Do you, or your employees, drive or ride a vehicle for work? The HSE's guidance on Driving and riding safely for work tells you what you need to know to comply with current legislation.

Nicola Jaynes, HM Inspector of Health and Safety, talks about what the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) does, and about its most recent, update to guidance for those who employ people to drive or ride for work, and for those who do the driving and riding. 

About Nicola Jaynes and the risks involved in driving and riding for work  [01:28]

About the HSE, as inspector, regulator, guide, advisor, and sometimes prosecutor   [03:20]

About the new guidance, which is now available on an easily updateable microsite  [05:38]

The new content differs from previous guidance, here's what's available  [06:53]

What you need to know as a user of a 2-wheeled vehicle  [09:02]

About drivers' health and wellbeing and fatigue  [09:52]

Collecting data about road traffic incidents  [11:24]

Driving when self-employed, in the gig economy, and in the grey fleet  [11:59]

Close [13:05]

You may find these useful:

 Driving and riding safely for work (HSE microsite): https://www.hse.gov.uk/roadsafety/ 

Occupational Road Risk Management (RSSB web page): https://www.rssb.co.uk/safety-and-health/leading-health-and-safety-on-britains-railway/occupational-road-risk-management 

Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/37/contents 

Driving for Better Business Rail Sector gateway: https://www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com/rail-sector/ 

THINK! Road safety campaigns: https://www.think.gov.uk/

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSE site): https://www.hse.gov.uk/legislation/hswa.htm 

A guide to workplace transport safety (INDG382) (the 2014 edition): https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg136.htm 

Checking that freight vehicles are safe to go onto the rail network is not an easy task. It's work that's often done in difficult conditions, and the consequences of mistakes can be costly. The role of ground staff in freight depots and yards has changed dramatically over recent years. The conditions in which they work, in freight depots and yards where they carry out their vital and often challenging work, need to be improved. 
Dave Ethell and Devon Johnson, Operational Risk Manager at Freightliner Group, talk about the work they are doing to assure the condition of freight vehicles that go onto the rail network. 

01:53 About Devon.

02:34 About Dave.

04:07 About the Condition of Freight Vehicles on the Network (CFVN) Working Group.

05:39 How the freight sector has engaged, and the various stakeholders collaborate.

06:42 The CFVN project's strategic activities, and two core workstreams.

08:28 How the train preparation and loading workstream has been structured.  Survey responses from freight ground staff as they engage in the project.

10:33 Open and honest ground staff describe situations and propose solutions.

11:29 Some of the specific themes that came out.

13:58 Training for ground staff roles. Better non-technical skills and working facilities. Two quick wins.

16:40  What the CFVN Working Group will do with the data.

18:16 Hopes for the project—reducing delays, standardising preparation and loading procedures.

These resources may be of interest:

Leading Health and Safety on Britain's Railway – freight derailment chapter https://www.rssb.co.uk/safety-and-health/leading-health-and-safety-on-britains-railway/freight-derailment  

Annual Health and Safety Report 2020-21 https://www.rssb.co.uk/safety-and-health/risk-and-safety-intelligence/safety-performance-reports 

RAIB: Summary of learning – 5. Freight train derailments (see Section 3.2) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summary-of-learning-5-freight-train-derailments/summary-of-learning-5-freight-train-derailments 

In this episode we talk about lone working, and how it can affect health, wellbeing and personal safety. I talk with Joana Faustino, Senior Work Psychologist at RSSB, and Rachel Rowlinson, Associate Director at Britain Thinks, who has a special interest in health matters in the rail industry. 

 01:56 About Rachel and her role in the railway.

 02:34 Who and what was involved in the research.

 03:14 Guidance for lone workers and their managers, and just who is a lone worker.

 04:55 How many people just might be lone workers?

 05:35 How Covid-19 has influenced the number of lone worker roles.

 05:54 Are you a lone worker if you work from home?

 06:40 What makes you a lone worker?

 07:25 The down side of lone working.

 08:12 Things about lone working that can affect health, wellbeing, and safety.

 09:17 What organisations can do to better support lone workers.

 10:19 What lone workers can do to support their own wellbeing—some top tips.

 11:22 Top tips from the guidance for physical health and safety.

 12:35 The Lone Worker's Wellbeing Action Plan—what keeps lone workers happy and healthy at work, and what causes stress or anxiety

 13:31 Sources of support available to lone workers.

 Resources mentioned in this episode:

RSSB webpage: Keeping Lone Workers Safe and Secure.  This page has links to all three of the guidance documents talked about in this episode.

https://www.rssb.co.uk/what-we-do/key-industry-topics/health-and-wellbeing/healthy-cultures/keeping-lone-workers-safe-and-secure 

Related resources:

T1213 Understanding the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Risks and Impacts of Lone Working in Rail—Project Report

https://www.rssb.co.uk/research-catalogue/CatalogueItem/T1213

Contact a Samaritan

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/  or call 116 123. 

Fortunately, multiple fatality rail accidents in Britain are rare. But only by learning from the past can we reduce risk in the future. Learning and remembering are vital. Even the lessons from a major accident, like that near Clapham Junction in 1988, can all too soon be forgotten.

In this episode we look at the Clapham accident, some of its causes, and how well we have, or haven't, learned from it. Good corporate memory—and incident reporting—as you'll hear, are vital to making our railways a safe place to work and travel.

01:22 A bit about Greg Morse.

02:28 Describing the Clapham accident.

03:15 The causes behind the accident.

04:11 How mistakes came to be made.

04:49 How fatigue is managed today.

05:31 Organisational complacency.

06:18 Clapham's lessons relevant today.

08:00 Looking at the whole system.

09:24 About future episodes.

09:58 Close.

Give us your thoughts and ideas—on this or any other episode: [email protected]

You may also be interested in:
Making Sure Clapham's Lessons Aren't Hidden (RSSB web article by Greg Morse on the 30th anniversary of the accident.)
Remembering Clapham (Michael Woods recalls the day as he was working for a division of BR at the time.)
The Hidden Report (PDF download, 8MB)
RAIB's report on the Cardiff signalling irregularities (PDF download, 3MB)
RAIB's report on the Waterloo collision (PDF download, 2.5MB)

Would you like to offer your freight customers a more flexible and efficient service? Many freight routes are booked months in advance, but not always used. Or perhaps you need a detour, either to deliver for a customer or because your route is blocked.

The hurdles in the way of Very Short-Term Planning can delay approvals until it's too late. This is where the Path Planner tool comes in. In this episode Maggie Simpson, Director General of the Rail Freight Group and Martin Gleadow of 3Squared talk about the importance of rail freight and one way to increase capacity.

 01:51 Introducing Maggie Simpson.

02:37 A bit about Martin Gleadow.

03:16 How important is the rail freight sector to the UK economy?

04:42 The carbon benefits of moving freight from road to rail.

05:55 How freight planning works today.

08:03 How a responsive planning process could help customers.

10:00 Developing the Path Planner tool.

10:58 How Path Planner works.

14:04 What's next for Path Planner.

15:02 Rail Freight Group's view of this and other R&D.

16:02 Close.

16:42 ENDS

More about the Dynamic Freight Capacity Management project:

https://www.rssb.co.uk/research-catalogue/CatalogueItem/I01-CLR-04 

Give us your thoughts and ideas—on this or any other episode: [email protected] 

HS2 is set to cost the taxpayer £96 billion – 71% more than the 2015 estimate. Is cutting the journey time from London to Birmingham by 30 minutes really worth all that money? According to Ben Rule, Infrastructure Management Director at HS2, the high-speed railway line is an invaluable investment, which will bring much wider benefits to Great Britain and its railways. 

00:40 A bit about Ben

01:57 Response to critics: HS2 isn’t an overpriced project that just slightly cuts journey times 

02:56 It’ll do so much more, including improving connectivity

04:15 Then there’s the role it’ll have in reducing the country’s carbon footprint

06:52 Let’s not forget the economic and social benefits: freight, employment, business opportunities

08:44 While many may not agree, this couldn’t have been achieved with our existing network

These might be of interest:

HS2 home page: https://www.hs2.org.uk/ 

HS2 Phase One plan and profile maps: London to the West Midlands: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hs2-plan-and-profile-maps-between-london-and-the-west-midlands 

How can you share your data outputs without revealling how you found them? The Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) protects commercially sensitive and valuable intellectual property, while generating richer answers. In this episode David Golightly and Ken Pierce from Newcastle University talk about the tool, which is creating opportunities for rail.

01:30 About David.

02:02 About Ken.

03:00 The FMI and how it works.

06:14 How you can share your data outputs without revealling how you found them .

08:43 FMI and RSSB's work on decarbonisation.

11:54 How FMI could be applied to operational performance and infrastructure construction.

13:50 How the automotive industry uses FMI to test OEM components  before being ordered, manufactured and shipped.

17:51 Opportunities for FMI to benefit the rail industry.

19:44 FMI in human performance modelling that could predict railway system performance.

21:14 How FMI could support the vision for Great British Railways.

23:38 How FMI can support the Williams-Shapps plan for delivering systems solutions.

Resources related to this episode:

Introduction to FMI by Hubertus Tummescheit, CEO Modelon Inc (23 mins)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfludIklmJg 

The FMI standard: https://fmi-standard.org/ 

List of 150 modelling and simulation tools that already support FMI:
 https://fmi-standard.org/tools/ 

In this episode Dave Hatfield and Simon Rodgers talk about the work they are doing to improve the lot of passengers. A pilot project to deliver and respond to real-time data about the environmental conditions inside train carriages. Ultimately, they want to predict issues up to 24 hours before they happen and take remedial action to prevent or minimise them.

01:31 About Simon and the work his company does with technology.

02:14 About Dave and his railway career.

02:49 The Internet of Things and what it can do to improve passenger experience.

04:06 How the Internet of Things could improve train services.

05:27 How in-carriage data is being transmitted and used 24 hours a day, and how it will be used to forecast issues 24 to 48 hours ahead of them happening.

07:29 The benefits for Grand Central Railway—pre-emptive maintenance and fewer trains unexpectedly out of service.

08:11 What can be measured, used, and deliver better operations and cost savings.

Resources related to this episode:

LTE-M, or LTE Cat M1, is a wide area network that uses radio technology for communication.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE-M 

What is LTE-M? a blog by Link Labs https://www.link-labs.com/blog/what-is-lte-m 

LTE-M connectivity optimized for IoT: from Thales. https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-security/iot/resources/innovation-technology/lte-m 

In this episode Patrick Allinson, Operations Control Manager at Great Western Railway, talks about his experience of the G-FORCE Tool. Used in the GWR control centre for nearly 12 months, Patrick talks about his experience and some of the incidents when G-FORCE has been used to speed decision making.

01:39 About Patrick.

02:30 How decision making is handled.

03:49 Who has used the tool and who could use G-FORCE in future.

05:12 When and how G-FORCE might be used, and when it should not, with some examples .

09:10 Why Patrick feels the industry needs G-FORCE and the benefits that it can bring.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

G-FORCE: A Model to Improve Decision-Making Capability https://www.rssb.co.uk/safety-and-health/improving-safety-health-and-wellbeing/understanding-human-factors/operational-decision-making/gforce-a-model-to-improve-decision-making-capability 

Related resources:

You can find all the G-FORCE-related resources from this RSSB web page: https://www.rssb.co.uk/search#search-results_e=0&search-results_q=G-Force 

In this episode George Davies, Director of Sustainable Development at RSSB, talks about the collaborative work done, and to be done, to deliver the Sustainable Rail Strategy. Both as a document and as a living set of ambitions and actions to achieve a sustainable world.

01:51 Determining the Sustainable Rail Strategy, the need for clear ambitions, and flagship industry goals.

05:26 The technology leadership needed to implement solutions and and achieve targets. 

08:42 How communications, engagement, and collaboration are essential to achieve sustainability goals.

11:56 The importance of groups such as community rail programmes for local success; and the DfT for guidance.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Great British Railways: The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/great-british-railways-williams-shapps-plan-for-rail 

Rail Environment Policy Statement: On Track for a Cleaner, Greener Railway: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/environmental-sustainability-on-the-railway-stating-our-priorities 

Decarbonising Transport: A Better, Greener Britain: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transport-decarbonisation-plan 

Related resources:

Transport decarbonisation plan: tackling climate change – oral statement to Parliament (transcript): https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/transport-decarbonisation-plan-tackling-climate-change 

Transport decarbonisation plan (speech transcript): https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/transport-decarbonisation-plan 

Decarbonising UK transport: final report and technology roadmaps: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/decarbonising-uk-transport-technology-roadmaps