Do you work in Weed & Pest Control in Queensland? More importantly, do you know if your vehicle and equipment are compliant?
With the recent self-assessed audit that have been issued by Queensland Health, there has been a significant rise in pest management technicians who are realising their equipment is not compliant, or have had follow up visits from Queensland Health officers.
At Austates Pest Equipment we understand how serious an issue this is and we want to ensure that as a technician you are fully aware of your requirements for compliance, and are following these. You may not realise, but both Queensland Police and Queensland Transport officers are enforcing these requirements.
In our own experience of supplying weed and pest control equipment, we’ve found the most crucial products that address issues of non-compliance are:
1) Poison signs for vehicle spray tanks
(Keep in mind, hand held equipment also needs to labelled. We suggest using key tags, or sticky labels for any smaller items.)
2) Spill kits
3) Spill trays for vehicle spray units and home storage of pesticides
However, there may be far more aspects of your work that these requirements could be affecting. Other common issues of compliance relate to inadequate signage on your vehicle or providing incorrect paperwork. In most cases, this is when technicians fail to advise their clients of the pesticide type, quantity, and concentration they are using on the premises.
We have also received many reports from clients who have been fined for not having their loads secured properly. Are you aware of the requirements for safe vehicle loads? It can actually include anything from a loose garden hose, gumboots, shovels or ladders.
Some pertinent points of load safety that you may not be aware of are that ropes, ratchet straps, or tie down cords used to secure your load must be labelled clearly and state its load securing capacity. Cargo nets must also have a load rating label, along with hole sizes in the net, small enough to contain the smallest item you are carrying.
The team at Austates highly recommend if you are a weed or pest control technician, that you familiarise yourself with all of the vehicle and equipment compliance requirements. For more information on vehicle loads, please click the link to visit the Department of Transport and Main Roads website.