Under the respective provincial health and safety regulations in Canada, organisations that requires their staff to travel as part of their work have a responsibility to prepare them properly for that travel. 

This includes being able to show that the business has considered the risks involved with the planned travel, and that they have appropriately prepared their staff for it through some form of travel safety training. 

This naturally then leads to thought about what appropriate preparation means, and the answer – similar to many other risk management-related questions – is that what is appropriate will vary depending on the context of the assignment:

– where is the traveller is going, and what are they doing when they get there.

A good assessment will also look at factors including who the traveller is, for example their level or work and travel experience 

A business trip to another city Canada might  just need a travel policy setting out predominantly administrative requirements, while an international visit , particularly to an emerging market destination might need much more preparation including some specific travel safety briefings and maybe more advanced travel safety training. 

Tundra International provides travel safety training in Ontario in three ways:

• Assistance with policies and procedures, which could involve development of travel safety briefing notes.
• Delivery of in-house or online travel safety sessions. These can vary from an hour or two through to full day, even multiple day, in-house seminars. The depth and topics of these sessions can be adapted according to the needs of the travellers and the organisation.
• Offsite practical safety training.

Offsite practical is the most advanced type of travel safety training and usually reserved for more adventurous, austere or insecure destinations. Sometimes this is called Safety Awareness in Fragile Environments (SAFE) or at its most extreme Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT) – also sometimes known as HEFAT (Hostile Environment and First Aid Training) or HET (Hostile Environment Training) amongst other names. 

We would be happy to talk more with any organisation that thinks their staff could have a requirement for travel safety training, and to propose a solution that protects your organisation and gives your colleagues the background they need to travel successfully.