We currently have an issue where we unload full superscacks from a vehicle by hooking the lifting loops on to an FLT. This requires an employee to be on the bed of the curtain sider.

The solution is to get the supplier to band an pallet the sacks which I will push for but has anyone any ideas for fall arrests in this situation? The vehicles are not ours as a haulage firm is used.

Airbags are not practical as the FLT needs to get close up to the vehicle.

Thoughts?

Fall arrest will not work for the back of a wagon as it is too short a distance, then you have the issue of how and who hooks on to what which given these are not your vehicle's is problematic. Silly thought but you can get extending poles to assist with loading activity from ground level - typically to place edge protection but could also be used to align the bag hoops to the forks

An example (no commercial affiliation)

https://www.nationwide-trailer-parts.co.uk/collections/webbing-corner-protectors/products/mounty-pole

Edited by user 20 December 2019 08:43:46(UTC)  | Reason: added example link

Why would you have someone attempting to work off a ladder installing signs up a lamp column?

There are variations of towed and truck mounted cherry picker which could be used for the task - most Local Authority (contractors) and utility companies use these for installation & maintenance.

Then there is zip-up scaffold or podium steps which provide a larger more stable platform from which to work at a greatly reduced cost (purchase, hire or borrow).

Personally I see ladders as a tool for access / inspection not the sort of task you are describing especially where it is more than a one off task.

We install tempoaray signage to events, using flatbeds with signs and other signage equipment on. We generally use A-Frames but when needed, we install on lamp colums. 

Originally Posted by: Acorns

If the person has to get close to the sacks, I doubt a cherry picker would be of any benefit. Whist it had its own issues, could you push a platform to the trailer for them to climb- if it’s the right height, the operator won’t need to over reach to get to the top if the sacks. The problem is we are introducing another obstacle for the FLT to negotiate. Wil this be outside or inside on a nice level surface?

Unfortunately you are reading the answer to a thread hijack (cherry picker) in the context of the OP sack removal from the end of 2019

Sticking ONLY to Kellsmac's question.....

May be the vehicle is the wrong choice and that one with a small cherry picker on the back would be better.

However, if that is not reasonably practicable and we haven't got enough information about some variables to make an appropriate judgement, then....

HSE guidance says that a ladder may be suitable workplace for jobs of short duration and has been know to define that as tasks taking up to 30 minutes, though many would consider that if the job takes that long at a single location, a ladder is probably NOT the right way to do the job.

But Kellsmac says that this job will only take 2 minutes (which might easily be an underestimate, particularly if you include the time to set up the ladder and tie in to a column).

Fall arrest won't work if the fall distance is only 6 feet (about 1.8m), but the use of a harness and very short lanyard as work-positioning equipment might. The problem is that the ladder is probably not designed for such an attachment, and is even more unlikely to have documentation saying that any part is suitable for the attachment.

So, you have the three points of contact and in HSE's eyes this is probably OK, and the pole has the advantage that the sign is not dependent on an A frame being suitably ballasted so that it doesn't overturn.

Of course, the bigger risk is having a truck parked at the side of a live road (assuming that there doesn't just happen to be a parking place alongside the road!).

So, I suggest a review of the whole system of work, but with everything starting with compliance with "Chapter 8". Then you consider what tasks have to be done from or near the vehicle and what the most practical options for a relatively safe procedure are.

So, as example, people can and do put out cones on live roads without even exiting the vehicle. Hence, similarly if the putting up (and removal of signs) attached to poles is a regulat occurrence, why not put a small MEWP on the vehicle?

Originally Posted by: Kellsmac83

We generally use A-Frames but when needed, we install on lamp colums.

Do you get suitable permission to affix your signage to the local authority street furniture?

Our council jobsworth says we can't even hang bunting in case it pulls down the column!

Then of course there is the potential for electric shock from faulty / vandalised wiring - normally it is the local dog walker whose animal discovers such problems.

These signs seem like the ones put up with zip ties. Can’t help but feel, if so, with a little ingenuity that you can put them up with just a long pole, no cherry picker, no ladder, no fall arrest, no work at height, no problem. May take a little practice and a little development.

The zip ties go through the sign and are connected around the post loosely. The pole/ pipe then lifts them up to position and is attached (just thin slots in pipe) to the tails of the tie(s). Once at height twist the pole to tighten ties and just rotate opposite direction and pull off pole. Next post repeat.

Just a little develpopment and practice.

Chris