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13th October 1994
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

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A driver recently won £155,000 compensation for injuries sustained while lifting frozen meat. All the more reason why hauliers should pay attention to the Health & Safety Executive campaign Lighten the Load.

Strained backs, wrenched shoulders. ,ind pulled muscles cost the transport industry millions of pounds a year. They can all occur as a consequence of an employee lifting something that is too heavy for him to handle, or because he has lifted it awkwardly.

Hauliers lose out in two ways. First there's the disruption caused when drivers and warehousemen have to take time off to recover from their injuries. And second, the employer -or his insurer—may end up shelling out a small fortune in compensation: "It can all end up being extraordinarily expensive," warns Duncan Poole, group head of risk and insurance at Pickfords.

"You have to take into account sick pay, legal defence costs, a possible future increase in insurance premiums if a claim is made on the company's policy, and management time lost in dealing with the matter."

Stour Valley driver John Christopher slipped while unloading heavy bags of frozen meat at an abattoir and damaged the base of his spine. The Child Okeford, truck driver was unable to work for eight years. After the Transport & General Workers Union took up his case he was paid £155,000 compensation.

This incident occurred before the introduction of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992, which are designed to prevent such accidents happening. They are based on European Directive 90/269/EF,C,which came into force on 1 January 1993 and oblige employers to redesign tasks wherever possible so that workers do not have to lift items physically.

If a task cannot be automated the employer must assess the risk it presents, and reduce the danger of injury as far as he can. In the transport industry this might involve fitting tail lifts or lorry loaders, or installing a loading dock at the depot.

The regulations do not lay down the maximum weight an individual may be expected to lift unaided: logic suggests that big Frank Bruno can safely lift rather more than little Ronnie Corbett, But health and safety guidelines do recommend maximum weights from 5kg to 25kg; the heights to which they can be safely lifted; and how close they should be held to the body during the lifting action.

The regulations should make it easier for injured workers to bring civil actions against their employers because they are more detailed than catch-all safety legislation, says United Road Transport Union general secretary, David Higginbottom. And the Health & Safety Executive is determined to ensure that companies obey the rules. "Where a dangerous situation is found, or where there may be wilful disregard of the law, we will take enforcement action," says an HSE spokesman. "There have been at least two prosecutions and more than 60 improvement or prohibition notices issued since the regulations came into force, but we believe that compliance is improving as awareness of the rules becomes more widespread."

The FEE is promoting awareness through its Lighten the Load campaign, which will include a National Workplace Health & Safety Week on 17-21 October.

Optimistic

However, the LiKTL.: is less optimistic: "I suspect that a lot of them are burying their heads in the sand," says Higginbottom. "Our research shows that drivers are being compelled to break the speed limit and the hours legislation, and use trucks with defects, every day of the week. If the transport industry is willing to sink that low, it is safe to assume that the manual handling regulations are being ignored."

While conceding that big distribution companies with health and safety representatives at their depots are likely to comply will the handling regs, he is sure that many small hauliers will not. Higginbottom would like to see heavier fines imposed on persistent health and safety offenders, with the ultimate sanction of 0-licence revocation.

"I don't think the regulations are being enforced and I think they ought to he," says Danny Bryan, national secretary of road transport at the TGWU. "The trouble is that government departments are often incapable of enforcing the rules because they lack resources."

An 11-gallon keg of beer weighs 69kg; a 36-gallon keg tops the scales at 194kg. Not surprisingly, the brewers have studied the handling regs closely, and taken appropriate steps. As reported in CM, dray designers have developed innovative vehicles with ultra-low deck heights to make loading and unloading easier. George Thomson is group fleet engineer at Scottish & Newcastle Breweries and chairman of the Brewery Transport Advisory Committee. Every vehicle he acquires is fitted with brackets to accommodate a Lucas Swinglift lightweight jib. "It can be used to move product around on the deck of the dray and to lower it so it is close to the cellar mouth," he explains. "What's more we can demount the Swinglift, put it next to the cellar mouth, and raise and lower product by running the jib off a portable battery pack. Remember, one of the biggest problems is pulling the ullage back up out of the cellar."

Terry Murphy, Whitbread's regional distribution manager for the South-Eastand 1993 Transport and Distribution Manager of the Year—says that the rules have simply formalised actions the company was already taking, including a series of three-day training courses on kinetic handling; showing how to lift items in ways that minimise strain on the body.

"The trainers are now going back to their depots and training the draymen and depot staff," says Murphy. One wonders what sort of reaction the trainers get from draymen who have been delivering to pubs for 20 years or more. "We haven't had a day when comment hasn't been passed, but most of the employees find that the training teaches them something new," Murphy reports. "And if they reckon they're big and hard, and can throw heavy containers around, then we train them all the more."

The weights of all items the brewery delivers are now posted up in the distribution centres, and in the cabs of all of its trucks. Whitbread has also assessed the loading and unloading risks presented by every location it delivers to nationwide. "You're talking about 20,000 accounts," Murphy observes. "We've risk-assessed every activity in the warehouse too".

Some of Whitbread's latest trucks are equipped with tail-lifts and batttery-powered pallet trucks, but many of the handling problems brewers face occur away from the truck, down in pub beer cellars. Whitbread may be pointing the way to the future by building what it describes as a "state-of-theart" pub--"The Whittington" in Pinner, Middlesex. The cellar incorporates some of the latest thinking in product handling, including a crane to pick up barrels and rotate the stock.

Problems

The removals industry has also had to take the manual handling rules into account, says Pickfords' Duncan Poole. House contents removers face particular problems, he points out, because every day porters are lifting awkwardly shaped items of unknown weight in often difficult locations.

"The Health & Safety at Work Act, 1974, and common law, places a responsibility on us to conduct our business without hurting our employees," says Poole. "If we fail to execute our duty of care our employees can sue us, and we can be prosecuted. Fines running into many thousands of pounds can be imposed, and there is even the potential for prison sentences to be passed."

"In this respect," he adds, "the handling regulations contain nothing that is new, and we have always been conscious of the risks our staff face. The major change so far as we are concerned is the need for our representatives to assess and record the risks each removal presents before wc. take the job on. Moving the contents of a bungalow along a level concrete path is one thing—moving the contents of the fourth floor of a terraced house in Islington is quite another." Like the brewers, Pickfords is assessing handling aids which are already well-established in office removals.

Reading-based Robert Daryall Group subsidiary Business Moves was presented with the Commercial Remover of the Year Award at this year's British Association of Removers annual conference. Among its mechanical handling equipment are electric stairwalkers to handle heavy items such as photocopiers. It is also importing a French device called the Busy Lift which can pick up filing cabinets directly from the ground. Porters do not even have tilt them to get them on to trolleys.

Brewers and removers have always taken handling hazards seriously for sound business reasons, as well as any desire to be conscientious employers. But hauliers who have simply left their staff to handball loads without training or the right equipment should not assume that overstreched HSE officers will never get round to them.

Poole warns: "They, and local authority officers, may respond to a tip-off, or come in as the result of an accident, or simply make a courtesy call. Assuming you will never see them would be very complacent. It's certainly not our view."

by Steve Banner


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