Posted By Sylvain_Combet Hello, We recently had an accident in Asia involving an order picker truck (man up) that was pushed by another vehicle inside a warehouse. The operator was partially protected by his harness and fall arrest system so he was not ejected from the platform and suffered only a fracture when the truck fell from 4m high. Management all around the world quickly concluded that harnesses and fall arrester should be mandatory. However, with the recent changes in Working At Height legislation, the conclusion of my risk assessments is not that clear on that point, providing that the floor is even, vehicle circulation controlled and that UK order picker truck have side protections for the driver. My question is simple: does anybody have similar situation? if you use order picker truck in which the driver has only to move 10-20kg items to the attached pallet, do you use harness and fall arrester? if so, do you have a truck that is designed for that? Because ours only have an anchorage point for emergency escape... Thank you very much in advance for your time and answer Sylvain

Posted By Sylvain_Combet exactly my point. and i think using harnesses (against the general will of operators) creates somehow and additional risk since the truck anchorage point is not designed for that...

Posted By Catman Hi Sylvain Would the Health & Safety Guidance note PM28 (3rd edition Dec 2006) be applcable in this situation? TW

Posted By Sylvain_Combet thank you very much everybody for your comments so far. to clarify the situation, our truck are very narrow aisle trucks with the operator going up and down with the working platform to pick cartons from shelves and put them on the pallet located at the front of the truck platform. the truck has one driving position (with pallet on the back of the operator) and one working position with the pallet in front of him. the cabin is equipped with two interlocked gates (1m high) so the operator is in a closed environment. as it is an integrated platform PM28 doesn't seem to apply. in the accident we had, both the truck and the operator fell from 4m high, or more precisely, the truck tipped over and fell on its side. the operator could have been ejected but due to the presence of the harness only his leg was trapped under the platform. i strongly suspect that the asian truck was not equipped with side gates otherwise i don't understand how the operator could have fell from the platform. there is still the risk of operator climbing out the platform to reach a carton and fell but if they do that against all SOP my thinking is that there is no more reason why they should follow an SOP that asks them to wear a harness. there are lots of documents out there about MEWP and cherry picker, but usually in a construction environment where weather conditions, floor conditions and general building site condition add some very specific risks. so far i haven't been able to find any guidance on using closed platform picker truck so if anybody have any lead that would really welcome thanks Sylvain

Posted By Sylvain_Combet Thank you Alistair for this answer. I completely agree with your observations. It is good to know that I'm not the only one who has never came across a situation where work restraint / fall arrest system is used during normal work. That reinforces my position. The most difficult for me will be to convince top management that over-reacting in health and safety is usually counter productive when not supported by evidence of a real gain to the worker and the company. Sylvain