Coal road bridge "Roadbridge" : best practice project & experiences : a dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Professional Studies [at Lincoln University]

Abstract

This study explores the aims, experiences and effectiveness of applying best known practice to a new task and analysing the benefits of such a strategy. The project studied was a short term road transport operation utilising up to ten vehicles and twenty-five drivers working a twenty-four hour shift operation, seven days a week transporting 1200 tonnes of coal per day from mine to railhead. The project was called 'Roadbridge'. The relevance of this study is to find out whether best practice theory can successfully be applied to a new contract within an existing company. It should be noted that the existing operation of TNL Freighting (TNL) was implementing progressively the same best practice goals.

This study also considers Roadbridge as a project and discusses how successfully the activities were handled in terms of project management. Roadbridge developed as a positive partnership between TNL and Solid Energy (SE) and both found that working to a common goal reinforced and encouraged each other to succeed. TNL found working with SE a positive learning experience, particularly during the planning stage where quality and best practice standards were being designed into the operation.

The project implementation plan ran smoothly and it was very rewarding getting it right first time and seeing tangible benefits from the very start. This was in contrast to previous experiences where any satisfaction mainly came from fire fighting and fixing mistakes. The author learned that a well-planned operation required new skills relating to stakeholder and customer communication and the management of feedback, review and improvement processes. The post start-up challenge was to lock in that learning during the execution phase.

The primary overriding question was 'did Roadbridge function better because of the best practice initiatives?' For the start up and initial operation the answer is yes. However, over time the underlying culture of previous and existing practices began to be reasserted and required corrective action. Overall, TNL gained immediate and quantifiable rewards with plenty of evidence and feedback that Roadbridge was worthwhile. In over one million kilometres, truck drivers incurred only one traffic offence, one logbook offence, and no serious accidents.

The findings of this study shows that implementing best practice can only happen with a supportive corporate culture, high ethical standards and effective project management. In the future the strategy of striving for best practice will be more widely adopted throughout TNL.

The Roadbridge experience show very clearly that the outcome justified the effort put in, and that scaling up the concept to the whole of company or industry level would make good economic and business sense.