Blooming health and safety madness

So, I arranged to have a delivery of a large control panel to a building site this morning..phoned the site up yesterday as they are a pain the ar$e with deliveries - told them what was happening - they so no problem.

So the haulier turned up on site met up with one of our lads and proceeded to take the fork lift of the back of the wagon...only to be stopped in his tracks by One of the main contractors - graduate site supervisors ...in short the haulier got turned away with the control panel still strapped to it because - there was no 'lifting plan' in place no amount of remonstrating was going to change the situation - he was simply using a fork lift that he was trained to operate ..the world has gone bloody stupid

 

To paraphrase Josef Goebbels: "When I hear the phrase "Risk Assessment", I reach for my gun..."

 

Isn't that classed as loading and unloading, not a lifting operation so no lift plan is required?

 

yep ^ i thought so, a jobsworth using the phrase "health and safety mate" to get out of work or annoy someone more than likely

 

I would tend to agree , the haulier had a standard set of Rams specific for unloading but the know it all graduate was having none of it - I think the lifting plan was possibly being asked for when we transferred the panel into the building , as the drop off was onto a pavement - it couldn't be unloaded and left until a lift plan was sorted.

 

as soon as jo public could get involved or hurt stuff changes , well it did when i used to get involved with this stuff but that was in the stoneage to be fair. RISKEE IS NOT AS RISKEE IF THE MAN HAD a wee dram of WHISKEE was it ? jobs worth beats risk assessment or common sense every time back hand was a trick once used too

 

Crane collapse used to be a big killer in construction. Over extension is the main problem, and of course overloading and no um, planning due to haste. The HSE has changed this in the last decade or so, I haven't heard of a collapse for years. Doesn't take much for a crane to mess up,,they're pretty lightweight balanced things. No lift plan means we're talking a large crane operation, no?

 

Safety culture on sites is a necessarybevil im afraid as the building industry is inherantly dangerous and has had an appalling record. The culture is dogmatic because it has to be. It is inflexible as if you give an idiot an inch.... Anyway its good that its drummed into them but if the planning is so bad they havent considered the delivery then youve got to think theres an issue. I go on sites all the time. Only a few years ago it was hard hat, high viz and safety boots. Now add eye protection, hand protection, site induction, no phones on site..... Etc. That said it didnt stop this happening to one of our new builds last year

 

It was a 250kg 1200mm X 1400mm panel- simply fork lifted of the Lorry onto skids , strapped to skids and wheeled into plant room - if *****ty had gone for a cup of tea - the job would have been done

 

Can i ask what sort of installation is it (presume industrial) also are the works covered by CDM? If so, i would suggest that there should have been a lifting plan in place. Its all well and good thinking its trivial, that is fine until someone gets hurt, not so long ago contractors working for me got kicked off site for not having a COSHH statement for a bag of portland cement.

Also, beware, CDM 2015 covers building sites as well.

 

Errr. CDM has always covered building sites, it was its initial purpose. Were you being ironic?

 

The lifting plan would cover the ability of the fork lift to do the job - capacity / at what centres related to the weight / size of the load to be moved and the position of the load on the vehicle. Also suitability of the fork lift to carry out any moves with the lifted load, such as over rough ground. The operator details / qualification would be included in the RAMS. It's basic stuff, just a bit of a PITA, but I assume that even with something as 'simple' as a fork lift offloading a lorry, people do dangerous things / use unsuitable equipment for the job.

It's a way of life now, doing this sort of paperwork. We do work on rail construction sites - add a large contractor's rules to railway rules and you get double the paperwork for your money.

 

I wonder if these chaps had a lifting plan?
If you do have a listing plan, presumably someone has to approve it?
You could stop this video at the 1st frame and see what would inevitably happen...

 

That's a pretty poorly planned lift by any standards. Hope the crane drivers survived with nothing worse than brown trousers.

 

it could have been safely unloaded and left on the skids until the site supervisor had convinced the jobs' worth that the operation was actually covered by the generic modus operandi included in any fork lift operators dynamic risk assessment....unless the control box need craning, or additional plant procedures, once off the trailer

 

The site supervisor could have been better equipped perhaps to deal with this. Like you say, this sounds like a minor, routine operation, one for which the LOLER regs weren't really meant for. But it gives the Jobsworth a job and makes them look smart. If the site super was so convinced there wasn't risk, then he could have made a stand and written his own lifting plan, there and then. Win win for both.

The old saying is 'rules are for fools, and for the guidance of wise men'.

 

Not really. The Op said it was being offloaded onto a pavement! I wouldn't be happy accepting the delivery. Was the pavement a public pavement, to many unknowns to draw a conclusion but why send a delivery when you know that recieving is an issue at the other end without contacting the recipient and making arrangements. If i need rams for a job i ask for them. Theres no point someone turning up with rams that dont cover the job requirements or the risks presented by the task and being turned away because its then impossiblevto safely do the job.

Anyway too many unknowns to give a definitive comment. Some folk may be dogmatic but theres plenty of pragmatic dead people.

 

Correct. The guy who was getting picky didn't know the weight of the load and the capacity chart for the fork lift which would have been referenced in a RAMS to make CERTAIN that the machine was up to the job. His arse would have been on the line if there had been an accident - my guys all know to work safely and according to the rules, or not at all, as I don't want to be in court facing a corporate manslaughter charge.

 

Proper management speak - you're good!

 

Too many acronyms in this thread, ergo its a load of b0ll0cks