Posted By DannyC54 They are no doubt making reference to the "new" Working At Height Regulations 2005 which state that a place is "at height" if a person could be injured falling from it, even if it is at or below ground level. It is in effect the abolition of the old "2 metre rule" as was once commonly used/recognised. The HSE state that over 60% of injuries due to falls occur when working below head height. Therefore "The employer must do all that is reasonably practicable to prevent anyone falling". You were certainly ahead of the game in using fall arrest equipment for your flat bed and articulated vehicles before it became law.

Posted By Andy Barr JE http://www.hse.gov.uk/lau/lacs/50-19.htm This is a recently issued advice note to HSE and LA Inspectors - it's to do with tail lifts but may give some useful info for your situation. Andy

Posted By Geoff Ferneyhough Sorry, The last bit of my previous post should read stopping the fall before the ground is struck. Geoff

Posted By Chris Kelly I bet it is a substation construction site ! Also would be interested in how fall-arrest can work from a flatbed as I would have thought it was too low. I assume you mean collective fall-arrest on the ground (ie bags)? We went into this in some detail last year and opted for bean-bags as they gave us some flexibility to use with low-level scaffolds also. We built a loading platform but it doesn't fit all vehicles and we could only really work it on 2 sides of the vehicle with bags on the other side. We looked at all sorts of guard-rails to be installed on the vehicle, mobile platforms etc, etc but none were practical for all the different vehicles which came to site. We were trying to encourage our suppliers to implement their own systems on their vehicles but invariably the message through procurement became 'garbled' ! We found the bags worked well. Admittedly they aren't ideal but, as the fall is from comparatively low height we felt they were acceptable. When climbing up to higher items which needed slinging from the top that was a different matter. Fall-arrest could be used then if you could keep the crane hook high enough so the line remained in the vertical plane. Not easy. Regards, Chris

Posted By Chris Kelly JE - that sounds good. It is better if the vehicle user can implement their own systems. Have seen some scaffolders using a similar system but with metal guard rails.

Posted By Peter Tanczos DannyC54 is correct, they are referring to WAHR. This does not specify which control method to use, you have to do the Risk Assessment and then work through the hierarchy of control (with collective measures taking precedence over individual protection.) Avoidance - Prevention - Mitigation. Many falls from HGV's occur during 'Sheeting' If you can't afford Autosheeting, often a change in work sequence (sheet the load while it's on the ground) avoids the need to work at height. You actually want a fall prevention harness rather than a fall arrest (mitigation), and then bags should take precedence, unless you can guarantee only the person(s) with the PPE will be on the back of the lorry.