Health and Safety in forestry: Priceright Parts and Machinery Ltd

Health and safety is an ongoing concern in New Zealand's forestry industry, but work is underway to reduce injury and death in our forests.

WorkSafe NZ, the health and safety regulator, says that forestry is a hazardous and high risk industry, particularly during harvesting. Its research shows that between 2009 and 2013 the fatality rate of workers in forestry jobs was 22 times higher than the New Zealand average.

The industry itself is actively working towards better safety standards with the Independent Forestry Safety Review. Initiated and commissioned by industry, The Review identified the likely causes and contributing factors to the high rate of serious injuries and fatalities in the sector. In October last year, it recommended establishing the Forestry Leadership Action Group (FLAG) to be comprised of government, industry, workers and their representatives. The FLAG will lead the way in developing practical solutions to the industry's issues and responding to the Review's recommendations.

Forestry industry supplier Priceright Parts and Machinery Ltd is well aware of these issues and is strongly focused on health and safety. Established in 1978, the Rotorua-based company offers a full range of new construction, forestry and plant equipment and a plant hire service.

Business Development Manager Michelle Tyler made the decision to install Teletrac Navman GPS fleet tracking for health and safety reasons.

"A lot of our staff work in remote areas and down roads that aren't used a lot so it was very important for us to be able to see who was where," Michelle said. "We track our vehicles with M-Navs and our plant equipment with Qtanium 350s and use the system to monitor who has arrived back at the workshop at the end of each working day. Even if we've left the office for the day and still have employees on the road, all we have to do is click on the app on our phones and we can see that everyone got back safely."

Because of the nature of working in remote areas, employees didn't have any issues with the tracking units being installed into their vehicles because they knew it was for their own safety.

"There have been a few accidents in the forestry industry recently and health and safety is a priority. Our staff were more than willing to get the vehicles tracked," added Michelle.

Priceright's approach to health and safety is a practical example of how seriously the forestry industry is working on safety issues. Using a GPS tracking system to know exactly where your workers are and that they've got back from a job, is an important part of keeping them safe.