MR MICAWBER RISK ASSESSOR
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If you've read Charles Dickens' classic novel David Copperfield you may recall Mr Micawber's pronouncement: "Accidents happen in the best regulated families." They also happen in haulage yards. The only difference is that in Dickens they're fictional; in road haulage they're fatal. Last year trucks crushed more workers than at any time in the past five years. The Health & Safety Executive is at a loss to explain the figures but Commercial Motor can hazard a guess. Ever tighter deadlines are driving operators to speed things up, with disastrous results. If there were a little less haste—and less speed too—those accidents might just have been avoided. Familiarity also breeds an especially dangerous kind of contempt. Look out of the traffic office window and you'll see people wandering around close to reversing trucks, often with their backs to the driver, blissfully ignorant of the danger. People shouldn't be in close proximity to moving trucks and it's up to every operator to ensure that they aren't. So when was the last time you carried out a risk assessment of your yard? Do your staff help drivers reversing? If so, where do they stand? And what about coupling and uncoupling trailers? Do your drivers always apply the handbrake before leaping out to pull the locking lever on the fifth wheel? Do they know how to use the park/shunt valves on a trailer proper ly? Of course you can ignore what you've just read; maybe you'll be lucky. Maybe you won't have an accident. But don't bet your life on it— or anyone else's.