Spilt Milk: NTI’s drive to stop milk tanker crashes

“It’s worth calling out here the innate challenge of bulk dairy transport, where we have dairy cows in hilly regions with high rainfall and winding country roads. The nature of the freight task means much of it gets transported at awkward hours,” he said.

Gibson added that dairy pickups are often very early in the morning during darkness. However, the risk engineer’s work shone a light on these dangers.

Part of Gibson’s role for NTI involves analysing claims data to inform the annual National Truck Accident Research Centre (NTARC) Major Accident Report. The report is Australia’s leading reference for when, where and why major truck accidents occur.

“Our data indicated a worrying trend toward milk tanker crashes which inspired our work towards applying for a grant to undertake this piece of work,” said Gibson. “It’s from that data that this project evolved.”

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Gibson said the possibility of improving safety and work conditions “for everyone involved across the supply chain” inspired NTI’s ultimately successful application for the grant.

In May, NTI announced federal government funding through the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s (NHVR) Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative (HVSI) to develop and deliver a national crash reduction program for the dairy industry. The aptly named “Spilt Milk” program involves Gibson and other NTI specialists working with dairy transport experts and drivers to develop training programs, resources and workshops to get the accident rate down.

Gibson said, according to NTI data, dairy tanker drivers crash about two and a half times more often than the average for all truck driving occupations. The other key statistic, he said, is that the clean-up cost after a tanker crashes and spills milk is roughly double the cost of the average truck mess clean-up.

“That’s actually reflected in the experience of our incident scene management in that the cost to clean up after a dairy tanker crash is really not that different than after a diesel tanker,” said Gibson.

The main cause of that cost is environmental factors.  

“When you consider the geographical landscape of where bulk milk tanker accidents are occurring: lovely, lush green countryside with waterways and sensitive ecosystems, it’s paramount to sustain those environments and that results in higher costs,” he said.

However, Gibson said the particular design of dairy tankers also contributes to the accident rate.

He said any sort of tanker transport presents more challenges than a static load that can be tied down and stopped from moving around. Liquid, he said, will always slosh around in a tanker because space is always left – the tank is never filled to the brim.

“There’s always some space at the top for expansion,” he said. “The worst sloshing around occurs when a tanker is two thirds loaded, that’s when there’s most movement in the centre of gravity of that load,” he added.

Milk tankers add another layer of difficulty, said Gibson.

“Inside any tanker you’ll often have plates with big holes in them called baffles that reduce the slosh. However, you can’t have as many baffles in a dairy tanker compared to a fuel tank because you have to get inside to clean it out for food hygiene reasons,” he said.

 The dairy industry has taken some measures to improve the stability and safety of milk tankers.

“The tanks are already made to get the centre of gravity down low and other innovations are improving the dynamics of the vehicles even further, but as a starting point they’re more challenging than other bulk tankers,” said Gibson.

The Spilt Milk program aims to solve those challenges and improve safety.

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“Our partner in this initiative is a company called Australian Trucking Safety Services & Solutions. They’ve done some really fantastic work in the forestry space which we’re using as a model,” said Gibson.

He said there are three phases.

“The first one is to listen: Go out and talk to industry and find out what the challenges are. What’s been tried? What has worked? What hasn’t?” he said.

After using that information to write up a best practice report, NTI will report back to the industry.

“The second part of the project is to take the best bits of what they told us and build resources to support rolling out those practices back to the industry,” he said.

Gibson said those materials may include a guide, a checklist or a driver training video, depending on what the industry tells NTI it needs. 

“The third and final part of the project is to roll those resources out, back to the industry,” he said.

For frontline staff in key dairy growing regions, Gibson said that could mean a series of workshops.

The Spilt Milk program will run over the next two years.