Mass management is just one of the areas under the broad umbrella of safety. It requires you to consider how much weight you’re putting into your truck, so you can avoid it becoming over-weight and unsafe to drive. To ensure that everyone with a heavy vehicle is operating using safe practices, guidelines and weight limitations have been put in place and must be met.
Under the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation scheme, a major part of showing that you know how to operate safely is through documentation and is basically a representation of your mass management system.
Documentation is useful both externally, for audits, and internally, to review and improve your current practices — don’t forget, all documentation must be kept for a minimum of three years for auditing purposes.
But what actually needs to be in this paperwork? We categorised and complied a list of everything you need to have documentation on so you can meet compliance requirements.
About the mass management system
- Write up your mass management system policy and procedure - it basically needs to be an overview of everything mass management. It’s important to include a list of all tasks and procedures involving mass management and who is responsible for doing them.
- As a part of the chain of responsibility, know your obligation to mass management and how to meet compliance.
About your vehicle
- Registration of all of your vehicles
- Certificates of Inspection - this comes from a mechanical engineer and shows that your vehicle is working correctly and able to carry a certain weight
- Faults in the vehicle that have been noticed, whether in a pre-trip check or during a trip, must be recorded
- Repairs made to the vehicle must be recorded
About weighing
- Procedure for weighing each vehicle - This outlines how you weigh your vehicle load before the start of a trip
- Procedure for verifying your weighing process - This is to make sure that the weights you’re recording of your vehicle are actually accurate. A verification should be performed at least once a month.
- Records of vehicle weights from each trip
- Process for correcting your measuring method if found inaccurate
- Outline of back-up weighting method
- Procedure for calibrating your equipment and verifying that the calibration is correct
About workers
- Record of your mass management training process – and evidence that workers have partaken in this training
- Procedure outlining how workers can access your mass management procedures
- Record showing that any subcontractors have agreed to meet mass management standards
About reviews
- Process for performing internal reviews
- Reports from internal reviews
- Procedure for correcting any accounts of non-compliance
- Copies of past procedures that have been or need to be updated
- Complication of all your paperwork for external auditing
If you’re a driver and you just want to know what YOU have to do
- Every trip driver needs to fill out a mass loading record book. This includes the details of the trip; the date, time, starting point and destination
- A pre-trip check has to be completed before every trip and recorded as completed
- Drive and trailer axle weights must be taken using weight scales or pressure gauges and recorded for each trip - reduce or shift the load if you find the axle groups to be over the limit of your truck
- Verify that your measurement system is accurate. This should be done at least once a month
- Record the weight of loads every trip - If your vehicle is found to be overweight and you can’t reduce or shift your load, don’t stress! A non-compliance report has to be completed and a new process should be put in place to avoid it happening again.
It may seem like a ridiculous amount of paperwork (although any paperwork is a ridiculous amount) but it is necessary to be aware of how to correctly document your mass management. If you fail to meet compliance you can face fines, penalties and be ineligible for accreditation — plus, with an effective system, it’s not too tedious.
For any questions or queries on mass management compliance or training, contact us!
