Health and safety paperwork for traffic management crews

The hazards that actually matter

Every trade has a long list and a short one. The short one is what the task documents have to deal with properly, because it is where the serious harm comes from.

Being struck by a vehicle

The dominant risk and the one every other control serves. Separation by distance and by physical barrier beats visibility, and visibility beats awareness.

Setting up and removing

The most exposed part of the job, because it happens before the layout that protects you exists, and again after it is gone.

Night work and low light

Reduced reaction time for drivers, glare, and crews working against a background of moving lights.

Fatigue

Long shifts, night work and static positions. Fatigue degrades exactly the judgement the role depends on.

Lone working

Crews split across a site, sometimes out of sight of each other, with no one noticing an incident immediately.

Public interaction

Drivers and pedestrians who are delayed, confused or hostile, directed by someone with no authority beyond the layout.

Plant movement within the site

The work being protected has its own machines, reversing and turning inside the closure.

Weather and surface

Wind moving signs and cones, rain reducing both visibility and stopping distance.

What applies beyond the general duties

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and the General Risk and Workplace Management Regulations 2016 apply to every business. These sit on top of them for this trade:

• The New Zealand Guide to Temporary Traffic Management, and the Code of Practice for Temporary Traffic Management where a road controlling authority still applies it
• The road controlling authority's own conditions attached to the approved traffic management plan
• Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016, regs 5 to 8

Competence and licensing

Temporary traffic management roles are qualified roles. A Site Traffic Management Supervisor is required for most layouts, and traffic controllers have their own qualification. The road controlling authority will specify what it requires for the road in question.

Notifying WorkSafe

Reg 26 rarely applies to traffic management itself, though a vehicle striking a person is a notifiable event requiring notification to WorkSafe as soon as possible. The full list and its exclusions are in notifiable work: the 10 categories.

What a main contractor will ask you for

• The approved traffic management plan and the conditions attached to it
• Your STMS and traffic controller qualifications
• A Task Analysis for setting up and removing the layout, which the plan does not cover
• Your fatigue management arrangement for night and long shifts
• On-site records: the daily check of the layout against the plan

A document per task, not one for the job. The crew doing one task should not have to read past three others to find their controls, and a site manager checking one task should not have to either.

Where to start

If you are writing from scratch, how to write a Task Analysis sets out the order. If you have been asked for something and are not sure which document it is, which document do you need covers the difference between a site plan and a task document. Our prepared documents for this trade are the Traffic Management Task Analysis Pack, or single documents from the catalogue.

Sources

• Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, s22 (reasonably practicable), s34 and s36
• Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016, regs 5 to 8
• Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995, reg 26 (particular hazardous work requiring notice)
• The New Zealand Guide to Temporary Traffic Management, and the Code of Practice for Temporary Traffic Management where a road controlling authority still applies it
• The road controlling authority's own conditions attached to the approved traffic management plan
• WorkSafe New Zealand, Identifying, assessing and managing work risks

This guide is general information about New Zealand health and safety law as at the review date. It is not legal advice and it does not describe your site. Confirm what applies to you with WorkSafe New Zealand or your adviser.