Importance of Business Continuity Planning with Salter’s Cartage

Salters Cartage are experts in waste recovery solutions and are an industry leader in the recycling and hazardous disposal market. Services provided by Salters Cartage include waste oil and workshop recycling; interceptor cleaning; vacuum truck services; spill response; shipping and marine fluid management; and specialist fluid storage management. Salters is headquartered in Manukau, Auckland; has depots in Auckland, Feilding and Christchurch; and its operations also service the Pacific Islands.

Salters Cartage has been in business since 1980. Over the last 40 years Salters has expanded into a diverse group, now firmly established as a market leader in its areas of operation. Salters is committed to providing environmentally sustainable solutions to address the challenge of transport, disposal, and recycling of hazardous waste.

15th September 2015 started like every other day for Ron Salter. At 1:30pm Ron was sitting at his desk at the Manukau site when he heard a loud ‘bang’, an explosion. The shock wave from the explosion blew the windows in and the lifted the roof on the building he was working in.

Ron and his staff acted immediately. Emergency evacuations of all staff from the site were undertaken; the emergency services (Police, Fire and Ambulance) were called; and site was immediately cordoned off. Once these immediate actions had occurred, assessment of the situation revealed that the top of a 100,000-litre fuel tank was missing and eventually found 700 metres away.

A contractor who was conducting work on the top of the tank at the time of the explosion was thrown from the tank when the explosion occurred and tragically died from this incident. The explosion impact extended beyond the Salters Cartage site causing damage to surrounding businesses including lifted roofs and damage to a neighbouring site storing brand-new cars.

The blast was felt in other areas beyond Wiri and Manukau; with reports of the blast being felt in Manurewa and Takanini. Police and WorkSafe New Zealand investigations were to follow. Salters Cartage were required to immediately cease all operations at the Manukau site; and

shift operations to alternative locations. Ron couldn’t shutdown his whole business due to the extensive services provided by Salters Cartage across the North Island, so he had to quickly develop a plan to manage the extensive disruption to his business. This included arranging for the collection of oil and bulk haul delivery; and shipping unprocessed waste materials to providers in the South Island for processing. The processing/ oil refinement had to be conducted elsewhere as Salters Cartage couldn’t do this themselves.

Ron didn’t know it at the time, but it would be six months before the Manukau site could reopen.

We asked Ron what emergency and business continuity arrangements Salters Cartage had in place at the time of this incident. Ron was thankful that Salters Cartage had well-practised emergency evacuation procedures in place. Evacuation drills were regularly conducted.

Ron also highlighted the importance of insurance. Salters Cartage had comprehensive public liability insurances which covered losses incurred by surrounding businesses also impacted by the incident. Insurances in place enabled Salters Cartage to re-build the business.

Salters Cartage had safety plans and procedures in place, but these were not enough to prevent what happened. We asked Ron what would Salters Cartage do, if you could go back in time to prepare yourself/or business better – What would you tell yourself to do?

Find more about Ron’s story at one of the upcoming Business Resilience courses on 13 March and 8 May. Check our events page for further information.