There are several good reasons to ensure your workplace vehicles are maintained in a good condition. Well-maintained vehicles perform better, lowering your costs and increasing productivity. Most importantly, well-maintained vehicles are safer. The law, of course, doesn’t care about your costs or profitability. It does care about the safety of your workforce, customers and visitors, and, where your vehicles are used on public highways, other road users.

In this article, you’ll find a workplace transport safety checklist to help you comply with your legal obligations, making sure that your vehicles are in good working order.

Prevention is the key to workplace transport safety

Most accidents involving workplace transport (and machinery) are caused by either driver error or poor vehicle maintenance. The former is corrected by driver health and safety training and good working practices. The former is corrected by ensuring that you do all you can to prevent mechanical errors. Preventative maintenance is essential to detect vehicle wear and tear as well as ensuring vehicles are in good repair and efficient working order.

Daily checks for drivers to do

There are daily checks that all drivers should make, and these should form part of your drivers’ description of role and duties. Their workplace transport safety checklist should include a daily (start of shift) check of:

• Tyres
• Windscreen
• Windscreen wipers and washers
• Lights
• Indicators and hazard lights, and warning devices (e.g. reversing alarm)
• Mirrors

Drivers and vehicle operators should be provided with adequate training to undertake these checks, as well as a procedure to follow should any inspection of the vehicle indicate that it is less than satisfactory. There should also be a procedure in place for drivers to follow if they suspect any mechanical (or other) deficiency detected during vehicle operation.

Drivers should also be tasked to ensure that vehicles are kept clean and vision is not impaired by dangling pennants or window stickers.

Regular and planned maintenance

In addition to daily checks performed by drivers, you should ensure that regular preventative maintenance work is undertaken on your vehicles. You’ll need to consider manufacturer’s guidelines when such maintenance work should be done – for example, according to mileage or time.

This work must be carried out by a competent person, trained to work on the particular vehicle type or vehicle. Your regular vehicle maintenance checklist should include:

• Brakes
• Steering
• Tyres
• Mirrors, cameras, etc.
• Windscreens and washers
• Warning devices
• Fitted safety systems
• Pneumatic and hydraulic hoses, fittings, pistons and systems
• Lights

Stay safe when maintaining your vehicles

Any employee working on a vehicle should take precautions to ensure that they do so safely. They should:

• Apply brakes
• Check wheels
• Securely prop raised parts
• Use a tyre cage when inflating tyres on split rim wheels
• Remove tyres before carrying out any welding or heating work on a wheel
• Beware of and take precautions against the risk of explosion from fuel tanks and batteries
• Use respiration masks to protect against inhaling asbestos when working on brakes and clutches

Record keeping

It is essential to keep records of all checks and maintenance work carried out on vehicles. Provide drivers with a daily workplace transport safety checklist to complete and sign. When maintenance is carried out, ensure that it is signed off by your maintenance technician or external technician. Your records should include defects found, causes, actions taken, and who undertook the work or reported the defect.

These preventative maintenance checks help to keep your vehicles fit for purpose. This should help maintain vehicle performance, and improve performance. It will result in safer vehicles and less likelihood of injury or other health issues caused by vehicle defect.

Ensure your vehicles, machinery and equipment are correctly maintained, and that your company is compliant with the ever-changing health and safety rules and regulations. Ensure your company is admired for being a conscious employer, who puts the wellbeing of its employees at the top of its agenda. To learn how we can help you achieve all this, contact Integral Safety Management today.

There will be no excuses for being caught out by cold weather this winter. Meteorological experts are already forecasting that after such a long, hot summer, we could be in for a very cold few months around Christmas and the turn of the year. If the predictions are right, your company is going to face extra health and safety issues.

Our advice is to do the very un-British thing: take notice of the weather forecasters. Don’t leave the health and safety of your employees to chance this winter. Prepare now for wetter, colder, darker days ahead.

Make someone responsible for health and safety in your workplace

While everyone has a responsibility for their own welfare at work, it is good working practice to assign someone overall responsibility for health and safety in the workplace. This will help ensure that all risks are assessed correctly, and that changes in health and safety laws, rules and regulations are accounted for and that you take all reasonable steps to adhere to the employer’s duty of care in the UK workplace.

Understand the main health and safety risks in winter

Most risks to the health and safety of your employees increase in winter. In particular, you should be wary of:

Slips and trips

Wet weather and icy conditions make surfaces more slippery. Darker conditions hide obstacles.

Traffic accidents

We tend to think of winter conditions increasing the danger on public roads – which is true, of course; but rain, snow and ice can also make your outside areas, footpaths and entrances extra hazardous for pedestrians and workplace traffic such as forklifts.

Illness

Cold weather increases the likelihood of illness, especially for workers who operate outside. Absence because of illness can seriously impact business performance.

Take positive action to improve health and safety in your workplace this winter

There are several actions you can take to improve workplace health and safety and the welfare of your employees as autumn and winter approach. These five tips will help your business keep performing at its peak this winter.

1.      Remove leaves and repair paths

Ensure that falling leaves are removed from pathways – they are particularly hazardous when wet. Inspect paths and walkways for potholes and broken or lifted tiles, and replace or repair immediately.

2.      Improve lighting inside and out

Ensure that your workplace is well-lit. Remember that you won’t have the benefit of sunshine blazing through the windows.

Outside, pay attention to dark areas, and those places where existing lighting casts shadows. Ask your employees to point out where they have difficulty seeing because of darker conditions.

3.      Make sure your heating system is in good working order

Don’t leave it until the cold weather strikes to turn your heating system on. Check your heating early, and have it serviced by a professional. This should ensure that you won’t be forced to close and lose a day or two’s productivity because your workplace is too cold.

4.      Ensure staff are properly clothed

Staff who work outside should be provided with warm and waterproof workwear. Workers in warehouses and distribution centres may suffer from draughts and cold floors; would it be wise to offer them warmer clothing, too?

5.      Drive safely on the roads

Increase awareness of the hazards of winter driving, by providing the RoSPA winter driving tips factsheet to all your employees.

Ensure that your fleet vehicles are kept in good condition, and that your drivers plan routes to avoid congestion, poor road conditions, and roads that have not been gritted.

Be prepared for a rough winter

It is wise to minimise risks to your operations during the winter months, to ensure minimal disruption to your operations. Your winter health and safety preparations should include:

• Identifying hazards and minimising risks
• Reviewing, measuring and monitoring your health and safety plan
• Getting feedback from your employees to ensure their concerns are listened to
• Putting in place emergency procedures to make certain your staff are safe and that any disruption to work is kept to a minimum in periods of adverse weather conditions

The earlier you act, the better prepared you will be for winter. A health and safety audit in the workplace will ensure that your current H&S policy, practices and procedures comply with current laws, rules and regulations, and that your employees benefit from maximum protection and minimum risk when the weather suddenly turns ‘unexpectedly’. To learn more, contact Integral Safety Management today.