Ideagen Plant Assessor and Carrathool Shire Council

Located approximately 700 kilometres south-west of Sydney, this predominantly rural area includes the town of Hillston and surrounding villages of Goolgowi, Merriwagga, Rankins Springs and Carrathool.

Agricultural land is used largely for sheep and cattle grazing and the growing of cotton, rice, citrus, nuts, olives and vegetables. Carrathool is an Aboriginal word of the local Wiradjuri people meaning ‘native companion’.

The Challenge

“In 2015 our HR Manager came across Plant Assessor and arranged a subscription but we weren’t really engaged with the product or aware of the full suite of services they offer,” explains Bert Breuling, Manager – Fleet & Town Services, who is responsible for plant & fleet management, parks & gardens, garbage services and maintenance for the Council.

Carrathool Shire Council owns and operates approximately 100 pieces of plant and equipment from specialised power tools and grounds maintenance equipment through to rollers, graders and fuel trailers.

“In the first few months of 2016 we were looking for some expert advice regarding two of our graders that were in need of a safety assessment. A few of the operators were expressing their concerns that the machines might not be safe to use,” explains Bert.

“The safety of our staff and residents is extremely important to us and we wanted our machinery operators to be assured that they were safe to go to work. We contacted Plant Assessor regarding their on-site services and they confirmed one of their field service team would be at our main depot within a week.”

Solution

“A representative of Plant Assessor arrived on site to meet with our team and conduct the inspections and he quickly proved to everyone that he knew what he was talking about. He gained their respect with his comprehensive knowledge of the machines and any and all potential safety issues,” says Bert.

“He was very hands-on and gave us clear instructions about what we need to do to ensure the machines remained compliant and safe to use.”

Plant Assessor subsequently trained the Council’s Plant Supervisor, Tony Blunden on how to carry out assessments and use the on-line platform to manage this important data.

“We are working our way through each and every piece of equipment and logging this information into Plant Assessor where we can monitor things to ensure all of our plant and equipment is always safe for our staff use.”

Result

Bert Breuling couldn’t be more pleased with the service Carrathool Shire Council has received and the outcomes generated from these initial site visits and a subsequent interaction with the Plant Assessor platform.

“Sometimes it really pays to get advice and guidance from experts,” says Bert.

“We made the decision to invest some time and effort into engaging the field service team and then ensuring we knew how to manage the safety related aspects of our fleet and our tools on a day-to-day basis and it really has paid dividends. The entire department has a new-found confidence in how we approach our work.

“We were that impressed with the systems they have put in place and the process they follow that we now include a clause in our tenders clarifying our preference that suppliers provide Plant Assessor risk assessments with the equipment we purchase from them. 

“Carrathool Shire Council is pleased to serve as a reference for Plant Assessor, to any prospective business that is considering their platform but especially to other local council and government departments as they understand the unique nature of our sector.

“We are looking forward to a long and healthy business partnership with Plant Assessor.”