RR1088 - Multi-site delivery issues for heavy goods vehicles
The purpose of this scoping study was to establish whether there were specific safety issues relating to multi-site deliveries, and how widespread these were within the UK road haulage industry. This study builds on previous work carried out on load securing of goods transported by road.
Multi-site deliveries in themselves do not appear to introduce additional hazards, over and above those encountered in the haulage industry overall. However, they do appear to increase the exposure to hazards because drivers are required to access the load area more frequently and the profile of multi-site deliveries may mean that vehicles are delivering to sites where risks are not adequately controlled. Awareness of the risks of work activities appeared to be generally quite low amongst both consignors and hauliers, particularly with regard to the load retention properties of curtain-sided vehicles. While load planning would generally be considered desirable, it appeared that planning based purely on predicated drop order could result in poorly-loaded, unstable loads. This could be exacerbated once the first delivery had taken place, even if the load was re-loaded.
The wider utilisation of risk assessment, appropriate load planning, cooperation and clear communication between dutyholders could significantly reduce the risk of harm during multi-site deliveries.
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