Supporting Caravan Clubs and their Members

Testing and Tagging of Electrical Leads/Cables

Energy Safe Victoria advise that the Tagging and Testing of electrical leads comes under the durisdiction of the respective State Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) regulations.

For Caravan Parks (or any Park providing electricity for Caravanners) may insist on RV travellers having tagged and tested electrical leads that are used to connect the RV to an electrical outlet as it falls under their obligation to provide a Safe Workplace. This would also apply to any other electrical appliance that you have in your RV that is plugged into an electrical outlet in the Park (e.g. Camp Kitchen).

Appliances (e.g. toaster) that is contained within the RV and not used outside of the RV is not required to be tagged and tested.

At the end of the day, for overall safety, don't you think it would best to have your Exteranal Leads tagged and tested (even for appliances within the RV)?

More about Testing and Tagging

When understanding the test and tag intervals and how often an electrical appliance should be tested, the main underlying factor is the type of environment that appliance is located in.

Just as important, the AS/NZS 3760 standard (Table 4) should be seen as a minimum requirement. A lot of workplaces will have different test and tag frequencies because of their own risk management and OHS planning. Likewise, some of these industries might require you to use certain Test and Tag Colours.

For the most common environments, we recommend the following frequencies:

• 3 months - building, construction and demolition
• 6 months - factories, warehouses and production
• 12 months - an environment where the equipment/supply cord is prone to flexing or open to abuse
• 5 yearly - an environment where the equipment/supply cord is not prone to flexing or open to abuse

Follow the link below to see more detailed information relating to this topic.

Follow this link ... http://www.testandtagtraining....

Testing & Tagging from WorkSafe Victoria

The Victorian OHS Act & Regulations do not mandate the testing & tagging of electrical equipment in workplaces.

Testing & Tagging of electrical equipment is only mandated for certain electrical equipment used in a construction environment ( as referred to in the  “Industry Standard – Electrical Installations on Construction Sites” published in January 2011)

Although testing & tagging is not mandated in legislation, apart from construction, Section 21 (2) (a) of the OHS Act states that an employer has a legal obligation to ensure all plant & equipment used in a workplace is safe and without risks to health & safety at all times. So, if an employer has electrical equipment within the workplace, over which they have management & control, they have a legal obligation to ensure such electrical equipment is safe to use at all times.

However,  the employer may decide to enforce their own requirements to have only  vans on site which have been tested and tagged, so as to ensure that the electrical equipment is safe and does not pose a risk to the health and safety of the caravan owner and also other members of the public.