Workplace transport safety An employers' guide - ARRI Lighting Rental

29 Most transport accidents can be prevented if managers:
n carry out a thorough risk assessment;
n set and monitor safe ways of working with vehicles; and
n raise people’s awareness of the risks involved.
Health and Safety
Executive
Safe sites, vehicles and drivers
30 Accidents involving workplace transport are often caused by failures in several
different areas. When you assess how well workplace transport risks are being
controlled, you should look at the following three areas in particular.
Safe site
31 Check to see whether the site has well-defined traffic routes that are free from
obstructions, and that have firm and even surfaces. Check to see that:
n every effort has been made to separate pedestrians from vehicles
(‘segregation’);
n there are safe crossing places for pedestrians to get across vehicle routes; and
n there is an effective one-way system – especially for large goods vehicles.
Safe vehicles
32 Check that there is an effective maintenance programme for steering
and braking systems, and for vehicle lights. Check that reversing aids, ‘rollover
protection systems’ and driver restraints have been fitted where they are
appropriate. You can find much more information about these things in the chapter
Safe vehicles and in the section Operational guidance.
Safe drivers
33 Check that drivers’ behaviour is supervised and that drivers are trained and
competent. In particular, you should be able to provide evidence (for example, to
a health and safety inspector) that people using lift trucks have been trained to the
standards described in Driver training and competence (paragraphs 642-665) in the
chapter Safe drivers.
34 You must manage all three of these areas well for workplace transport risks
to be controlled effectively. This book reflects these three areas, to help you make
sensible decisions that will make your workplace safer.
Important note: ‘reasonably practicable’
35 The phrase ‘reasonably practicable’ is very important for health and safety in
Great Britain. It is used to decide how much action should be taken to keep risks
under control at work.
36 Sensible health and safety is about managing risks – risks can rarely be
eliminated altogether. The phrase ‘reasonably practicable’ is a legal phrase used to
help you decide what you have to do manage risks sensibly.
37 The law says that every business in Great Britain has to:
n be aware of risks to health and safety in the workplace; and
n take ‘reasonably practicable’ steps to control these risks, and to make
accidents less likely.
38 For a step to be ‘reasonably practicable’, the cost must be sensible compared
to the benefit (reasonable), and it must be physically possible in the first place
(practicable).
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