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Our team in Thailand achieved an extraordinary feat to commence operations and start delivering for a new customer under the most challenging of circumstances. In just six weeks, the team was trained and mobilised, delivering to our client’s expectations.
The Southeast Asia market is an attractive prospect for companies with growth ambitions. Like anywhere, there are challenges that come with the territory.
Toll navigated two well-known challenges, compliance and safety, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, to start delivering for our client, all the while keeping safety our number one priority for our people, customers and the community.
One hundred and ten drivers were hired, trained, equipped and scheduled to run the linehaul transportation of essential goods from Bangkok to Chiangmai as part of a new contract.
With a new fleet of ten-wheel extended rigid plus dog trailer combination trucks, these drivers move goods daily along the 34-hour, 1,500km round trip, delivering much-needed supplies to distribution points and onto essential service providers.
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Going the extra mile to ensure the highest safety and compliance standards
The process to get established, make the necessary arrangements and implement safety measures took the most time as our team scrutinised the paperwork, machinery and sites, to ensure that we had a solid operation that allowed our employees to adhere to the local working hours as well as COVID-19 guidelines.
At the same time, we made it mandatory to weigh all trucks before dispatch by deploying multiple portable weighbridges to sites. The information is uploaded to the control tower for a further check before the truck commences its delivery to the sites. Vic Vella, Vice President – Transport for Toll Thailand, explains that this is a unique step that Toll has undertaken in the region, and is an excellent demonstration of our safety obsessed culture, safeguarding our drivers as they set off on their long journey.
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“The drive is long, but the team takes care of us. We have good supervisors and managers who lead us for toolbox talks, pre-trip preparations like vehicle inspections and exercise warm-ups every day and give us a call once in a while to check if everything is going ok. Our team in the Control Room constantly looks out for us too. All this helps us end our shift safely because we have our families to return home to at the end of every day and many of us are the only income providers”, said Mr Harinkhan Mohamad, Toll class 4 heavy vehicle combination driver in Thailand (third from the left in above photo of the team having their toolbox session).
Our employees understand the importance of adhering to the measures. In turn, our drivers know that the goods they are carrying comply with local regulations and which gives them peace of mind so they are able to focus on driving safely.