Warehouse Safety Training and Requirements

Warehouse Safety Training

Ensuring safety training for the staff within your warehouse is vital for the success of your organisation – it also ensures that workers are aware of their duties, hazards and risk controls in high-risk environments. Employees and employers both have legal duties to protect their well-being at work, so ensuring that adequate safety training is taking place within your storage space is fundamental.

Did you know that a quarter of major injuries in the warehouse industry are caused by tripping or slipping, according to the Health and Safety Executive? Adequate training throughout your warehouse will minimise the risks of these potential hazards causing serious damage to your staff, as well as the efficiency of your business.

The Fundamentals of Safety

Warehouse health and safety training is vital because of the high-risk nature of these spaces. From operating heavy machinery, to handling hazardous substances, warehouses are accepted as some of the most dangerous places to work.

Important points to emphasise during staff training:

• Fire prevention techniques, and how to remain vigilant for fires

• Causes of fires and explosions in warehouses and safety measures to prevent these

• Range of hazards regarding vehicles and trucks within the warehouse

• Injuries associated with work equipment

• Causes of slip, trip, and related incidents

• Injuries caused by movements of loads

• Manual handling injuries while moving loads

• Role of PPE to minimise risks of injuries and accidents within your warehouse

• Significance of reporting any accident, or potential hazards, immediately in a warehouse workplace

Fire Safety Fires can spread extremely rapidly in a storage space due to the abundance of open space and kindling. Fires can cause huge damage within your warehouse – threatening to harm people and lead to the loss of valuable resources. To maintain fire safety, you can:

• Annual implementation of fire drills. These drills help the people within your warehouse to be aware and become familiar with the escape routes available to them.

• Test your fire alarms weekly. This ensures the devices are effective and can help protect you and your employees.

• Have a fire warden in place. The responsibility of a fire warden includes minimising fire potentials and hazards in the workplace, creating plans for evacuation, and having the knowledge to be able to take charge during an emergency.

Vehicle Safety From forklifts to lift trucks, vehicle safety is essential in preventing impact or crash injuries. It is important that your employees are aware of the potential dangers of these vehicles – particularly when reversing as visibility is compromised. Maintaining vehicle safety should look like:

• Only allowing staff that have received practical training to drive vehicles. Additionally, no one under the age of 18 should be operating forklifts

• Ensure speed-limits are met. Implementing signs to remind drivers of speed regulations is imperative here. They should not exceed 5mph.

• Keep reversing at a minimum. Nearly a quarter of all deaths involving vehicles at work occur while the driver reverses.

• Keep your aisles free of obstructions. Ensuring staff clear away equipment as soon as possible is vital for safety measures.

Slips, Trips & Falls As the most common cause of injuries in warehouses, minimising slips, trips and falls occurring by implementing simple measures is also significant for your storage space.

• Warning signs. Ensuring that warning signs are used when, for example, staff are cleaning the floor can prevent slips – along with ensuring that the correct method and detergent is used during the cleaning process.

• Anti-slip paint, tape and shoes. This allows for staff to remain safe even is a slip hazard presents itself.

• Level-flooring. Uneven flooring makes carrying loads in your storage space hazardous as it’s more likely to lose your footing.

Don’t forget! Warehouse safety is not a one-off task, it is something that requires constant careful consideration. Creating a safety culture within your warehouse requires you to consistently stay on top of the systems you have in place – complacency could cost you serious injuries and harm.

With accordance to health and safety law, workers and employers have legal responsibilities to take care of their health and safety within this environment, as well as considering all those around them within this space. According to the Health and Safety Work Act 1974, business owners are responsible for ensuring the safety and protection of their workers – as well as ensuring they are protected from any possible dangers to their health.

Keeping safety at the forefront of your priorities reduces risks of certain safety threats being overlooked, and ensures that your staff are constantly aware of the potential risks within your warehouse.

So… Why Us?

At DC Space & Storage Solutions, we are extremely proud of our accreditations that highlight our continuous effort to ensure that we are our customers offering a top-quality service, with safety as our leading priority.

Contact us today for a free, no-obligation estimate on the services you require!