Customised safety design for oil tankers used at mine site

Transpacific’s customised oil collection tanker rolled out into the Bowen Basin last month showcasing the latest innovations to improve safety and reduce environmental impact.

Transpacific North Queensland Workshop Manager Charlie Laws said the tanker was carefully designed to exceed the stringent safety requirements of its customers in the mining sector and to ensure its staff can safely navigate through the tough terrain of mine sites.

“The customised B Double tanker was produced in response to a risk assessment audit, conducted by a team of drivers, safety specialists, workshop personnel and site managers.

“The group assessed the potential risk to our staff who operate in these tough conditions and then made design changes to the truck to eliminate those risks.

The customised B Double tanker has bottom loading capability and is fitted with Sonic Sensors which disengage the pump if the safe fill level is reached, preventing the risk of overflows and environmental incidents. This feature, coupled with pneumatic tank vents, is particularly important as it allows a single operator to complete loading without the need to access the top of the tanker to dip compartments and therefore completely removes the risk of working at heights.

The tanker is fitted out with BPW axles and suspension as well as lift-up lead axles and ABS brakes to limit maintenance costs.

The Western Star prime mover is also equipped with Roll-Over Protection Structures to protect drivers in the very unlikely event of a rollover.

Laws said another safety inclusion is the forward-facing in-cab cameras to improve road condition monitoring and automatically save footage in the event of an incident.

“Capturing footage provides the added benefit of being able to review and understand the terrain and conditions faced by our drivers and is then used to improve operational procedures and driver training.

“A specially designed integrated GPS and maintenance management system is also installed, which provides continuous reporting on all elements of vehicle operation.

“This sophisticated system also tracks the physical location of all vehicles on computers in the office and provides email alerts when the vehicle crosses a ‘geo-fence’, which allows us to monitor the progress of drivers in remote regions.

“The GPS system and internal maintenance, training and management systems are independently audited and have resulted in the business achieving HVAS fatigue, maintenance and mass management certification,” he said.

The customised Holmwood Higate road tanker joins a fleet of 8 B Double tankers servicing mining sites in the North and Western Queensland.