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Safety upgrade For tank top safety, Clayton can offer a
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harness and roof tracking system; the driver attaches a 2m steel lanyard before stepping up, but for ground-based operations, it has an automatic manlid.
Tankers are expensive items that often remain in service for 10 to 20 years, so if driver safety needs improving tankers can be upgraded using proprietary equipment. Spanset's fall restraint and arrest systems have many uses,its most recent development being the Capcha device for curtainsiders, doubledeckers, or even loading gantries.
Cables are strung inside the cant rails and drivers clip their body harness to the inertia reel device attached at each side before climbing into a trailer.
Its Bi-Line system will suit any type of tanker, and when drivers climb up. they simply hook the belt strap to the short lanyard linking the two side cables, running along the roof edges. Drivers may stumble up there but they won't fall off.Typically, a Capcha system costs around £475 to equip a vehicle and fleets using or trialling them include SCA,Polypipe and Alltruck.
Tanker safety
Another restraining harness is the Australian-made TRAM (short for Total Restraint Access Module) system,sold in the UK by WGTanker Services.
It uses a single roof rail with a sliding arm that can be pushed and parked anywhere along its length.The driver climbs the rear ladder, attaches two waist-belt straps to the arm which hinges fore' or aft into a suitable working position. Once a job is completed, the driver moves rearwards, unclips the harness and steps down. For extra support while on the ladder, an inertia reel attachment will be offered.
"At £2,500 a trailer, it isn't cheap, but compared with a heavy injury 'compo' claim, it's a responsible investment." reckons managing director Ian Buxton.
He welcomes the 'Prevention of Falls from RoadTankers' protocol issued last year jointly by the HSE and Road Haulage Association tanker group, which requires platforms or walkways to be fitted as standard on all new vehicles, and existing tankers retrofitted by April 2006.
Under the protocol, operators were required to have half of their tankers either retrofitted or have tank-top access eliminated altogether by 31 March this year. However, according to Buxton,"many fleets haven't taken a blind bit of notice, so the HSE is going to have to enforce it." Meanwhile, many of the larger makers of general freight trailers will either respond to a haulier's request or use their initiative on driver safety.
Ladders, steps and handrails are integrated into almost every design and while swinging suzie boom couplings are used on many supermarket artics, so are the slide-over connectors that a driver can reach from ground level.The safety benefits of a sliding suzie connector are obvious. If you don't have to climb up on the catwalk of a tractor you can't fall off it. Montracon's 'Mavis' device set the trend, but Crane Fruehauf,Don-Bur, Gray &Adams and Lawrence David now have similar designs.
It's taken a long while for many operators to take matters of safety seriously, but with pressure mounting from the HSE, insurers and various authorities, fleet owners and managers are making searching risk assessments. •
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