Agricultural machinery owners and operators are invited to get road ready ahead of the 2020 harvest season, by picking up a free 'Moving Harvest Machinery' USB from all agricultural machinery retailers and rural supply stores in the Parkes, Forbes and Lachlan Shires areas.
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The USBs are also available at the councils' administration offices.
The 'Moving Harvest Machinery' USBs contain all of the relevant notices for safely and legally moving agricultural machinery and combinations on the road along with other useful harvest safety information.
Parkes, Forbes and Lachlan Shire Councils' Road Safety and Injury Prevention Officer, Melanie Suitor, says it is imperative that all operators be aware of their responsibilities whilst operating over dimensional vehicles this harvest.
"For the first time in a few years it's looking like it's going to be a great harvest, which means lots of extra truck movements and agricultural machinery will be using local roads.
"Safety and compliance during harvest is very important.
"Operators need to be aware of their responsibilities and ensure that all warning devices and travel requirements are adhered to.
"Regulations do change and this USB will help to ensure that people have up to date information.
"We provide these handy credit card style USBs every harvest.
"It has been updated with the most current notices (as of September 2020) and provides other relevant information such as load restraint, chain of responsibility and the Harvesting Fire Safety Guide, to name a few.
"There is also a live 'link's' document, which provides the web address for the attachments on the USB. It is advisable to regularly check the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator's website (www.nhvr.gov.au) for updated notices and/or changes to operating conditions.
"The USBs are always very popular. This year there are 1,000 available. Let's work together to have a safe harvest," Ms Suitor said.
The annual harvest road safety field day went online this year due to CVOID-19 restrictions and it was booked out.
More than 90 people registered for the event with a further 20 people signing up to the waitlist.
Farmers, contract harvesters, transport companies, agricultural machinery retailers, government agencies, council staff and relevant associations all logged on to learn about the current regulations for safely and legally moving agricultural vehicles and combinations on the road.
Ms Suitor said it was great to see strong numbers, including a number who joined for the first time, for the virtual event.
