Chapter 40.1: Occupational Road Use: A Holistic Overview
Abstract
Roadways are workplaces for an increasingly diverse range of occupational‑vehicle users and road workers, from heavy and light motor vehicles to powered two‑ and three‑wheelers, bicycles and power‑assisted pedal cycles used for work. Occupational road‑vehicle users – workers who drive, ride or otherwise control vehicles for freight, passenger transport, service provision or platform‑based gig work – face risks experienced by all road users as well as risks specific to work design, employment arrangements and occupational demands. Their work environment is atypical and mobile, shared with non‑work road users, and regulated by overlapping work‑ and road‑related frameworks that variably recognise vehicles and roads as workplaces. Heavy‑vehicle users remain a well‑documented occupational‑road‑use group, but recent coronial and other data show substantial work‑road fatalities involving light commercial and passenger vehicles, powered two‑wheelers and cycles, although data for many users remain limited and inconsistently defined. Across vehicle types and work arrangements, occupational road use is a leading cause of work‑related traumatic injury and death and a significant contributor to overall road trauma. This chapter outlines contemporary occupational‑road‑use exposures, key data and trends, and systems‑based OHS risk‑management models, with specific attention to vulnerable vehicle users and workers in precarious and gig‑economy roles.
Keywords: road, vehicles, work, OHS, safety
First year of publication: 2012
Current Version: 2026
Chapter 40.1: Occupational Road Use: A Holistic Overview
Table of contents
| 1 | Introduction |
| 1.1 | Chapter purpose |
| 1.2 | Background |
| 2 | Australian Occupational Road Workers & Fleet |
| 2.1 | Chapter focus |
| 2.2 | Definitions |
| 2.2.1 | Vehicles |
| 2.3.2 | Workers & OHS – PCBU, Employer/Employee |
| 2.3.3 | Road and Vehicle-Use Workers |
| 3 | Work – Road Context |
| 3.1 | Historical Context |
| 3.2 | Data Context and Challenges |
| 3.3 | Changes over time |
| 4 | Using a Systems Approach to understanding work demands and risk management |
| 4.1 | What is a systems approach? |
| 4.2 | Drivers |
| 4.3 | Work Arrangements |
| 4.4 | Vehicles |
| 4.5 | Driving Environments |
| 4.6 | Work driving tasks |
| 4.7 | Regulatory factors |
| 4.8 | Wider systems factors |
| 4.9 | System Outcomes |
| 5 | Extent of the Problem |
| 5.1 | Impact of Road Trauma |
| 5.1.1 | International work-road trauma burden |
| 5.2 | Australian Vehicle, Injury, Fatality and Crash Data – What is Collected? |
| 5.3 | Heavy Vehicle Drivers’ Risks |
| 5.4 | The Chain of Responsibility (CoR) for Heavy Vehicle Use |
| 5.5 | Risks to other road workers |
| 5.5.1 | School Crossing Supervisors/Guards |
| 5.5.2 | Traffic management, road construction and maintenance workers |
| 5.5.3 | Roadside Police, Ambulance, Firefighters, incident response and tow truck operators |
| 6 | Legislation and Standards |
| 7 | Managing Occupational Road Use Hazards and Risks |
| 7.1 | The Importance of the Use of Systems Approaches |
| 7.2 | Fleet Management |
| 7.3 | Gig workers |
| 7.4 | Evaluating Internal Initiatives After Implementation |
| 7.5 | On road driver/vehicle surveillance systems |
| 7.6 | Roadside workers |
| 8 | Implications for OHS Practice |
| 9 | Summary |
| 10 | Resources & References |
| 10.1 | Resources |
Dr Rwth Stuckey BAppSc(OT), GDipErg, MPH, PhD
School of Occupational Therapy, LaTrobe University
Dr Rwth Stuckey has worked for more than 45 years in OHS and ergonomics with roles including at the TAC and researching for the Victorian Department of Transport. Her PhD investigated occupational road-vehicle use. She is Associate Professor and Course Coordinator in Ergonomics Safety and Health at La Trobe University. She has a keen interest in contemporary work patterns, workers’ health and safety, and the implementation of effective OHS systems. Current research interests include driving regulation, worker wellbeing programs, and risks for musculoskeletal injuries. She was awarded an OAM in 2023 for Services to the Health of the Community.
Dr Nicholas Mabbott PhD (Psychology)
Fatigue Management Specialist, Beyond Midnight Consulting
Dr Nicholas Mabbott is a Fatigue Risk Management Specialist with over 29 years of experience in sleep and fatigue risk management. He has provided sleep and fatigue management training and education to over 36,000 people from a wide range of industries. While others tell employees to get eight hours of sleep, Dr Nick educates people on the benefits of sleep and how to get the best sleep possible, and which is appropriate to their rosters. Dr Nick has represented the WA Police Major Crash Division on 20 alleged fatigue crashes (16 fatalities), supplying expert evidence to courts and coroners. He assists groups at the workforce and corporate level to better manage workplace safety and performance through enabling the workforce to obtain the best sleep possible.
Peer reviewer
Name, Credentials
Occupation, Workplace
Learning Outcomes: Physical Hazards: Vehicles and Occupational Road Use
The OHS Body of Knowledge takes a conceptual approach which enables it to be applied in different contexts and frameworks.
To optimise its value for education and professional development learning outcomes have been developed for each technical chapter in the Body of Knowledge.
The learning outcomes as described give an indication of what should be the capabilities of an OHS professional; it is up to those developing OHS education programs, OHS professionals planning their CPD or recruiters or employers selecting or developing people for the OHS function to consider the required breadth vs. depth .
Please read the section on using the learning outcomes before delving into the leaning outcomes of the individual chapters.
The numbers against each learning outcome refer to the chapter number of the BOK download page. No learning outcomes have been developed for the chapters considered introductory or underpinning knowledge (that is chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1, .13, 14, 15.)
Archived Chapter 30 Published 2019
Archived Chapter 30 Published 2012