If your facility’s throughput depends on flatbed trucks moving cargo, you need to offer the best fall prevention solutions possible. The last thing you want is for a driver to fall from the top of the truck.
Serious workplace accidents threaten your business with the possibility of workers’ compensation claims and legal costs. Moreover, falls also cause downtime, meaning your facility’s production efficiency and throughput could be put on hold for hours or even days.
Premium cargo, such as steel, needs to be shielded from the elements. And the best way to protect cargo on top of a flatbed truck is with a tarp. When drivers have to climb on flatbed trucks to secure tarps over their cargo, they are at serious risk for a fall. Rather than accept this danger as unavoidable, you need to explore better fall prevention options for flatbed tarping.
Manual Tarping Puts Drivers And Throughput In Danger
Any time drivers have to climb on top of a truck, they are at risk of falling. Flatbed tarping is even more dangerous than other types of truck loading that occurs at the top of a truck. Since partially tarped loads are hidden from drivers’ views, they are unable to see where and on what they are stepping, making falls highly likely.
When workers fall on cargo or, worse, off the top of the flatbed truck, both safety inspectors and corporate need to be called in. While they are investigating the cause of the fall, your facility and its throughput are essentially shut down. Your production efficiency plummets.
Flatbed Safety Systems Protect Drivers And Production Efficiency
Many facility managers simply don’t know there is a better option: flatbed safety systems.
These systems are designed to improve your facility’s fall prevention and keep drivers safe. They consist of two separate platforms with stairs and handrails to make getting to the top of the truck easier. These platforms can be horizontally adjusted to make getting closer to the cargo easier, as well. There are also caution arms that come down at the front and back of the flatbed truck to add extra fall prevention.
Flatbed safety systems, when used properly, make it almost impossible for drivers to fall from the trailer when tarping their cargo, allowing them to feel more secure. While it takes the same amount of time to tarp a flatbed with a safety system as it would to do it manually, the reduction in throughput-halting worker injuries makes these safety systems more efficient overall.
When facilities install custom safety solutions such as flatbed safety systems, they improve both their overall workplace safety and production efficiency. Workers know that employers care about their well-being, while throughput experiences fewer interruptions. Inevitably, companies see significant ROI, as the benefits to throughput and reduced costs outweigh the price of installation.
Need to boost production efficiency while maintaining workplace safety? Click below to download this industry guide from Carbis Solutions to discover the secrets to a safer – and more efficient – work site.
