Got fed up waiting for a forklit one day so decided to take the pallet off myself,think it was a pallet of felt that was falling badly to one side,as I pushed and pulled in vain an older man came over to me and said “son,there are plenty of pallets,but you only have one back” a simple sentence that made alot of sense!
toby1234abc:
Weak back,if i dont go to a gym to make it strong,im 15 stone.
Ah…so yeah you’re likely to have issues. Have you said anything to the boss?
brados:
It is pretty simple:If it is too heavy for you - don’t force yourself to do it, if you hurt your back or any other part of your body and are off work I am confident your boss will back away and not support you one bit. If you get hurt it will be your own fault.
Sadly I didn’t learn the lesson. I now have the back of a 90 year old, its inoperable and I won’t be driving trucks any time soon.
Technique and mind…You can do anything if you put your mind to it.
Folks are getting all soft and namby pamby these days, but thats not a bad thing, because come the revolution (2012) The strong will eat the weak.
And humans are just like Pork, so no hardship from me. 
Man up and get on with it, you only get a bad back if you allow it…
The first proper driving job I had was delivering catering equipment. We had tail lifts (pretty rare things then) and a sack truck with a long blade.
Some of the machines weighed up to 150kg and we would just push it away, slide the blade under, tilt it back to the balance point and Bob’s your mother’s brother.
The general rule on a building site was that I would take a machine off the truck but the builders took over from there. The machines were top heavy and some brawny labourer would watch me wheel it casually up to the lift, hop off and lower it down. They would never believe (having just watched me) that it was that heavy, and it was great fun to watch them sweat and struggle.
It’s all in the technique.
toby1234abc:
The boss has said the tail lift can take this weight,so can you,as expected to shift heavy pallets of grain/compost/chemicals/IBC containers,what is the law on this?
The law on it is that your employer should have done a risk assesment and provided you with a method statement/instruction. Also the provision of work equiptment (yes even a pallet truck) is regulated under the PUWER regulations. These regulations state that you should be trained (yes, even on a pallet truck) for the equiptments use. The equiptment should be periodically checked, and stickered to confirm. Its should also have a SWL marking (Safe Working Load), also bear in mind, SWL are usually on flat level surfaces and not applicable to uneven surfaces, gradients etc… If you feel there is a problem moving the load then you should report it to your employer who should investigate the matter and look for a safer solution to your problem. Hows that? !!!
I use to deliver to shoPs and all Pallets would be a tail lift job some pallets had upto 120 cases of beer the best way I found to get off onto tail lift is:
Line / turn your pallet up in the truck watch out for the camber on the road one side of the lorry can cause your Pallet to pin you in.
Just before you are pallet goes onto your tail lift drop your pallet down on to the floor so it’s not moving and then lift your pallet only a few inchs so it’s moving slowly and your own body weight can control the speed of your pump truck to your taillift make sure you control your speed.
When your pallet goes onto the tail lift it can some times dip down/ tilt on the taillift When you putting 1 ton plus pallets .
you can get a run away pallet and if your pallet is to high off the floor by the time you drop it onto the floor of tail lift the your pallet stops on the tail lift and the load flys off the pallet.
Doing pallet system work we often find that the supplier stacks two pallets to save shipping costs. If they were tail lift I would have them split to make the job easier. The worst are pallets of peat or compost. They are plastic bags, so v slippy and stacked 6’ tall. I would never put them on a tail lift and preferred to handball the top few layers first.
The work I do now I regularly jump on the pump truck helps save time and gives me a bit of exersize.
Do a lot of paperin to printers and catalogues and pallets of ton go 700kg to a ton and teqnique makes it a lot easier to do it.
I drop the trailer suspension so it’s got a bit of a slope pull it out and spin it on the move and just a shove gets it going with out you straining to much.
toby1234abc:
Weak back,if i dont go to a gym to make it strong,im 15 stone.
Shift enough pallets n you wont need to go to the gym 
Left once a Pallet printed Paper Poster over the Tail lift.
Pumptruck didnt lower if Handle wasn’t straight up,and as T/L was Week with that Weight i had to hold them back,i couldn’t,it also didn’t drop on the T/L so we had each Sheed once by once to put back onto the Pallet.
And once went a Roll Cage Mineral Water over,as Rear-Plate opened with a Bang.
So,stay clear of it and when it goes flee,but dont try to hold it,as you cant hold that Weight.