Safety, Health & Environment, and Quality
SHEQ & Performance
Safety Expertise and Operational Solutions
Unitrans Africa is one of the largest Fuel, Bulk Handling, Agricultural and Mining Distribution and Logistics companies in Africa. We have an extensive footprint in Sub Saharan countries that include Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho, Tanzania, and Madagascar. The cornerstone of all of these operations rest on our Safety Expertise and Operational Solutions to ensure optimal performance for the following:
Routine Maintenance Program and Back Up Vehicles
Unitrans maintain vehicles to the OEM specifications, a dedicated workshop team maintains all service records and ensures that maintenance schedules are set up and adhered to. As mentioned previously, Unitrans has a fleet of vehicles that they are able to draw from should there be any unscheduled breakdowns.
Driver Training
All drivers and operators undergo a unit standard aligned training programme with our dedicated driver trainers called “Fast Track”. The programme covers the following:
- Operating a Vehicle Combinations
- Fatigue Management
- Economic Driving
Each Unitrans Africa operation has a dedicated driver trainer and driver mentor who continuously provide refresher training for the drivers. Drivers undergo in-cab assessments regularly, where the driver trainer accompanies the driver on his scheduled trips.
By making use of technological solutions the driver trainer is able to monitor driver behaviour and ensure that corrective action is taken and/or refresher training takes place where required.
Contract Management Plan
With Unitrans Africa we ensure that the implementation of any new solution is both efficient and seamless, with no negative impact on the operations and services being delivered. We believe it is critical that project teams are involved in every phase, from design through to implementation, to ensure a seamless integration. Below are the people that make up the project team.
Our project teams also have the support of our Operational Executive team in Cape Town as well as our fully functional Finance, IT, HR and Legal divisions.
Each contract is ably supported by the central specialist services of:
- Finance and Legal
- Information Technology (IT)
- Continuous improvement specialists
- Human Resources
- Technical
In addition to this our management teams are supported through relevant training interventions aimed at ensuring ongoing and continuous compliance with legislation and good corporate governance.
Safety, Health & Environment and Quality
Unitrans has a proud record with regard to conforming to Safety, Health, Environmental, and Quality requirements of our clients, and has a proven track record. We are well versed in all the procedures and processes necessary to ensure full compliance with any requirements. Unitrans maintains the following beliefs:
- We believe that incidents are avoidable.
- We strive to continuously improve.
- We believe that our SHEQ culture forms a key part of our organisational culture, by actively influencing attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of individuals with regards to safety, quality of service, performance and the wellbeing of our employees and environment.
- We strive towards “Zero Harm” to people and the environment, by accepting accountability for our actions, providing the required recourse and through constant leadership involvement.
- We recognise that customer satisfaction and our competitiveness is dependent upon the quality of the service we provide.
Unitrans Africa has incorporated cloud-based governance, risk and compliance (GRC) management tools that helps identify, assess, monitor and manage risks faced by organisations on a daily basis. This platform is designed for the mining, logistics, financial, food and agriculture industries. Key features include risk assessment, business continuity monitoring, internal audits and a legal compliance. It allows users to plan various procedures and precautions and quickly act against potential risks. The electronic database provides a stable and trustworthy platform which allows us to standardise our company approach referred to as the SHEQ management system (MS) and integrates seamlessly with our customers operational requirements throughout multiple industries.
This is done through utilising the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle, which allows Unitrans to set strategic SHEQ objectives to drive the need for constant improvement and change in alignment with the company vision and mission statements.
We believe that this SHEQ approach differentiates Unitrans Africa from our competitors, and we meet and exceed the stringent SHEQ requirements of all our customers.
Accreditations
Customer Compliance
- ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems
- ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems
- OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems
- RTMS (Road Transport Management System) / PBS
- NOSA Integrated System
Unitrans Africa will ensure that all OHS (Occupational Health and Safety) and SHEQ (Safety, Health, Environment and Quality) standards are implemented and maintained.
SHEQ MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Unitrans Africa
- Recruitment, induction and training (drivers need at least 5 years’ experience)
- Yearly medicals
- Emergencies / Accidents/Incidents / Security
- OHSA Act and dangerous goods
- Driver safety standards, journey and vehicle management
- Waste, Warehouse and Facility Management
- Risk Assessments and signage
- SHEQ Audits and Site Environmental Management Plan
- Strike contingency plans
- Web-based SHEQ Management System
- Site specific policies and procedures
- Planned proactive maintenance schedules
- Visible felt leadership
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Risk Management Plan
The operations team will develop Baseline Risk Assessment and maintain a unique Project Risk Register. The Project Risk Register is maintained through the life of the contract. The risks and potential hazards, aspects and impacts of each p activity of the contract shall be included in the Risk Register prior to the contract starting. The Project Risk Register shall be reviewed quarterly as a minimum. More frequent reviews may be required where there is significant change to the scope of the project, due to audit finding recommendations, on the request of the client or any other significant change to hazards or controls.
Unitrans has a strict maintenance policy to ensure that all preventative maintenance is done on vehicles, thereby reducing the occurrences of breakdowns. The full service history detailing all maintenance, service and repairs carried out during the assets working life must be kept in the Vehicle History File. All vehicles are serviced within a 10% window of the intended service interval. Unitrans maintenance policies for mechanical assets, any prevailing or operational service requirements have been determined by relevant authorities such as: ISO, OSH Act, SHEQ, OHSAS, SABS codes, and/or in accordance with specific contract requirements.
All Unitrans operations have business continuity processes in place to deal with any disruptions to operations due to employee strikes. These processes are agreed to by the customer.
Continuous Improvement Plan
The Unitrans business development and solutions management teams, in conjunction with the operation management teams, are continuously researching and identifying CI projects that provide innovative ways to ensure that customer requirements are met more efficiently and cost effectively.
We are the largest operator of road trains in Africa. This is as a result of Unitrans being fully focused on innovation, quality of service, environmental impact and safety, and developing high-payload road trains using Performance Based Systems (PBS) and the RTMS. PBS, is an alternative regulatory system for heavy vehicles in Southern Africa. First launched in 2007, the PBS system uses a modified version of the Australian road train regulations, where heavy vehicles are designed on how they perform rather that how they look. Rather than having to fit within a prescriptive box, the truck and trailer are designed according to a total of 16 performance criteria. These range from acceleration, emergency manoeuvres, turning circle and rollover stability all the way to driver comfort and road wear. The result is that by designing the correct trailer for the correct application we can significantly increase payloads and not only reduce the total vehicles on the road, but also replace them with safer, strictly monitored and professionally operated options. As the PBS system is still a pilot project, all vehicles are monitored by the relevant countries’ DoT, and speeding and overloading relegations are tightened and heavily enforced. Breaches of these rules results in the suspension of the PBS permits. Thus areas permitting the use of PBS vehicles will gain a reduction in overloading and subsequent road wear, accident rates and CO2 emissions. Unitrans Africa have over 50 PBS registered vehicles in their fleet and have been part of the Smart Truck Pilot Project in South Africa for over 10 years. Our in-house expertise together with our network of PBS approved trailer builders means that we can guarantee the best solution for each application.
Unitrans is currently investigating the options of installing our own wash bays at the depot, thereby reducing the cost of outsourcing washing costs. This will also allow us to wash the fleet more regularly, which improves the overall customer image and the lifespan of the fleet.
Unitrans Africa have a dedicated drone department that is currently active in multi-rotor crop spraying, fixed-wing plant heath monitoring and high resolution orthomosaic image generation. We have investigated the use of drones for stock pile estimations at some of our mining sites and can easily integrate this with the stockpile measurement at sites. Volume accuracies between 1 and 2 % when compared to ground based laser measurement can be achieved. The quick deployment and relative ease of use, means that our drone measuring systems can be used multiple times a month or even multiple times a week. Our drone capabilities can also be expanded to include inspection flights and operation monitoring.
Additional Services
Unitrans Africa has the capabilities of offering the following additional services:
- Supply and management of weighbridge facilities;
- Staff Transport services;
- Drone services
