Inspectors have identified many examples of good practice, communication with workers, and effective risk control, including:
- Covid marshals/supervisors to ensure workers are following procedures and controls are in working order e.g. refilling sanitising stations;
- Arrangements in place to quickly identify Covid cases and their contacts in the workplace;
- Limiting numbers in canteens and break rooms;
- Cohorting workers who typically work closely together;
- Providing drivers with “Covid kits” including hand sanitiser and wipes;
- Assigning FLTs to specific workers (where possible) so equipment is not shared;
- Providing delivery notes to drivers electronically in their cabs rather than requiring them to visit the transport office.
HSE and local authority inspectors have provided verbal advice on topics such as social distancing, hygiene and cleaning, and fresh air ventilation in around 70% of site visits to businesses in the transport & logistics sector.
Common Covid-related issues have included:
- Poor ventilation in office spaces;
- Office workers sat in close proximity with insufficient risk mitigation;
- No site-specific risk assessment;
- Hand sanitiser points too far away from work stations to be useful.
HSE Inspectors have also identified a number of workplace transport issues, including:
- FLTs not in compliance with LOLER requirements;
- Poor marking of pedestrian routes;
- Pedestrian routes being blocked;
- Inadequate controls to prevent vehicle driveaway incidents (see separate section).
Overall, provision of access to welfare facilities has been found to be very good, with arrangements made for visiting drivers to access site facilities where they are required to wait in their cabs.
Vehicle driveaways - Vehicle driveaways are a significant danger during loading or unloading. HSE believes that the safest practice is for drivers to exit their cabs and wait in a dedicated waiting area or room until loading or unloading is finished. If practicable, this should be the preferred method of risk reduction.
If the existing drivers’ waiting room is not large enough to allow social distancing, dutyholders should apply the hierarchy of control by:
- Relocating the waiting room to a larger area where social distancing can be maintained while still allowing drivers access to welfare facilities, or;
- Requiring drivers to wait in their cab and taking additional precautions to achieve the same level of risk mitigation as removing the driver from the cab.
Wherever possible, the keys should be removed from the vehicle. This can be achieved by, for example, asking the driver to drop the keys into a tray that is taken away from the vehicle for safekeeping and returned once loading/unloading is complete. Wheel chocks should not be relied on to prevent driveaways.
Nina Day HSE will be addressing the first 2021 IOC fellows' virtual round table on Feb 2nd.
