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Waste Unloading: Are Your Staff Safe?
Companies with warehouses will generally produce significant quantities of waste, despite best efforts to create a waste-free environment. Dealing with this waste can bring up numerous health and safety issues.
Filling expansive skips via a forklift truck for example can be a risky undertaking. These skips can be up to 36.5 metres in length and 2.5 metres high and if an accident occurs whilst a member of staff is unloading into it without following the correct procedure, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will immediately demand a copy of the appropriate risk assessment.
They will quote Section 3(1) of Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and Section 6(3) of Work at Height Regulations 2005. If a safer option for unloading waste was available, which generally will be the case, an investigation and possible prosecution could result.
Forks and attachment specialists Invicta says that most skips carried by forklifts call for a forward tipping action in order to unload. However, the height and design of giant skips mean that operators will end up standing on mud guards or climbing the side of the skip in order to reach the release mechanism. This means working at height in unsafe conditions, increasing the risk of falls and other injuries.
Invicta has developed a safer method to load giant skips. It involves what they call an ‘auto-tip' mechanism, which negates the need for the forklift operator to leave the cab.
Invicta managing director Peter Sharpe says, "We've designed the auto-tip mechanism to eliminate the need to get out of the cab. Operators have immediately seen its potential, allowing them to get on with their work and not exit the cab, which the safest place for them. The option is now a standard feature on our tipping skip range. Manual release mechanisms will always be required, but the option of the auto-tip function improves efficiency as well as adding safety."
The auto-tipping mechanism can be bolted on to a standard skip from the Invicta range which means it can be added at a later date if it becomes necessary.
Original information source:
http://www.handyshippingguide.com/shipping-news/all-freight-and-logistics-warehouses-produce-waste-but-are-your-staff-safe-unloading-it_6598