Posted By Jim Stowe I understand what you are saying about the cost of permanent solutions not being practicable, however i would suggest that to ask a foreign driver to correctly use a safety harness would not be a very reliable way of solving your problem. Perhaps you could provide a cherry picker or gantry to allow safe access. Have you assessed to see exactly how many different variations of loading/exhaust point locations there are in your customers' vehicles? Perhaps the variety is not so great as it at first seems. My apologies if I’m teaching my granny to suck eggs here, but I hate PPE-based solutions, particularly ones that involve 3rd party operators. In my experience they simply don’t use it unless closely watched at all times.

Posted By Glyn Phillips There is available, from a major safety retailer, an access platform specifically desgined for access to road tanker tops. My previous role was within petrochemicals and access to tanker tops was always an issue, even if handrails were fitted as the rails varied in specification and design. We purchased one of these access platforms and found that it suited our needs very well. E-mail me direct and I will give you details of the supplier. (Not wanting to advertise the supplier in this forum) Regards Glyn

Posted By Richard Hinckley It is always very difficult to add to these threads in a proffesional manner without being accused of trying to "pitch" for business so may I apologise in advance if anyone takes offence to me trying to assist in solving this problem. As one of the well established "Height Safety" companies referred to in the previous thread we have been actively looking at working at heights now on vehicles and plant for many years and have developed with our clients a number of bespoke safety systems and systems of work to enhance the safety of their operatives during this activity. Engineering "OUT" the problem is obviously the best approach but in many instances this is difficult to acheive and access to the top of vehicles is unavoidable. Where the access is to be undertaken inside a building the installation of a permanent horizontal fall arrest system could be considered, there are lots of issues assosciated with this though, such as moving cranes, material handling, notwithstanding the structural capability of the building to have an installation. These issues seemed to be facing us on a very regular basis and thus made it difficult to practically solve many of the problems. Subsequently we now have in our range of installed safety products a bespoke designed Mobile Free Standing Fall Arrest Beam which can be placed over the loads and provide temporary fall protection from the moment the operative leaves the ground. If this is of any interest, please feel free to email me at richard@totalaccess.co.uk and I will send a PDF with some images for your review. There are also a number of alternative options available that can be developed if this beam is not suitable.