Fiji Gas Cylinder Vehicles have been modified to new Load Restraint Guidelines. The company is upgrading all its cylinder delivery trucks to a new, improved and safer specification. The designs, engineering and building is all done by Fiji Gas staff at its Wailada Terminal complex.

The investment in the new designs was supported by the Board of Fiji Gas and is in line with the companies Continuous Improvement strategy.

The design work was done in-house by the company draftsman Liga Ravulo using Computer Aided Design (CAD) and done to the Fiji Gas load restraint requirements. The delivery vehicles railings have been raised to hold cylinders securely whilst they are in transit, moving or in an event of an accident. New easy release bars have also been built into the design to reduce manual handling tasks for the delivery team.

The construction of the new railing system on the trucks was also done in-house by Jone Gade, Team Leader Welding at Fiji Gas. Currently, Fiji Gas is upgrading four their delivery trucks in Suva. Three were completed in September and the fourth will be finished later this month. The upgrades will be rolled out to the company’s other branches across the country.

Safety is the number one priority at Fiji Gas. “We are always mindful of risks in our business and by recognizing this we are able to identify and understand them so as to manage them safely and responsibly. We used our resources, systems and competencies to achieve this new change for safer operations and safer deliveries to our customers. We are always learning and recognize that we can always do better and the upgrade is just one example of this”, said Niteshwar Sami, Fiji Gas HSE Manager.

Hans Reiher, acting CEO Fiji Gas says “At Fiji Gas we pride ourselves on having all the design and engineering skills in house. Our designers and engineers also have the skills to design and build the most complex gas installations. Fiji Gas invests heavily in training and staff improvement. This investment means we have the experts in house and do not necessarily have to bring in consultants from overseas”.

“It has been a great experience working on the truck upgrades,” said Jone Gade. “The work has been a change from my normal engineering work and I have enjoyed the challenge. The quick release bars are both safe because they cannot come undone in transit but when the delivery teams are loading or unloading there is no obstructions making their jobs easier.”

Fiji Gas first began supplying gas to Fiji in 1956. It is now the largest LPG Company in the Pacific islands.