How the Hell did we manage in the 70’s /80’s & early 90’s !!! we must have been very brave drivers in them days …
I can’t understand how I am still living
In certain circumstances, I believe wearing hi-vis is a very wise option, ie, in busy building sites, dark warehouses or when working near a busy road. Hard hats when near scaffolding and safety boots at all times, although it mainly depends on the type of work you do - doing pallet distribution and using pump trucks, they’ve saved my feet on counltless occasions.
Ironically, it’s usually the places which enforce PPE rules the hardest which are the ones where it’s least important. For example, walking from lorry to goods in office back to lorry again in an RDC with a wide, quiet, vast yard with dedicated, fenced off walkways. The only way you’d get run over is if you walked in front or behind a maneouvreing lorry, a course of action which would helpfully rid the mortal world of another idiot. Or, get in the way of a rapidly moving forklift which is carrying an enormous pallet which is obstructing the drivers view of the ground ahead. Both situations, PPE wouldn’t be any good as you wouldn’t be seen any better with it on or not.
How do us lorry drivers cope when driving through busy urban areas where pedestrians aren’t wearing yellow jackets? Dodging mad kids on bikes and commuters on the phone who cross without looking? If they were that concerned, they’d buy us all reversing cameras.
A classic example was when I was told of for not having a hard hat on in a balfour beatty car park when I was unloading via tail lift. There was absolutely nothing above me which could have possibly fallen onto me head apart from an airliner, debris from an airliner, a meteorite or asteroid, a bloody big hail stone or lightning - all of which a hard hat wouldn’t help much with, yet was stilll made to walk accross the car park (a potentially hazardous exercise?) to the gate house to borrow a hat.
P.P.E.should be used in conjunction with common sense.I once took my vest home and washed it ,forgot to take it to work next morning. Got out of tipper at weighbridge told the man what I had done WAS TOLD IF I come back without it I would be barred from the quarry.So delivered the tar told the gaffer he said look in the other motors you might find something .Found an old very dirty rag which was by no means highly visible got loaded at the quarry told the geezer not taking the zb. He said no worries rule is you got to wear it so the rule is being complied with.Every one was happy.
smoker:
Obviously you lot don’t do much other than sit in the cab. In most haulage situations you find lots of ways to bang your head or get run over by blind car drivers. Any time you get in the back of the truck you risk falling and banging your head. Even opening the doors on the back of a curtain-sider can be risky if the load has shifted and it falls out forcing the door to suddenly whack you one. Just having a look under a flatbed trailer can result in you hitting your head on a roping hook or the steel frame. Even in an empty lorry park you could slip and fall on your arse, banging your head. That’s why you’re supposed to wear a chinstrap to keep the hard hat on.
Or you could be roping up next to a [zb] who thinks it’s clever to chuck the heavy part of the ratchet over the trailer when strapping down a load.I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve banged my head while wearing a hard hat, and if I hadn’t been wearing it it would have been painful. When I first started doing supermarket work I felt exposed without a hard hat on. In another job for the agency I felt naked without a hard hat just walking around the yard, and was almost relieved when I read their site notice and found that actually, everybody should have been wearing them.
If a site has a rule about wearing safety gear, it’s not coz they want to ■■■■ you off, it’s because they have a legal responsibility to do everything in their power to prevent accidents. Sure their insurance won’t pay out if you have an accident and you weren’t wearing the gear, but the firm will also be prosecuted for not ensuring you were wearing it.
This is the trouble with the public perception of any successful safety measure. When it’s working right, you don’t see the need for it, so you wonder why you bother. If the papers were full of death and injury reports you would want something done. How many deaths and serious injuries are prevented by using these precautions ? Probably thousands per year, but because they don’t happen you don’t hear about them doing their job.
It’s a bit of clothing not a statement of your lack of virility. Grow up.
If you’ve banged your head that many times you may have co ordination issues, and you are as well to wear a hard hat. If you are not aware of what a lorry driver may do with his straps as he’s about to strap up then again you best to wear a hard hat. For some people paying attention to what is going on around them and taking the neccesary actions to avoid them seems alien to them. Stick our steel boots on, high viz and a hat and we can ignore all the risks in the safe knowledge we are protected by our PPE!!!
I always thought a national ‘No High Viz Day’ would be a good idea, but looks like not, 100’s might die on the day.
Must be some very dangerous cafes about the number of drivers I see wearing high viz whilst eating their meals!!!
disgo:
Must be some very dangerous cafes about the number of drivers I see wearing high viz whilst eating their meals!!!
Lol… don’t even go there
I pulled up at the gate of a large company on the south coast. I was given a book with 3 A4 sheets of safety instructions on laminated card. it stated:
Drivers must wear
Hi Viz
Gloves
Helmet
Ear Plugs
Safety Spectacles
Chin Strap
Laced Boots
Drivers must.
Switch on hazard lamps
drive on dipped headlights
remove cigarettes & lighters
turn off sat nav
turn off telephones
turn off radio
Security will search cab on entry and exit for
canned drinks
alcohol
gas cylinders
electric kettles
firearms
knives over 3’’
In addition,
10 mph speed limit
no parking on roads
no reversing
no entry to trailer while loading.
If the place is that dangerous. I don’t want to go there again.
I wear two because I had it over my jacket and then would walk about without one when I didn`t need my jacket and every man and his dog would start shouting “have you got a hi vis vest”, bloody pain in the arse as the only person who could knock me down is well me half the time.
Mind I used to load a moving floor and I could stand up no problem and would have to tip toe to bang my nut till someone made it compulsory to wear a hard hat, then I was hitting the roof every two minutes so started stooping and gave myself a crick in my neck and couldn`t sleep for weeks. 
smoker:
Grow up.
NO
PPE is for my safety, I’ve no problem with wearing what limits risk or injury to myself, arrive at site hi vis on straight away, I dont fancy ending up under the wheels of of a truck driven by someone who might just not have spotted me, driving, eating, in MSA, keep it on it dont bother me, why bother with on off on off, waste of time as far as I’m concerned.
However used to go to a site almost every day, and you’d stand there wearing hi vis and boots, and every day security would ask “have you got your safety gear”, and I would reply “just remind me what is needed”, “steelies, Hi vis and helmet”, to which I would reply “what about gloves and glasses”, “oh yeah them as well”, muppets!!
Anyone not having steel toed boots would have to trape round wearing some grotty size 12’s provided by security.
manowar:
In certain circumstances, I believe wearing hi-vis is a very wise option, ie, in busy building sites, dark warehouses or when working near a busy road. Hard hats when near scaffolding and safety boots at all times, although it mainly depends on the type of work you do - doing pallet distribution and using pump trucks, they’ve saved my feet on counltless occasions.Ironically, it’s usually the places which enforce PPE rules the hardest which are the ones where it’s least important. For example, walking from lorry to goods in office back to lorry again in an RDC with a wide, quiet, vast yard with dedicated, fenced off walkways. The only way you’d get run over is if you walked in front or behind a maneouvreing lorry, a course of action which would helpfully rid the mortal world of another idiot. Or, get in the way of a rapidly moving forklift which is carrying an enormous pallet which is obstructing the drivers view of the ground ahead. Both situations, PPE wouldn’t be any good as you wouldn’t be seen any better with it on or not.
How do us lorry drivers cope when driving through busy urban areas where pedestrians aren’t wearing yellow jackets? Dodging mad kids on bikes and commuters on the phone who cross without looking? If they were that concerned, they’d buy us all reversing cameras.
A classic example was when I was told of for not having a hard hat on in a balfour beatty car park when I was unloading via tail lift. There was absolutely nothing above me which could have possibly fallen onto me head apart from an airliner, debris from an airliner, a meteorite or asteroid, a bloody big hail stone or lightning - all of which a hard hat wouldn’t help much with, yet was stilll made to walk accross the car park (a potentially hazardous exercise?) to the gate house to borrow a hat.
well said that man 
I even hate writing the words Hi Viz vest
For someone who hate’s writing hi-viz,you seem to have wrote it a few time’s. 
Some people get bothered over the simple thing’s,why bother about it.it ain’t as if you gotta wear it all the time,just when your on site and working in the customers premises. pmsl
blueroom1:
Your fine on the motorway , its a neccesity espc in this horrendous rain , but not for getting your burger king !!
Burger King? No chance, i’m more of a Mc’D person myself, BK tastes like cardboard! Our hi-vis isn’t supposed to be taken off, it’s all purpose as it carries our radio and all our personal kit, whistle, wallet, notebook, gloves, etc. So as much as I’d like to take it off, the only time I do is when I’m in my station on an official break.
Not only that but when I pop into Tesco I normally get asked where the tea is if i take my hi vis off as I have eppaulettes on my shirt and a tie on. I do hate wlaking around in my hi viz as people starte like I am the elephant man, ive never known why people stare so much, its unreal.
Big Jase:
‘…I do hate walking around in my hi viz as people starte like I am the elephant man, ive never known why people stare so much, its unreal…’
You got it upside down or back-to-front, mate?
while in morrisons doing the weekly shop i came across a lady doing her weekly shop IN HER HI VIZ WAISTCOAT 
Thanks for this one bubbleman 
Hard Hat and Hi Viz
See drivers in europe dressed in beach wear on ADR tankers,flip flops on top of chemical tankers,no hat,viz,safety boots in force.Seen one guy puffing on a ciggie at a chemical plant.
I wear my hi-viz all the time while im at work, most of the places i go to require at least that and i dont see any point in keep taking it on and off. You just get used to wearing it i suppose.
There are some sites that bug me because their P.P.E. requirement is abit much, along with the steel toe caps and hard hat with chin strap some will even expect you to wear gloves and goggles, just health and safety gone mad
“For someone who hate’s writing hi-viz,you seem to have wrote it a few time’s.”