Trucks and Trucking at Christmas from LB Health and Safety
The season of glad tidings and goodwill is also the time of the year when we should focus on the increased risks to employees working in the retailing and logistics sectors where there is enormous pressure to fulfil additional orders - orders that if delayed may result in a loss of business.
The increased risks may be summarised as due to:
1. Use of temporary labour
2. Staff taking short-cuts and
3. Fatigue due to working long hours.
Clearly management must maintain an increased level of vigilance and make all employees aware of the increased risks they face in the period leading up to Christmas. Be particularly vigilant when using powered trucks and when staff are working in a loading bay or yard. Powered trucks whether they be electrical or diesel/gas driven can move around a building silently (the normal background noise tends to mask an approaching vehicle). Almost no one survives contact with such a vehicle without an injury of some kind you may bounce off a car but you never bounce off a fork lift truck! Hence it is vitally important that vehicles and staff are kept apart in separate trucking lanes and walkways unless there is absolutely no other option. In the event that there is no option then staff must be trained in how to work in an area where truck movements take place and they must be shown the risks involved and how to avoid them. Audible and visual warnings must be attached to the trucks and staff issued with appropriate personal protection equipment (PPE) – wearing of PPE must be strictly enforced.
It is recommended that only experienced staff who understand the risks involved and have been fully trained (eg in the use of banksmen), are allowed to work with arriving and departing trucks. There have been a number of fatalities associated with fork lift trucks falling off loading bays when the trailer has moved, and also deaths caused by reversing trailers crushing staff. Busy loading bays and yards are no place for the inexperienced. You may be aware of some of the above but when it comes to temporary staff they tend to be viewed as less important (only a temp!) than permanent employees and ‘it’s not worth spending time and money training them’. This is where the increased seasonal risks really ‘kick-in’. An employee whether he/she is full-time, temporary or ‘contract’ agency staff must have the same level of H&S protection – in H&S there are no 2nd class workers!
It is recommended that rather than putting off H&S audits and inspections, as many businesses do until after the holiday season, they should actually be increased at this time with an emphasis on checking out of normal hours working as there may be less supervision at these times and staff are more prone to tiredness and be tempted to take short cuts.
Have a safe Christmas!