When travelling in a group the pilot vehicles, OSOM vehicle and, when required, an escort vehicle form what is referred to as a convoy.
Escort vehicles clear the way for OSOM vehicles of traffic ahead, and behind the convoy.
Transport Safety officers will sometimes need to leave their vehicles. This may be to help with the convoy or to give instruction to other drivers.
This could include passing the convoy where it is safe to so do. Please be patient and respectful when following their instructions. It is an offence to disobey a direction of a Transport Safety Officer.
You can recognise our escort 4WDs by their distinctive yellow and green markings, red and blue flashing lights and warning signs. Our Transport Safety Officers wear distinctive hi-vis gear and use handheld signalling torches.
Heavy vehicle escorts are undertaken by trained Transport Safety and Investigation Officers (TSIOs), to ensure the safe movement of Oversize Overmass (OSOM) loads on the State road network.
An escort vehicle provides warning to other road users of the presence of a heavy vehicle carrying an OSOM load. TSIOs must also consider traffic speed, traffic volume and prevailing weather conditions. Escorts will often need to stop oncoming traffic when the load is too wide to safely travel along some bridges and roads. Escorts also assist in the safe passage of trailing vehicles needing to overtake these loads.
To alert traffic when undertaking these tasks, escort vehicles are fitted with red and blue flashing lights and equipment, with officers authorised to direct traffic on how to interact with an OSOM load.
The requirement for a heavy vehicle escort is based on the dimensions and/or mass of the heavy vehicle and load combination. This also includes the topography of the road network and traffic volumes. Refer to the carrying loads bulletin for information on how to safely secure your load.
Heavy vehicle escorts help make sure that OSOM vehicles are able to travel across bridges on the road network at a speed and manned in a way which is not likely to cause unnecessary damage to road or bridge infrastructure. Often this task can only be done safely when all traffic is stopped from entering onto the bridge until the OSOM load has passed.
To ease traffic management issues and limit disruption to peak hour traffic, OSOM loads are timed to commence in the early hours of the morning to minimise risk. Ideally, the convoy will have travelled through built-up areas before traffic and pedestrian volumes increase.
Transport services for OSOM loads are consistently provided by a small number of heavy haulage contractors, due to the specialist nature of equipment required to undertake the tasks with safety.