Posted By Descarte Compromise and have 2xpallets 1/2 size stacked on top of each other. Although they will be loosing some of the space to the extra generated by having a pallet in the middle it may be a fair compromise?

Posted By Descarte Does the upper pallet have to be of the same strength and size as the lower one, if say it is only going to hold 10-15% of extra weight at the top. Would it be possible to use a 1.5cm ply board type sheet instead, although this would then create of a new problem of lifting said sheet on to the top.

Posted By Saz G I don't know if this will help or not (and bear with me!), but I had a manual handling problem of a similar nature at a previous job. We took in 20/40ft boxes/containers from the Middle East which had basically been stacked floor to ceiling with boxes of frozen fish weighing up to 28kg each (not palletised). As they were loaded where they were, there were no restrictions on how they did it and obviously, the trailer fill for the customer was important, ie: as much as possible! They refused to remove x1 block per box so we could not reduce the weight and due to the movement in transit, usually, when we opened the doors, everything would fall out! So this was a particularly hazardous task! We enlisted the help of the HSE and had several visits. We looked at conveyors, attachments for FLTs etc and could come up with no other way to unload these vehicles. In the end, based on risk assessment and advice from managers and HSE, the only thing left to do was to implement a SSW. We used to open the doors of the trailer with strops allowing the operator to be well away from them,kept the area clear and let all the product fall on the floor(the customer accepted the damage as it was less than not filling the container). Then we unloaded it in layers and used the bottom layers to 'step' into the trailer with anti-slip mats to allow the operators to reach the top layers. A guy on an FLT in the trailer (on a loading dock) highered and lowered the pallet and two operators duel lifting the boxes. My point (after a very long-winded explanation) was that after assessing all the risks and finding that it was impossible (and not reasonably practicable) to eliminate them, we put in as many controls as possible to reduce them and accepted the residual risk. The HSE could not argue with that. Remember that the weights described are guidance and sometimes, you will not be able to keep within those limits, so minimise wherever practicable, but there may have to be a residual risk that you accept in order to keep you in business. Sometimes, there isn't always an answer. My suggestion is that if you cannot find or design a self-levelling platform to move around with the FLT/picker, then select the right personnel for the job (TILE) ie: taller and physically capable and ensure regular rotation. Document it all and accept that you cannot completely eliminate the risk. Finally, I can tell you that we suffered only 3 minor injuries relating to this task (trapped fingers and a couple of banged elbows) over 3 years and the business brought in almost £750,000 of revenue over that time. Hope this helps, although it is not a solution. (And it IS Friday!)

Posted By Saz G Good luck and if you come up with a solution, then patent it, because it is widespread. (and let me know! ;-)

Posted By Philip Plume I assume that a clamp FLT is something that will lift boxes without the need for a pallet. If it is then that is something that I will definitely look into.

Posted By andy.c. Phillip As mentioned if you find the complete solution to this one you will become a very rich man, not knowing the exact product i would suggest that a clamp may damage your goods and your pickers will need to be trained in pallet config to stop product falling, along the same lines you could consider a "slip sheet attachement" you can pick to any height and then consolidate your pallets. Have you spoken to the receiving depots to establish there procedures in dealing with the increased height. I am guessing that retail is involved somewhere, USDAW may be able to assist. and lastly, an expensive solution could be multi-deck trailers, keeping your pallet height at 1.2m but increasing trailer capacity to 40+ pallets. Good luck Andy