Sharing the load on safety

Onside has launched an industry-first digital platform to revolutionise shared safety management across agriculture supply chains in Australia and New Zealand.

Ryan Higgs.

Developed in partnership with ANZCO Foods, PCBU Enterprise addresses longstanding challenges related to joint safety responsibilities across the supply chain between enterprises, contractors, suppliers and transport operators.

Onside CEO Ryan Higgs says it’s his company’s biggest and most ambitious agri risk and safety product yet. And he believes it could not be timelier.

“Recent high-profile safety incidents, including significant fines against senior executives for PCBUs (persons conducting a business or undertaking) breaching worker safety and health legislation, have reinforced the need for clear and coordinated safety management practices across the agricultural sector.”

The new platform offers a multi-party safety and risk network, enabling agribusinesses to collaboratively manage shared risk and map joint responsibility areas with their suppliers and contractors – allowing real-time communication, accurate compliance records, and inter-business risk reports.

PCBU Enterprise integrates with Onside’s mobile app for rural risk management, which has already mapped over 21,000 rural properties across NZ and Australia, logging millions of movements collected from contractor and visitor check-ins to properties, as well as machinery and plant movements.

Almost two years ago, Onside partnered with ANZCO Foods to tackle a complex problem the industry has been wrestling with: how to manage safety duties when it doesn’t neatly follow fence lines, but instead follows the supply chain.

“Loading yards, accessways, trucks, plants, paddocks, runways, irrigation trenches – anywhere operations intersect is where things can go wrong,” says Higgs.

“You can’t hide behind organisational layers when safety fails. With PCBU Enterprise, we’re making WorkSafe’s ‘3C’s’ – Consult, Cooperate, Coordinate – applicable across multiple PCBUs. This clarity ensures everyone knows who’s managing risk, creating a safer and more efficient supply chain.”

For meat companies, the shared safety duties extend across all producer properties and transport companies.

“ANZCO took the initiative, deciding it wasn’t good enough to wait for someone else to figure it out,” Higgs says.

“The result is we’ve created what we believe is a world-first agri enterprise solution that will improve safety outcomes across the sector.”

The platform has gained strong backing and collaboration from the National Livestock and Transport Safety Council, which leads NZ’s livestock transport sector in improving safety, standards, and outcomes across the industry.