Posted By Martin Savage I work in a manufacturing business that makes large items of engineering plant and equipment that are later bolted together and commissioned in far off lands around the world. We are currently struggling a bit with the risk assessment for loading containers prior to shipping. The items that go into the containers tend to be all the awkward shapes of sections of walkways, packs of handrails, gantries, odd shaped components as well as assemblies of machines that go in with them. Because the items are all metal, heavy (varying from several hundred kg up to several tonnes) irregular shapes, pre-planning is very difficult because it's like doing a 3 piece jigsaw: you have to see the bits and try them in place before you know if they'll fit. Once in place they have to be secured to the sides of the container, which inevitably means an operative clambering about between the loads in order to get to the far end. I'm not comfortable about how we do it at the moment but also can't see a safer way of doing it. Does anyone out there carry out a similar activity i.e. load containers with awkward shapes? I would really appreciate a benchmarking exercise to see how you have overcome some of the risks of loads collapsing onto operatives inside the container, controlling the load whilst lowering it without putting the operative at risk, slipping / spraining whilst clambering to secure the load etc. How can we secure the items without operatives entering the container? I should have mentioned we generally load open topped containers with an overhead crane and / or fork lift truck. Any help much appreciated. We can't be the only people facing this sort of challenge!

Posted By Martin Savage Ah yes, thanks for that, I had overlooked the full container C of G although had considered individual items going into it. Not sure how we assess it though! Generally we put the heaviest items at the bottom and stack the rest above, if it can be stacked safely and will be stable (even if it's not level). But it could easily be heavier at one end than the other. Another thing that has been bothering me is, providing we can fill the container safely do we have any responsibility to the people unloading it at the other end? Bearing in mind we have no control over, or idea of the conditions in transit (high seas, fast roundabouts and all that).