Storage racking safety in Cardiff, Newport, Swansea and surrounding areas of South Wales.
If you use, or are responsible for storage racking, the risk of its collapse may be higher than you think. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of incidents where racking
has collapsed, often resulting in severe or fatal injuries and subsequent prosecution.
To reduce the risk of racking collapsing, it is important that you are fully aware of the safe procedures to be followed. This includes ensuring that the racking has been correctly installed,
regularly maintained and inspected, as well as safe day-to-day usage.
Storage racking safeguards
In most cases, information on the safe use, installation and maintenance of racking can be found in the manufacturer’s operation and maintenance (O&M) manual. This information will
help you to comply with the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations, 1998 (PUWER).
In many cases, the O&M manual will also recommend in-service inspections. These inspections are often a necessary part of the risk-management process, maintaining adequate standards of
health and safety; as your risk assessment will reveal.
The following are critical safe operating procedures:
- All racking should be clearly marked with its safe operating load
- All persons operating forklift trucks should be suitably trained
- Any damage should be reported and promptly repaired, or the racking should be quarantined until repair.
More specifically, the issues that can be encountered with racking include:
- Inadequate forklift truck driver training – Drivers must be instructed in the correct use of the forklift and the racking, as well as any specific requirements, in terms of rotating pallets or directions for entering aisles etc, arising from the general layout.
- Carelessness – Retraining, supervision and increased management awareness can help reduce incidents caused by carelessness.
- High speed of operation – Drivers differ in their ability to operate quickly and safely. Input/output cycle requirements must be compatible with the abilities of the drivers.
- Inadequate design of layout – Racking layouts that give good access and adequate aisle/ lane dimensions must be considered at a very early stage in planning.People who will eventually have responsibility for the operation should be involved in the planning.
