By Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association Executive Manager for Employment and Training Elisha Radwanowski.
As part of the ‘Employment Guides for 2021-2022,’ ACAPMA has released the ‘Emergency Response Plan Guide,’ a detailed exploration of the requirements for Emergency Responses and Plans, including manifest and lodgement requirements for Emergency Response Plans in a fuel retail setting.
Managing risk onsite is a daily task, one that requires the planning of responses to common emergencies (like injury on site) to the very rare emergencies (like bomb threats or natural disasters). It is a requirement of safety legislation that all businesses assess their risks and build appropriate measures to respond to and mitigate those risks.
In the fuel retail industry, there is also the requirement to develop detailed Emergency Response Plans that include contact details for the persons responsible for the site (a 24-hour number), a detailed site plan that includes a specific list of inclusions, a complete manifest of the fuel products onsite and their quantities as well as the complete and detailed listing of the responses to common and uncommon emergencies.
The Emergency Response Plan, or ERP, is a vital part of managing a fuel retail site. The ERP must be stored in the console area for the console operator to refer to in the event of an emergency.
Further, in many jurisdictions the ERP must be lodged with the safety regulator and/or the fire brigade, and any changes (including changes to contact details) need to be notified to the regulator within 30 days.
All operators need to regularly review their ERP, ensure that it is up to date, lodged and stored appropriately. The business will also need to ensure that they have trained all staff in the ERP. In the fuel industry the ‘flipchart’ is often looked at as the ERP, but unless it includes the contact, site plan and manifest details a ‘flipchart’ alone doesn’t cut it.
The ACAPMA Emergency Response Plan Guide includes a companion Template document that can be edited by the business to ensure creating and updating their ERP is as simple as possible. The Guide also includes detailed steps for self-assessment of ERP and training instructions for on-site staff.
The ACAPMA ‘Emergency Response Plan Guide’ and ERP Template are part of the ‘ACAPMA 2021-2022 Employment Guide Pack’ that will be distributed to members in the coming weeks but is available as a standalone guide to ACAPMA members now. Email employment@acapma.com.au to request your copy.
Here to help
ACAPMA members are reminded that the ACAPMA employment professionals are available to assist with all employment matters. For more information, reach out to employment@acapma.com.au.
HR Highlights are things to consider, implement and watch out for in your business. They are provided as general advice and you should seek further advice on your situation emailing employment@acapma.com.au to get the advice and support of ACAPMA employment professionals – it’s free for members.
Published with permission from ACAPMA.
Source: https://acapmag.com.au/2021/08/acapma-emergency-response-plan-guide-released/
