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According to Hudgell Solicitors, there are around 1,300 forklift accidents a year in the UK. A such, keeping your warehouse employees as safe as possible no matter their role is imperative for business owners. Where those who are working on the warehouse floor will have their own ways of being protected from harm, those who operate the machinery face different challenges for the most part. From getting the right training to eliminating hazards in the first place, here’s how to keep your employees safe when operating material handling equipment.
Wear the right protective equipment
No matter what it is that your operators are doing, whether they’re entering an area where the equipment is stored or actually driving the machinery, they need to be wearing adequate protective equipment. There is a wide range of PPE that you need to provide your operators, and also to those who are working on the warehouse floor. The pieces of protective equipment that you need to be giving out to your employees to keep themselves and other safe are as follows:
- Hard hats and helmets
- Steel-capped boots
- High-visibility vests and coats
- Goggles and other pieces of eye protection
- Gloves
- Ear defenders
- Respiratory protection, such as face masks
- Cold weather or cold storage PPE, such as hats and hoods
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Ensure employees are fully-trained
Part of making sure that your operators are safe from harm is ensuring that they have the right training for the vehicle they’ll be operating. Whether it be a forklift or an order picker, most of the time, warehouse equipment operators will be trained in the art of utilising a wide range of material handling equipment, with transferable skills that allows them to use a variety of warehouse machines.
This only benefits you as a business owner, as you won’t have to rely on one person operating a forklift and another operating a reach truck and so on and so forth. If one person can operate all of the equipment available to them, this makes for quick and efficient warehouse operations all round. In addition, if the right training is received, then they’ll also be able to use the machinery as safely as possible, therefore protecting themselves and others in the vicinity.
The right training will tell the operators how to navigate the machine across different surface conditions and gradients. They’ll also be told not to speed around corners, for instance, and to take steep hills, whether going up or down, safely and slowly. They will also be taught the importance of visibility, whereby they’ll always need to be aware of their surroundings before setting off and when disengaging the machine. This is all something that will keep them safe when operating the vehicle.
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Clearly label hazard zones
Any area of your workplace setting should be clearly marked out and labelled if it’s not safe for material handling equipment to navigate through. Whether the aisles are way too narrow or if there are hazardous materials that could spark a fire near certain pieces of equipment, it needs to be blocked off and labelled as dangerous to prevent employees from going there in their vehicles, no matter what it might be.
You can also use crash barriers to keep employees safe, implementing them along dangerous stretches, such as up or down steep gradients where there’s a drop on either one side or both sides. Crash barriers are highly-effective at protecting the operators, those on the ground and the vehicle itself. Do this as well as label the area as hazardous if you’re looking to be extremely careful.
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Eliminate potential hazards
This is easily done by keeping the warehouse, or another workplace setting, clean and tidy. It needs to be free from trip hazards and anything that could cause someone to trip, slip or fall. It also prevents the tipping over of a piece of material handling equipment. In addition, it ensures that operations can be carried out quickly and efficiently. Unnecessary obstacles won’t be present for operators to navigate around, which can take time. Something else that prevents warehouse hazards is to make sure your warehouse racking is safe and secure. Avoid accidents and keep operators safe by minimising the risk in the first place.
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Make sure racking is safe & secure
This is an extremely important thing to ensure when it comes to protecting your operators from harm. Warehouse racking is often piled high with stock, which makes it extremely heavy. As well as the weight that some racking can hold, it’s also imperative that the inventory is stacked correctly. This stops things from falling from the top shelves and onto a person or a piece of expensive warehouse equipment.
In order to protect your operators from harm, and those on the ground, your warehouse racking needs to be secured firmly to the wall. This avoids the entire shelf from coming down. In addition, your employees need to be trained in stacking warehouse racking safely. This can include including heavier items on the bottom.
When those two measures are combined, it makes for safe and secure raking. It also means that your operators are protected from harm. In addition, your inventory and your equipment won’t suffer damage. This therefore mitigates issues of product loss and equipment repairs or replacements.
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Carry out regular inspections on your warehouse equipment
You might wonder how this keeps your operators safe when behind the wheel of any piece of material handling equipment. Let us explain. It provides more benefits than you might have otherwise thought. In addition to ensuring the integrity of the vehicle, you’ll also get as much life out of it as possible.
Regular inspections involve thoroughly checking the vehicle for any damage, leaks or cracks. This is the same whether it concerns the tyres, the inner workings or the body itself. It will also include the inspection of lights and beacons as well as sounds and alarms.
By making sure that your vehicles are inspected, you’re ensuring that they’re safe to operate. This is much like a car having an MOT. In addition, it also keeps those on the ground safe and protected as well. This is because they’ll always know when a piece of material handling equipment is in operation. Therefore helping to avoid accidents between employees on the floor and a heavy piece of warehouse machinery.
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Multy Lift are able to provide a wide range of different pieces of warehouse equipment, such as forklifts, reach trucks, order pickers, stackers and more. In addition, we can also supply industrial cleaning equipment and chemicals, as well as provide used machines for those on a smaller budget. If you would like further information about the equipment and services we have available, get in touch with a member of our team today – we have over three decades of experience in the industry and can supply machinery to customers throughout the UK.
