A Bowen Basin mining contractor recently told me about the wearable fatigue monitoring system their client mandated for all personnel. Great technology—except his company runs crews across four different mine sites, each with different systems from different vendors.

“My drivers have three different wristbands they’re supposed to wear depending on which site they’re at that week,” he said. “It’s madness.”

This is the contractor safety technology problem in miniature.

The Fragmentation Issue

Principal mining companies invest heavily in safety technologies. Collision avoidance systems, fatigue detection, proximity sensors, gas monitoring—the technology stack at a modern mine site is substantial.

But contractors, who may provide a third to half of the workforce at many Australian operations, often struggle to keep up. Not because they don’t care about safety, but because the practical challenges are different.

A mining company invests in technology for their specific sites and equipment. A contractor needs technology that works across multiple sites with different systems, different principal requirements, and different equipment configurations.

The Capital Challenge

Safety technology isn’t cheap. Outfitting a haul truck with a modern collision avoidance system runs tens of thousands of dollars. Wearable monitoring systems carry ongoing subscription costs. Integration with site systems requires technical expertise.

Large mining contractors can absorb these costs across their operations. Smaller contractors face harder choices—invest in technology they may not be able to use on every contract, or risk losing work to better-equipped competitors.

Some principal companies provide equipment and technology to contractors working their sites. Others expect contractors to arrive fully equipped. The standards vary, creating uncertainty for contractor investment decisions.

What’s Working

The most successful approaches I’ve seen involve principal companies taking a more active role in contractor technology adoption.

Technology standardisation across contractors. When a mining company specifies exactly which systems contractors must use and provides integration support, contractors can invest with confidence that the technology will work across that company’s sites.

Contractor technology assistance programs. Some principal companies offer favourable equipment lease arrangements or technology subsidies for contractors who commit to long-term relationships. Shared investment aligns incentives.

Industry-wide standards. The ACS and mining industry bodies have pushed for interoperability standards that would allow technologies to work across different sites. Progress has been slow, but it’s happening.

The Data Question

Safety technology generates data. Lots of data. Fatigue scores, proximity events, equipment telemetry—the modern mine produces more safety information than anyone can manually review.

For contractors, the question becomes: who owns this data? Who can access it? If a contractor’s fatigue monitoring system flags a driver, what happens to that information?

These questions don’t have easy answers. But clear data governance expectations, communicated upfront in contracting discussions, help contractors understand what they’re signing up for.

The Path Forward

The gap between principal and contractor safety technology capability isn’t closing automatically. It requires deliberate effort from both sides.

Contractors who invest proactively in flexible, interoperable safety systems will find more doors open. Principal companies who recognise that contractor capability affects their own safety outcomes will design programs that support adoption rather than simply mandating it.

The technology exists to make mining safer. Getting it deployed consistently across the full workforce—including contractors—remains work in progress.