The Six “W”s of shipping and receiving dock safety—
Where – All shipping and receiving dock door bays when powered industrial equipment is entering or leaving semi-trailers whether tractors are attached or when tankers, dry goods blower trucks or flat beds are loading or unloading. Simply put, whenever employees are on or in trailers or in close proximity to structures and trailers, LOCK IT OUT, MAKE IT IMMOBILE!
When- Every time – no exceptions to the rules, one exception by one employee or employer allows a safety GAP, which as we all know GAPS allow BAD things to happen. Make sure your company has a policy, procedure including S.O.P in place for the loading and unloading of semi trailers of any type, eliminate the GAPS.
What – According to the DOT and OSHA – the trailer brakes SHALL be “set”, the wheels SHALL be chocked, and/or the trailer restrained in a manner not allowing movement. The standard also states the nose of the trailer MAY be supported. Simply put, lock it, chock it, retrain and support it and the trailer is now a machine in a locked out state Mobility unless absolutely FORCED is impossible. GAPS are eliminated, - GONE.
Who- Who is responsible is entirely unclear in the OSHA standard, while the standard mandates the shall, “set” and shall, “chock”, the standard does not specify WHO is responsible for these actions – WHO will perform them, and WHO will verify they were performed. Should an incident occur, this gray area of the standard becomes a significant issue – if ALL employees present have been properly trained and know the mandates – they ALL are expected “shall” follow the standard and should the “shall” mandate not be followed – according to OSHA – the driver, the receiver, the dock employees and the fork lift employees, perhaps even the logistics firm and for sure the business owners may all be cited.
Why- Under OSHA CPL 2-0.124 Multi-Employer Citation Policy, ALL employees and employers can be cited, leaving the door wide open for interpretation by all:
What GladHanger recommends:
- Provide Glad Hand Locks available at the point of use, where needed, when needed, the First step of the SOP was to lock the Glad Hand Lock. Communication between the driver and the dock employee occurs they both know the trailer is effectively locked out, the brakes were “set” and verified as “set”, this must be done every trailer, every time.
- The Second step of the SOP is to chock both wheels, and having the wheel chocks hung on the wall and chained to building make this function easy. Satisfying OSHA “chock” requirement, this must be done every trailer, every time.
- The Third step of the SOP is to restrain the trailer if the doors have that device, this while not mandated has been utilized by many companies, however today many trailers have changed, many can no longer be restrained using the rear crash bar. Facilities that rely on crash bar restraints that removed wheel chocks are at significant risk.
- The Fourth step of the SOP, trailer inspection, visual inspection of floors, walls, landing gear and overall condition looking for not only damage, that constitutes risk for loading and unloading but also safety concerns for the SQF departments such as insects, rodents or signs of same.
- The Fifth step of the SOP is installation of the dock leveler and make sure it was deployed properly.
- The Sixth set of the SOP is used if the trailer was spotted with no tractor, the installation of the Trailer jacks in the nose, properly adjusted under both sides of the nose.
GladHanger recommends through the use and constant verification of these six steps and commitment to the use of them on every truck and trailer. Our goal, reduce the potential of an incident to as near ZERO as possible keeping the process as simple as possible.
GladHanger – a simple, inexpensive, storage device, secures while storing the Glad Hand Lock, the easy starting point of the safety process on every dock, every door, every day.