UKMHA launches Safe Working Area Charter

Ensuring the safety of the equipment and the personnel that operate it is one of the primary goals of the UK Material Handling Association. In addition to keeping operators safe, the association also produces guidance on maintaining material handling equipment. To this end, it has produced new guidelines designed to keep visiting engineers safe when carrying out maintenance work at customer sites.

The Safe Working Area Charter has been written by the UKMHA in conjunction with members who carry out on-site maintenance and repairs to their customers’ material handling and plant equipment. The charter stipulates that all engineers must be provided with a safe area in which to carry out their work and outlines the specific requirements of such zones. 

The Charter outlines what is deemed to be a 'Safe Working Area' and identifies that the area where the work is being carried out should be of a size sufficient to provide the engineer with the space to safely manoeuvre around any equipment they are working on. This includes space for their tools. 

Protecting engineers on site 

It also stipulates that the engineer should be safely segregated from moving vehicles or plant, with areas defined by suitable physical barriers. Pedestrians, including customer employees, third parties and members of the public should also be excluded from the working area.

In addition, any hazards due to customer products, materials machinery or suspended loads, should be removed from the area prior to work starting, while the area should also be properly illuminated, well ventilated and have a solid, smooth surface free from trip hazards, spillages and other dangers.

Adverse levels of noise, magnetic field, UV light, radiation, vibration and temperature should be avoided, as should potentially explosive dusts, vapours or explosive atmospheres. It is for this reason that battery charging areas do not generally make suitable safe working areas.

Likewise, exposure to biological hazards such as sewage, animals, birds, vermin and their excrement should also be avoided. 

Many of these precautions may sound obvious, but the unfortunate reality is that where sites haven’t considered the needs of visiting engineers in advance, the engineer can be presented with a difficult dilemma; balancing customer’s expectation of a rapid fix against the need to work safely.

The working area is a three dimensional space, so it should be away from high voltage electricity services, ducting and overhead powerlines or similar obstructions. If the anticipated work activities include fluid systems, such as LPG or hydraulics, then the work area should be clear of drains.

Communicating PPE requirements 

Customers should inform the engineer or their company, in advance of their visit about any site-specific PPE requirements so as to ensure that the engineer arrives with the correct equipment. In any case, a site induction, covering site specific and job specific requirements, should always take place.

The site induction should also show safe evacuation routes in the event of an emergency, where the first aid and eye wash facilities are, and the toilet facilities which are available to the engineer whilst visiting the customer’s premises.

The UKMHA said that while every effort had been made to ensure the safety of engineers, the Charter was by no means exhaustive and that judgement would have to made on an individual basis should the engineer feel at risk while on site.

Equipment operators and service providers are being encouraged to sign up to the charter and demonstrate their commitment to helping the UKMHA improve industry safety standards.

UK Material Handling Association

Tel: 01635 277577 

Email: mail@ukmha.org.uk

Web: www.ukmha.org.uk