Here at Logical Storage one question that we are frequently asked is how often companies should have their racking systems inspected. In truth, there is no easy answer as every business is different, has different requirements, different equipment and different levels of operation. However, in general we advise that rack inspections take place at least once a year.
A key reason for this is that a rack inspection can highlight any serious flaws before they have chance to wreak havoc on your operations or risk the health and safety of your employees. Pallet racks are often under great strain from heavy goods and any beam damage or cracking needs to be dealt with quickly.
Under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act (2007) companies and organisations can be found culpable for a breach of their duty of care. If poorly maintained racking results in an accident and it is discovered that you did not make adequate arrangements to have them regularly assessed, then you could be held to blame.
You are also required under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (1998) to meet standards which apply to racking. This means ensuring that racking is suitable for use, safe, maintained and inspected. Equipment must only be used by employees with proper training and there must be reasonable safety measures in place such as warning signs, protective equipment and markings.
In terms of your operations, damage to your racking could actually result in reduced load bearing capacity by as much as 40% which is a great inefficiency. This is why it’s important to get your racking checked regularly and particularly prior to busy periods.
Logical Storage Solutions have extensive experience in performing racking inspections and can help guide businesses in meeting their legal duties and Health & Safety obligations. To learn more about a Logical Storage rack inspection click here or call us on 0845 689 1300 to discuss your needs.
Every working environment has its dangers, and if you are in charge of a workforce it is important that you find ways to safeguard your staff. Looking after their health will not only give you peace of mind but also protect your business.
The Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) ensures that all businesses follow strict guidelines to protect their workers. This means that as an employer you are responsible for maintaining a safe working environment, failing to do so could lead to prosecution.
If you operate a warehouse or factory it might be possible that you, like many others, have chosen pallet racking as an effective way to store your stock and to minimise your picking times. However, did you know that it is especially important to have your racking inspected for any potential faults? A fault could in fact reduce load capacity by as much as 40%.
Racking often holds heavy or fragile stock, which in the event of a breakage could mean damage to your stock or even worse harm to an employee. Aside from making sure that weight is always correctly distributed and that you never overload your pallet racking – you should also be certain to have regular racking inspections conducted by professionals. We recommend inspections on at least an annual basis.
Logical Storage has a team of experienced specialists who can make recommendations on how to prevent damage as well as performing remedial works such as racking repair to damaged equipment. Contact us on 0845 689 1300 to find out more.
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is considered to be a landmark in law. It was introduced to the House of Commons by the then Home Secretary, John Reid, on 20th July 2006, received royal assent on the 26th July 2007 and came into force on the 6th April 2008 and, for the first time, allows for companies and organisations to be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of serious management failures resulting in a gross breach of a duty of care.
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 created a new offence, which is called corporate manslaughter in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and corporate homicide in Scotland.
Before the Act came into force, a corporation could only be convicted of manslaughter if all of the elements of the offence had been committed by a single employee of the company, and even then they had to be so senior within the corporation that they would be seen as “embodying the mind” of the corporation. In practice, this meant that it was incredibly rare for a corporation to be convicted of manslaughter, and it was felt that corporations were escaping responsibility and punishment.
Following the implementation of the act, an offence is committed if the way in which an organisation’s activities are managed or organised causes a person’s death and amounts to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased.
Failure to carry out regular inspections and maintenance of your warehouse pallet racking could potentially lead to the deaths of employees and subsequently to your organisation being found guilty of corporate manslaughter. If you are a company director or responsible for the health and safety of your organisation, give yourself a good night sleep and let us take the headache of inspecting your storage system away. To find out more about our pallet racking inspections, please click here to visit our website.
In this post we are continuing our look at the various pieces of legislation and regulations that affect health and safety in the workplace. Today, we are looking at the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. These regulations are often abbreviated to PUWER.
PUWER 1998 assesses and aims to prevent risk of injury to workers from any equipment they use. It places responsibilities on employers and businesses which own or use equipment for work, or whose employees use equipment, even if it is not owned by them. The regulations therefore cover any equipment which is used by an employee at work, but not equipment which is used by the public.
The regulations demand that all employers must ensure that their equipment is suitable for its purpose, in good working order, safe to use, maintained correctly, inspected regularly, accompanied by appropriate health and safety measures to ensure that it is not a risk to health and safety, and that it is only used by people who have received the necessary training and information. Machinery must have a maintenance log which is kept up to date.
Equipment includes machinery and tools, and covers just about anything used by an employee for working, including equipment that the employees provide themselves. Employers have a responsibility to make sure that employees’ equipment complies with PUWER. PUWER applies to any workplace where the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 – this includes shops, offices, factories, warehouses, hospitals, construction sites etc.
Warehouse racking, along with all other forms of storage equipment, is considered as work equipment, and therefore must comply with PUWER. If your equipment does not meet the standards set out in PUWER then you are potentially risking the lives of your employees, and exposing yourself and your company to prosecution.
The easiest way to ensure that you comply with PUWER is to get a Logical Rack Inspection. We give impartial advice as we do not work directly with original equipment manufacturers, we provide a comprehensive report, and we are highly experienced in the industry. Please give us a call on 0845 689 1300 to discuss one off, annual, bi-annual or quarterly rack inspections for your facilities.
Our previous post looked indepth at the Health and Safety at Work Etc Act of 1974. This post is going to continue our series looking at key pieces of legislation regarding health and safety of employees in the workplace and why it is essential to have regular racking inspections by considering the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations were first introduced in 1992 by the Major government, and became law in 1993. The regulations built on what was already laid out in the Health and Safety at Work Act.
They were amended in 1994, twice in 1997 and in 1999 by the Blair government. The 1994 amendments related to new and expectant mothers, and the two 1997 amendments related to young persons and fire precautions.
The most notable feature of the regulations is the requirement to carry out a risk assessment, and if the employer has five or more employees, they need to record the significant findings of the risk assessment.
Following the carrying out of the risk assessment, employers must arrange to implement the measures identified as necessary in the risk assessment, regularly monitor and review these arrangements, appoint appropriate people to help implement them, create procedures in case of an emergency and inform employees of these, provide training, information and supervision to employees, insure that employees are aware of their duties regarding training and informing managers of any hazards they are aware of, share information with any other employers in the same workplace, and consider risks in particular to new mothers and mothers to be.
In order to ensure the health and safety of your employees and to prevent against risk, it is incredibly important that you have a regular rack inspection in your warehouse. To discuss how Logical Storage can help you with this, please call us on 0845 689 1300.
In our previous blog post, we gave an overview of some of the most crucial pieces of legislation when it comes to health and safety of employees in the workplace, and why it is essential to have regular racking inspections. We are now going to look at some of the pieces of legislation in a bit more depth, starting with the Health and Safety at Work Etc Act 1974.
The Health and Safety at Work Etc Act 1974 is often abbreviated to HSW Act, HSWA 1974, HASAWA or HSWA. It is an Act of the UK Parliament, first introduced by Harold Wilson’s government in 1974 after four years of political wrangling as the UK went from a Labour government to a Conservative one and back to Labour. It is the primary piece of government legislation concerning health, safety and welfare regulation, encouragement and enforcement in the workplace in Great Britain. The Act sets out key principles for occupational health and safety, and brought existing legislation regarding health and safety, which was complicated and confusing, into one easier to understand act. The Act also allows the UK to comply with EU laws regarding health and safety.
The Act has 10 different sections. Section 1 sets out the aims of the act. This includes securing the health, safety and welfare of people at work as well as protecting other people from the risks to health and safety caused by the activities of the people at work.
Section 2, which is our main focus, sets out the duties of employers towards their employees, stating that” It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his/her employees”. It also states that the employer must have a safety policy and must make employees aware of it.
Section 3 lays out the duties of employers towards people other than employees, such as clients, visitors, contractors and the general public. Employers must be able to ensure their safety as far as reasonably practicable.
Section 10 created two bodies, the Health and Safety Commission and the Health and Safety Executive. They were merged in 2008 to create the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), who have responsibility for enforcing the act along with local authorities. Breaches of the act can ultimately lead to unlimited fines and imprisonment for up to two years. To read more about the act, click here.
If you have pallet racking in your warehouse, it is therefore essential to have a regular racking inspection carried out to ensure that you as employer fulfil your legal obligations under this act. To learn more about a Logical Storage rack inspection, click here, or contact us on 0845 689 1300 to discuss your needs.
Pallet rack inspections are so vital to warehouse storage and systems as they can highlight and identify the need for rack repair or replacement. The warehouse systems and processes from pick and pack through to dispatch and distribution will not matter in their efficiency if a pallet rack falls or collapses. The stock will more than likely be damaged and will need replacing and then there is the dispatch and distribution that will need to be re-assessed and re-organised. All of which could have been avoided if the racks and rack components had been inspected and any rack damaged dealt with.
Pallet racks obviously have a lot of use and carry substantial weight, especially load bearing columns. Damage can also occur with forklift trucks knocking into the columns aswell. Rack repair can sometimes be done without having to shut down the whole of the factory aisle or unloading pallets on each level, although it does depend on what repair is needed – this would be advised through a rack inspection. Any time taken to carry out the repairs would still be better than having a collapsed rack, resulting in damaged stock and potential injury to employees nearby.
It doesn’t always have to be the rack as a whole to cause damage, it can be one of the rack components that has not been fitted correctly, or has become loose that can make the entire rack unstable. Often an inspection will highlight these components before any damage is done to the pallet rack.
Following on from our previous post, you might be wondering if your business needs a rack inspection or when is the best time to think about one.
Well every business does need an inspection and ideally before any problems have occurred, rather than after a rack has collapsed as then it’s too late – the incident has already occurred and probably cost you considerable amounts in insurance and time lost resolving the racking issue.
So do you know when to book your rack inspection?
- Every business needs at an annual rack inspection and depending on the nature of your business and the operating equipment and storage solutions you may need more or less frequent inspections.
- If your warehouse or storage area is suddenly experiencing its maximum storage capacity. This might be due to a sudden promotion on products and looks set to continue for the immediate future or even if it due to a seasonal trend, which the company has allowed for and expecting – you need to get your racking checked when the warehouse is at its maximum as this will give an idea of how health and safety is employed when the company is busy and also any potential problems which might be overlooked as employees are too busy. This can include overloading the racking or the weight distribution of items of the wrong shelf (to save space) which can have devastating consequences.
- If there is damage to a beam or the racking – however small. It is worth checking as the small cracks can develop or create problems when weight is placed on the racking. Get the small problems sorted quickly with a rack inspection.
- If you have recently installed new racking – it’s best to get this inspected within 3 months to make sure you are complying with the Health and Safety Guidelines and SEMA.
If you are not sure if your pallet racks need inspection it is better to check rather than leave it.
Every business needs to protect their employees and make sure the working environment is safe to work in and some working environments are more susceptible to accidents and potential hazards than others. For example, an office environment has different risks and hazards to employees than factories and warehouses. Whatever the industry though, all businesses must adhere to, and follow, up-to-date Health and Safety Guidelines set out in the Health & Safety at Work Act 1975 section 2.
Factories and warehousing companies, or any business that uses pallet racking must carry out a rack inspection as part of the health and safety procedures. Pallet racking is essential for a warehouse to operate efficiently but it still a requirement for regular pallet rack inspections to make sure they are safe and secure.
There are several benefits for businesses to encourage rack inspections and we’ve listed a few of these below:
Pallet racking is classed as ‘Work Equipment’ and therefore requires documented inspections and maintenance and the benefits will ensure your employees are in safe environment and the pallet racking is still secure.
The company insurance premiums and maintenance costs can be reduced as regular checks will highlight any problems with the racking but will also make sure it running efficiently and any maintenance is carried out promptly rather than a potential problem going un-noticed and costing more to fix in the long run.
Employees will know they are working in a safe and secure environment – which is important as employees will also look out for potential hazards and be more aware of potential risks and make sure they are adequately trained and equipped to perform a certain task.
The potential for accidents and mishaps are present in any working environment. However, if you are in a warehouse or storage area the potential for serious accidents like a rack collapse are higher and result in more damaging consequences that can have employees injured and out of work or worse. Therefore rack inspections are an important and critical element to any business to highlight and then reduce the risks.
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