A
Anonymous
Guest
This post has been prompted by Diggerd but is not in any way an attempt at having a go at him, more his profession.
So to start I feel that I need to explain a couple of things, so that anybody bored enough to read this will fully understand. A "shunter" is a person that drives a vehicle designed to move trailers about in order for them to be loaded/unloaded within the confines of the business premises. A "tug" is the vehicle that a shunter drives, it is similar to a road going tractor unit, but differs in that it lifts the trailer clear of the ground as opposed to having to wind the legs clear of the ground as a driver of a tractor unit would need to do in order to move the trailer. A "T bar" is the metal bar at the rear of trailer to prevent vehicles from running under the back of the trailer.
I worked as a shunter at a brewery. We had several areas defined as trailer parks. Health and Safety deemed it to be unsafe for pedestrians (wearing Hi Vis clothing) to be in the same vicinity as moving vehicles and so decreed that they must have a designated walkway, around the main trailer park and not through the centre of it.
They decided that a walkway should be marked out around the perimeter of the trailer park and thus behind the parked trailers. Until a pedestrian put in a "near miss form" that they had been on the walkway whilst a trailer was being reversed into a trailer parking bay and that had the shunter not stopped in time, they could have been injured.
Health and safety naturally decreed that indeed this was a hazard and promptly (without discussion of the shunters) decided that trailer stops were required to avoid the possibility of a trailers reversing into pedestrians. So they measured the height of the "T bars" of the trailers parked up. 8" tall metal stops were secured to the floor to ovoid this hazard and prevent an accident.
Duly in place, yours truly reverses a trailer into a bay using a tug and promptly rips the "T bar" of off the trailer. The elevated trailer causing the rear of the trailer to be lower than that of the static trailer that had been measured. Was this a H&S cock up and management cock up? no it was mine!!! I was suspended immediately and threatened in writing that my future with the company was in jeopardy for "damage to company property" Whilst I waited for the formal process of dismissal to proceed a further four "T bars" were ripped off of trailers.
It became apparent to management that the height of the trailer stops was incorrect and they needed to be reduced. (no the H&S man was not disciplined for damage to company property) They were all lifted and replaced with shorter ones.
A driver checking his trailer and fastening the curtain straps, tripped over the trailer stop and injured himself and was hospitalised, causing the load to be delivered late and subsequently rejected by the customer.
The investigation showed that the trailer stops were too long and protruded from the sides of the trailers. They were all lifted and cut down, in order that a trailer would cover the stops and avoid a reoccurrence of the incident. It didn't prevent a reoccurrence, because a driver performing the same duties tripped over a trailer stop in an empty bay adjacent to the one that he was working in.
The investigation showed that these trailer stops were not easy to see in the dark and recommended that they be painted in fluorescent paint to avoid a reoccurrence of the incident. In a different trailer park were management had had trailer bays marked out too close together that when fully occupied drivers were unable to wind up the legs of their trailers. We the shunters had made the decision to only park three trailers in the four trailer bays. Health and Safety had conducted many "yard checks" whilst our practice of not using the marked bays was in progress and no comments were received, until a driver tripped over the trailer stop! We shunters were all disciplined for failing to adhere to the yard marking. So we reverted to parking four trailer in this area. Following many complaints from drivers that we shunters were parking the trailers too close together (within the lines) management decided to close this area for the parking of trailers. Eventually they were relinedd to accommodate three trailers.
All of this was caused because H&S thought it safer for pedestrians to walk behind a moving trailer than in front in clear view of the driver!! How do these same pedestrians manage to walk safely to the shops without the help and guidance of H&S I wonder? The number of drivers injured, the cost of remodelling these trailer stops, the cost of the damage to the trailers the value of the lost delivery, not to mention the stress to myself of suspension and looming loss of employment. Was any of it necessary?
I could cite numerous examples of a similar nature, but I feel my disdain for all things H&S are apparent. Health and Safety have become like the unions did in the 70's, too powerful and we need a Margaret Thatcher type person to break them so that industry can revert to common sense once more.
So to start I feel that I need to explain a couple of things, so that anybody bored enough to read this will fully understand. A "shunter" is a person that drives a vehicle designed to move trailers about in order for them to be loaded/unloaded within the confines of the business premises. A "tug" is the vehicle that a shunter drives, it is similar to a road going tractor unit, but differs in that it lifts the trailer clear of the ground as opposed to having to wind the legs clear of the ground as a driver of a tractor unit would need to do in order to move the trailer. A "T bar" is the metal bar at the rear of trailer to prevent vehicles from running under the back of the trailer.
I worked as a shunter at a brewery. We had several areas defined as trailer parks. Health and Safety deemed it to be unsafe for pedestrians (wearing Hi Vis clothing) to be in the same vicinity as moving vehicles and so decreed that they must have a designated walkway, around the main trailer park and not through the centre of it.
They decided that a walkway should be marked out around the perimeter of the trailer park and thus behind the parked trailers. Until a pedestrian put in a "near miss form" that they had been on the walkway whilst a trailer was being reversed into a trailer parking bay and that had the shunter not stopped in time, they could have been injured.
Health and safety naturally decreed that indeed this was a hazard and promptly (without discussion of the shunters) decided that trailer stops were required to avoid the possibility of a trailers reversing into pedestrians. So they measured the height of the "T bars" of the trailers parked up. 8" tall metal stops were secured to the floor to ovoid this hazard and prevent an accident.
Duly in place, yours truly reverses a trailer into a bay using a tug and promptly rips the "T bar" of off the trailer. The elevated trailer causing the rear of the trailer to be lower than that of the static trailer that had been measured. Was this a H&S cock up and management cock up? no it was mine!!! I was suspended immediately and threatened in writing that my future with the company was in jeopardy for "damage to company property" Whilst I waited for the formal process of dismissal to proceed a further four "T bars" were ripped off of trailers.
It became apparent to management that the height of the trailer stops was incorrect and they needed to be reduced. (no the H&S man was not disciplined for damage to company property) They were all lifted and replaced with shorter ones.
A driver checking his trailer and fastening the curtain straps, tripped over the trailer stop and injured himself and was hospitalised, causing the load to be delivered late and subsequently rejected by the customer.
The investigation showed that the trailer stops were too long and protruded from the sides of the trailers. They were all lifted and cut down, in order that a trailer would cover the stops and avoid a reoccurrence of the incident. It didn't prevent a reoccurrence, because a driver performing the same duties tripped over a trailer stop in an empty bay adjacent to the one that he was working in.
The investigation showed that these trailer stops were not easy to see in the dark and recommended that they be painted in fluorescent paint to avoid a reoccurrence of the incident. In a different trailer park were management had had trailer bays marked out too close together that when fully occupied drivers were unable to wind up the legs of their trailers. We the shunters had made the decision to only park three trailers in the four trailer bays. Health and Safety had conducted many "yard checks" whilst our practice of not using the marked bays was in progress and no comments were received, until a driver tripped over the trailer stop! We shunters were all disciplined for failing to adhere to the yard marking. So we reverted to parking four trailer in this area. Following many complaints from drivers that we shunters were parking the trailers too close together (within the lines) management decided to close this area for the parking of trailers. Eventually they were relinedd to accommodate three trailers.
All of this was caused because H&S thought it safer for pedestrians to walk behind a moving trailer than in front in clear view of the driver!! How do these same pedestrians manage to walk safely to the shops without the help and guidance of H&S I wonder? The number of drivers injured, the cost of remodelling these trailer stops, the cost of the damage to the trailers the value of the lost delivery, not to mention the stress to myself of suspension and looming loss of employment. Was any of it necessary?
I could cite numerous examples of a similar nature, but I feel my disdain for all things H&S are apparent. Health and Safety have become like the unions did in the 70's, too powerful and we need a Margaret Thatcher type person to break them so that industry can revert to common sense once more.
