Common sense versus Health & Safety

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Has common sense gone out the window or has health & safety gone crazy.

I’ve gone to a site this week to tip and be reloaded with empty pallets.

Upon arrival there is a barrier across the gate with a sign on saying “Due to health & safety only one vehicle allowed in yard at any one time” now this yard is huge and empthy you could turn an ocean going liner around in it!! But no you are expected to sit out side on double yellows causing an obstruction!!

When I finly get inside, I park up and am told to wait behind a barrier, in the rain and the wind (no waiting area, just outside).

Forkie empties me and the starts to reload me with empty pallets, I hear him smashing into the side of the lorry, so I leave my penned off safey area to ask him what he is playing at, only to be told that due to health & safety he is not allowed to speak or be spoke to when he is on his forklift!

Now we carry pallets 15 high and they are in this warehouse 15 high, but due to this companies health and safety, they are only allowed to carry 8 empty pallets at a time on the flt.

What is the world coming to??
I can’t be the only one starting to get angered by this constant nonsense!?

2

Have they had an accident to justify these, at first glance harsh restrictions ■■

Making you park up outside means you are not their problem/responsibility whilst you wait, a simple but very effective control measure
quite rightly i would insist on reducing the number of pallets that the FLT can transport at any one time, vision, instability of the load, route, capacity of the FLT etc.
ensuring your’s and the companies employees safety should be the companies No.1 priority and by keeping you behind a barrier, ensure’s you are under their control.
sat in the cab is not always the best option, especially if you have the keys, drive offs while loading etc.
talking to the operator will cause lack of concentration on his part and also puts you in the danger area of the moving FLT and the potential unsafe load.

forkies in general, don’t want to hit you, but if they are distracted whilst operating then accidents do occur.

look at the other places you go to, and by using this place as a bench mark, how unsafe are they, due to lax controls ■■

How many times whilst you are are in your own little world have you been distracted by other drivers, willy wavers and totty etc. causing you to lose concentration for a moment ?

like it or loathe it, “elf and safetee” is here to stay, it pays my wages, I travel the world, I enjoy it and it got me out of pointing a wagon.!!! :smiley:

3

sorry Scooby, the whole think of the children attitude is wrong. and spoken like a typical health and safety person justifying his job.

most of it is total ■■■■■■■■ simple as, don’t speak to the FLT don’t do this hold a rail when walking down stairs. wear long sleeve hi viz as despite being 6’4 your short sleeve on isn’t quite enough.

4

Forget all the “Hindrance and Suffering” crap.
Call it natural selection …thinning out the idiots and halfwits that want to walk behind a reversing Forkie etc etc

Hehehehehe

5

Doesn’t happen too often but sometimes we’ll do a gig where they tell all the crew to wear a hi-vis. Now, for the guys doing all the setting up, they have no problem with it because they’ll be inside while trusses get moved up and down and it can be a dangerous environment, and if it’s a big show there could be multiple trucks and busses moving around in a loading area so I see the point of wearing one when outside the wagon.

But while I’m in the back of a truck tipping boxes and cases, what’s the point? I always tell people in a polite and friendly way that "I’ll happily wear one if I need to come inside, but while I’m stood in the back of MY truck, the rules are set by ME, and I see no need for a hi-vis vest in here.

Every time it’s met with, “ok fair enough drive, your truck your rules, our venue our rules.” I’m sure if I said it in an aggressive way or pompous way they’d refuse. But being nice can work!

Usually pleases the 3 or 4 guys in the truck helping me as well because we all hate wearing them and in the summer it’s like wearing a portable sun bed.

6

A plasterer I know was working on a new build site (obviously indoors) and got pulled up for not wearing hi vis whilst plastering!

7

Health and Safety is there to make it easier to apportion blame when things go wrong, or to get you out of doing something you don’t want to do. Nothing more.

8

Look after number 1 ,facts are us truckers are lone workers,and nobody else is gonna look out for you!

When your hitching up at 3am in the rain ,and you step in a puddle thats just that bit deeper than your boot :blush: :blush: no gloves in the office ,covered hands and steering wheel with grease and oil… then you soon learn your on your own in this job! :open_mouth:

Most places insist on hi-vis - as its visable to the half wit managers,but is there a banksman watching you reverse no ! Just crack on :open_mouth:

9

Most of H&S is advisable not law it is how the employer wants to interrupted it to protect him

Who heard the 1 on the radio new employee goes out get new stuff including new Hi viz 1st day at work walking round the marked out walk way for people wearing the nice new orange hi viz another employee runs across ( yep ignoring the painted walk way ) telling new person that they can’t wear orange hi viz as other people might think new person is a walking cone :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :unamused:

10

scoobyears:
Have they had an accident to justify these, at first glance harsh restrictions ■■

Making you park up outside means you are not their problem/responsibility whilst you wait, a simple but very effective control measure
quite rightly i would insist on reducing the number of pallets that the FLT can transport at any one time, vision, instability of the load, route, capacity of the FLT etc.
ensuring your’s and the companies employees safety should be the companies No.1 priority and by keeping you behind a barrier, ensure’s you are under their control.
sat in the cab is not always the best option, especially if you have the keys, drive offs while loading etc.
talking to the operator will cause lack of concentration on his part and also puts you in the danger area of the moving FLT and the potential unsafe load.

forkies in general, don’t want to hit you, but if they are distracted whilst operating then accidents do occur.

look at the other places you go to, and by using this place as a bench mark, how unsafe are they, due to lax controls ■■

How many times whilst you are are in your own little world have you been distracted by other drivers, willy wavers and totty etc. causing you to lose concentration for a moment ?

like it or loathe it, “elf and safetee” is here to stay, it pays my wages, I travel the world, I enjoy it and it got me out of pointing a wagon.!!! :smiley:

Thank Christ for that, I thought they had finally suceeded in actually brainwashing a driver with all this ■■■■ until I read your last paragraph.

11

Nowadays when it comes to as you say …Common sense v Health and safety, H&S wins every time hands down…fact. :smiling_imp:

12

You should try loading at chep.
They think there loading plutonium not empty plts.

13

Chep pallets near Birmingham Airport ,place is a joke, toilets are a disgrace,and staff a bunch of Merchant Bankers to a man.

14

scoobyears:
Have they had an accident to justify these, at first glance harsh restrictions ■■

Making you park up outside means you are not their problem/responsibility whilst you wait, a simple but very effective control measure
quite rightly i would insist on reducing the number of pallets that the FLT can transport at any one time, vision, instability of the load, route, capacity of the FLT etc.
ensuring your’s and the companies employees safety should be the companies No.1 priority and by keeping you behind a barrier, ensure’s you are under their control.
sat in the cab is not always the best option, especially if you have the keys, drive offs while loading etc.
talking to the operator will cause lack of concentration on his part and also puts you in the danger area of the moving FLT and the potential unsafe load.

forkies in general, don’t want to hit you, but if they are distracted whilst operating then accidents do occur.

look at the other places you go to, and by using this place as a bench mark, how unsafe are they, due to lax controls ■■

How many times whilst you are are in your own little world have you been distracted by other drivers, willy wavers and totty etc. causing you to lose concentration for a moment ?

like it or loathe it, “elf and safetee” is here to stay, it pays my wages, I travel the world, I enjoy it and it got me out of pointing a wagon.!!! :smiley:

You do seem well indoctrinated into the culture that’s for sure.

In my opinion, H&S policy, basically does the following:

  • Protects companies and institutions (schools, hospitals, local government) from being sued by people when they get injured - we told you not to do this but you went ahead anyway - this can obviously cover pretty much anything

Conker playing
School trips
Must wear a hi-viz in bed :laughing:
Collisions and “accidents” ( they can’t be called that anymore - someone must be to blame) take ages to clear due to H&S cobblers
Caution hot! Labels on coffee cups
Firemen in life jackets in streams and puddles etc etc

  • Reduces liability premiums resulting from above - it reduces the clients exposure to risk

It’s mostly utter utter bollox mate. I can see why it might be useful in a nuclear power plant or refinery or on a railway but in a school cooking class - please.

H&S serves itself really and doesn’t seem to genuinely offer protection to ordinary working people as it should.

A woman I work with, her husband is an out of work H&S Officer - he can find a job (surprising). A practically rejoiced when I heard he was struggling to find a job - I thought well that’s one less of them about anyway :smiling_imp: :laughing: :stuck_out_tongue:

Here’s a parting thought:
If you leave snow and ice outside your house and a little old lady slips, she can’t sue you.
If you try and clear it, by whatever means you see fit and she slips, she could sue you as you have made active efforts to address the problem :neutral_face: :unamused:
So what are you going to do? Leave the snow and ice…

See?! Utter utter bollox

15

All this H&S is an odd one for me as me and my mates are Forkies best mates :wink:
We work for a very big FLT company so they see us as taking ■■■■ away or delivering new toys.

But we happily que jump, unload ourselves (saves that RDC nanny room stuff :laughing: ) everyone seems happy to see us, we even have conversations that do not include times or order numbers :laughing:
Anyway, we are left to get on, hi viz, steel boots, and eyes plus as we have to park arse ways about into a bay it raises eyebrows straight away from our trunker friends :laughing:
Then they see the ramp lowering and it clicks why I am unnaturally back to front in their mirror :laughing:

16

I used to be a forkie and had to tip incoming loads of cheap pallets to the factory. We used to receive stacks of 15 if on a curtain and stacks of 20 on a flat bad. We used to whip off the stacks of 15 no problem fast as anything and they felt safe as houses when we took them off. The stacks of 20 while we did take them off the lorry in 20s used to feel so much more unstable for some reason, even though they were only 5 higher. You’ve got to think though a stack of 20 is pretty tall and weighs over 500kg so when they start rocking it could be a bit un-nerving.
We knew most of the drivers that came in pretty well and we were happy for them to un strap as we tipped provided we all kept pretty clear of each other.
My pet hate used to be tipping 20s that had been staked as 20 lots of 10. They were never straight and the stacks always interlocked with each other making them a right ■■■■■■■ to get off!

17

Quarries like Cemex and Hansons (probably LaFarge too) have these stupid rules about wearing safety glasses and gloves, to walk to the weighbridge to get your ticket. Why? Are they worried about you getting a paper cut from signing your ticket or a bit of ink in your eye from the biro?
The yard we rent is a bit of old airfield taxiway and is shared with SSE. They store their new lamposts etc there and it’s laughable how they have to wear full ppe to grab off some kit, whereas in the vicinity we wear no ppe, often have our kids riding in the cabs, boss’ Jack Russell chasing the lorries and going mad when we’re tipping.
They sort their waste into little skips whilst wearing nice shiny ppe. We have an old skip that we load upto the gunnels,douse in diesel and torch it on a Friday night. With a can of cider in hand. :sunglasses:

18

I have absolute no issues with Health & Safety when it makes sense, which I understand in many cases it is not meant to.

I have no issues with wearing high-vis, safety boots and hardhat (I even have safety glasses and a high-vis suit in the cab if needed).
What I do have issue with is that when Im not allowed to talk to a flt driver (due to H&S) when he is loading me. If he is smashing into the side of my wagon and potentially causing damage I should be allowed to say something.

At the same time, I don’t care how many vehicles he loads a day, week or year, the load on my lorry is my responsibility and I should be able to have an input into how it is loaded, especially if its a mixed load, or part load on an empty trailer. If I am pulled by Mr VOSA, I don’t think the FLT Drivers H&S excuse will get me off the hook. And before people say well you should have him move it before you set off, thats often a major problem, depending on how he has loaded it to begin with.

And on a final note, which I know has been done to death, why should I be expected to stand out side in the cold, and wet while being tipped, loaded?? I’m a human being for petes sake!!!

I know Health & Safety has its place and I fully support it, but I also believe that some places have taken it too far and are potentially causing more problems than they solve.

19

Good job I don’t deliver to places like that, I’d be banned from site so fast. I’m normally up on the bed strapping down or directing the forkie in as he’s loading.

20

The worst I had was when tipping stacks of 20. Took the first few off and then the driver got a phone call. Out came the Bluetooth and he stopped paying attention to anything. I had no issues with drivers being out in the yard or around the load etc provided we both know what the other is doing. Got to the 6th stack and he walked straight behind me as I was pulling back. Slammed the brakes on, load shifted but luckily didn’t fall. Told him he was to either wait in his cab or I’d refuse to tip the rest, he didn’t see the issue but I didn’t fancy killing him!