, we'd like to have one everywhere, there's livestock that's cross-loaded.
Industry has taken the proactive step and gone forward and solved their own problem.
They have identified the issue and have come up with the solution.
On the whole, this is a proactive initiative.
This is about understanding that it can be difficult and it can be dangerous so in a
proactive way, we have decided to do something before there are really bad injuries, uh just
to make sure that things are better for our people.
Certainly, the cross-loader minimizes the risk of injury to the workers.
It's a far better outcome than what has been out there and what is still occurring out
there.
I think the biggest benefit to the industry with the cross-loader is the efficiency of
moving cattle.
The industry's reacted really well, especially from our customer base.
They've really enjoyed seeing how the cattle are transported from one trailer to another
and the safety and ease of use for workers to be able to do it at night time and day
time.
The livestock and rural transport associations across the country continue to lead in these
areas of safety and proactively being involved in workplace health and safety issues.
I hope the industry will take a leadership with this and move forward and have this new
innovation put at major cattle facilities throughout Queensland.
In terms of the larger operators, I think there's an opportunity for them to put them
in their own yards
Certainly Fraser's and Rodney's Livestock Transport Organisations are ahead of the game.
They're very proactive in worker safety.
It's really, really surprising how much interest it has created and we're proud to be a part
of it.
Look, we are very proud to be able to be involved in promoting safety, but also be involved
in helping the industry come up with a standard that's recognised Australia-wide to help the
industry promote and produce a safer environment for their employees and drivers.
I get excited about it because it's something that has been on the drawing board in somebody's
mind across the country for a long time and now it's there.
It's actually - You can touch it and you can deal with it and you can use it.