Dairy Australia and Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE have teamed up to provide a new accreditation for milk tanker drivers, which will make it easier for both processors and drivers.

The launch of the new national White Card Accreditation Program was held at Booth’s Transport in Strathmerton on March 8th, 2018.

Dairy Australia’s people and capability program leader Shane Hellwege said the day was ‘‘a celebration of a couple things’’.

‘‘One, it’s a program for tanker operators and they will have a national accreditation once they have completed the training,’’ Mr Hellwege said.

‘‘The second is the program is the result of dairy processing companies coming together.

‘‘It’s all about farm safety rather than driving trucks. This is an important point.’’

The new accreditation will allow milk tanker drivers to follow the same protocols regardless of which company they are delivering to.

‘‘Before, each processor had different programs. Now there’s a new national program,’’ Mr Hellwege said.

‘‘If McColl’s Transport were delivering to Fonterra and Murray Goulburn, they would have to do different training,’’ he said.

McColl’s Transport worker Peter Dawson, who received his accreditation at the launch, said the milk tanker operator played a pivotal role in the industry.

‘‘The milk tanker operator is responsible for the health integrity and responsible for the composite sample of the milk,’’ Mr Dawson said.

The national program came about due to the industry realising there was a hole that needed to be filled.

‘‘The industry saw the importance and the industry asked for this to see if it was possible, and it was,’’ GOTAFE Werribee representative Bronwyn Turton, who was part of the working party, said.

Source: Country News