Posted By Jason Loveard I am the H&S manager foro a large cash & carry operation and I currently have a bit of a problem trying to put effective control measures in place for electrically opereted (Ride on) pallet riders unloading pallets from soft sided delivery trucks. I.e whats to stop a driver crashing through the side of a truck onto the floor below, other than the guiding line marked on the floor of the truck? Anybody else have this problem, or offer a solution other than unload the truck from the side with a fork lift truck?

Posted By Jeffrey Watt Jason Can you keep the curtain sides closed during the operation and enter exit via the heel of the trailer? Jeff

Posted By Jeffrey Watt Assuming they are load restraining curtains ( he hastens to add). And the wheels are chocked And the driver can't drive away And he has engaged the trailer brake before effing off in the tractor unit if he does drive away and has chocked the trailer. Jeff

Posted By Jeffrey Watt Yep I also tried to find a standard and was stumped, I was searching for different reasons. If you have lots of different manufacturers types coming in then I would doubt you could see this as a control for a ride on pallet truck. Looks like you need to do what we did, one FLT ont ground, one ont bay. Doesn't really take any longer, one guys loading the other delivering to the rack. Jeff

Posted By Alan Woodage Just a thought from an engineering point of view. The loadings you are actually looking at for an electric truck at 5 Mph weighing 500KG plus would probaly not be restrained by an aluminium sided box trailer. Although the curtain sider is percieved to be more dangerous it would probably be the roof / top track of the curtain that would fail and not the bottom end or the material. Hand rails or demountable edge protection is not going to withstand the loads of the pallet trucks. Have you actually looked at any statistical data for the likelihood of this situation being realised. Also have you sought advice from the RTITB and or the RHA ? I know this is not an answer but just some thoughts for consideration.

Posted By Dave Faragher jason I have come across this problem before, I posed this question and the reply was, the curtains form part of the load restraining system provided they are fastened down and secure they should withstand any sideways collision from such as a stand and ride off-loader,however you may find that a driver will undo his curtain straps in order to unfasten his load restraining straps and will leave them loose,this obviously is an unsafe practice, but with some commodities it is necessary to prevent the load fouling the curtains and causing the (lift) to fall. Information,Instruction,Training and close Supervision.If you need any advice contact me via iosh chat. Dave Faragher

Posted By Steven Would the use of non-ride on pallet trucks resolve the problem? Motorised pallet trucks that do not require standing on could be purchased and only used for vehicles that have curtain sides, unless the majority of vehicles that deliver to you are curtain sided. Steve