Late last month, Post’s Electric Delivery Vehicles (EDVs) were withdrawn from service, following a serious safety incident involving defective front axles.
Thankfully, our members from Ingleburn DC who were operating the defective vehicles at at the time, were not injured.
Since the withdrawal, we have consulted extensively with Post through the Executive Safety Council – a decision making body made up of senior officials of your Union, management representatives and the Board.
Through this body, your Union sought the appointment of an external, independent engineer with no prior association with Australia Post to assess the suspected failure and recommend and test a solution to ensure the vehicles would be safe to operate, prior to returning to service.
The testing and review process has now concluded with the engineer stating the axle defect was related to incorrect heat treatment specification following implementation of a larger wheel design.
The axle has been redesigned to the engineer’s specifications with the steel maker’s chemical analysis of the raw material to confirm that it meets this specification, dimensional reports from the machining company to confirm conformation to the specification, heat treatment furnace process control history to ensure the correct surface and core strength requirements have been met and additional over checking by an independent heat treatment laboratory in Melbourne.
The engineer’s report has concluded with a high degree of confidence in his solution being effective and safe.
As such, all EDVs across the country will return to service following a retrofit schedule to receive the newly manufactured axle over the next four weeks.. The first of the EDVs will return this coming Monday in Newcastle with Ingleburn and other One Network sites to follow.
There are a number of other investigations ongoing in to the overall safety of the EDVs, including a study on whole of body vibrations and a Monash University study into the road safety of EDVs, including safe road speed limits. I’d like to thank members who are participating in these reviews. We will keep members posted as these progress.
All EDV riders are reminded to report any safety issue or incident involving EDVs to your local AUR and Branch Official.
In the meantime, if you require any further information or advice, please contact Branch Assistant Secretary Peter Chaloner or Branch Officials Cade Anderson, Gil Enzon, Elly Huttly, Phil Kessey, TK Ly, Peter O’Connell, Dharmpal Singh or Dennis Williams on (02) 9893 7822.
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