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SUMMARY
Page 40
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Working at Height hasn't caught the attention of every haulier but the statement from the Health and Safety Executive should: "Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury".
So the question is: which fall restraint system is best suited to your operation? Keeping the driver off the back is all well and good but this is the real world and drivers climb onto trailers.
If you've got a roof like the curtainsider, you can pre-attach the SpanSet system of guide lines to the trailer roof, and use a block/reel via the driver's harness pulling down the attachment line, all from ground level.
Pre-mixed systems, like the one being used by bodes Transport, means the driver only has to put on the harness and attach it to the reel block.
By contrast, the Schmitz system is purpose-made for flats and requires construction through the guide-strap and the rear A-frame before you can start working.
Schmitz's system is quick and easy to assemble and the guide strap can be quickly moved out of the way if you need to crane loads off, before then being re-tensioned. It has much to recommend it.
The RomGard looks to tackle the root cause of the problem by creating an additional working area to move around the load at trailer height. Chief drawbacks are dependent on whether the driver has to clamber on to the load, if the system gets damaged on site and how much payload is affected by the additional weight of the system.
We saw the steel prototype, and we'd be interested to see how much weight could be saved with an aluminium version, but for a work in progress we're impressed.
Two other systems are also worth a mention. Bison Precast Concrete has a safety net which extends horizontally around the trailer load bed in a similar fashion to the RomGard. And Langtons' provide fencedin decking that reaches up and around the trailer rather like scaffolding.
However, which system you go for will ultimately depend on your initial risk assessment. The HSF's website is the ideal place to start with its 'Five Steps to Risk Assessment', the better. Why wait for the industrial prat fall?