The Health and Safety Executive provides some extremely important and beneficial information concerning safety in the workplace.
For further information please visit www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport

Safe parking of LGVs or Safe coupling/uncoupling of trailers and tractor units

• Accidents and dangerous situations (near misses) occur every year because drivers of LGVs fail to follow safe coupling and parking procedures.
• Failure to apply both the tractor and the trailer parking brake during coupling/uncoupling of the air lines often leads to vehicle runaway or trailer rollaway situations. Close coupled trailers present additional trapping risks to the driver.
• This poor practice can cause fatal or serious injuries to the driver and/or others, and costly damage to both vehicles and property. Drivers can become crushed between the vehicle and buildings or struck by the vehicle itself. The accidents do not necessarily reflect inexperience. One casualty had 20 years experience.
• Site operators need to ensure all drivers, including visiting drivers and agency workers, understand and follow the safe system of work for coupling the airlines every time, and apply the parking brakes.
• Further information on the risks involved and good parking practice for the different types of equipment used are available on the HSE webpages
  www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport/information/coupling.htm

Choosing the right vehicle for your site or Vehicle selection – site suitability or Vehicle selection – manoeuvrability

• Accidents to people resulting from being hit by a moving vehicle are a major cause of injury in the workplace. Many injuries are caused by manoeuvring or reversing as the drivers view will usually be restricted to the rear of these vehicles.
• Ideally, the site should be planned to minimise the need for reversing and manoeuvring of vehicles. For example, by use of one-way systems or by planning designated reversing areas where pedestrians are excluded. If it is not possible to plan the site in this way then other control measures such as vehicle selection and use of vehicle based vision aids, such as closed circuit television (CCTV) may be necessary.
• Where deliveries are made in public places, and it may be difficult to guarantee pedestrian segregation, closed circuit television at the rear of the vehicle can help detect pedestrians at the rear of the vehicle before or during reversing and improve the driver’s rearward view. Users have also found benefits in reduced vehicle damage by using this equipment.
• Banksmen are not the preferred solution as they are put in an at risk situation during the vehicle movement. Every year banksmen are involved in fatal and major accidents while at work.
• If manoeuvring/reversing is unavoidable for your vehicles you should carry out a risk assessment of vehicle movements and decide on the most suitable solutions for you. For more information on these matters and on risk assessments visit the HSE workplace transport webpages
  www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport/factsheets.htm

Safe access to vehicles or preventing falls from vehicles

• Falls from vehicles are a major cause of injury in the workplace. Even when falling from quite small heights, serious or fatal injuries can occur.Drivers fall during at height and during access/egress to the vehicle. Specifying the right vehicle can be essential if falls are to be prevented.
• With operations at height, e.g checking controls, sheeting vehicles and loading the vehicle, the aim should be to avoid working at height at all. This can be arranged by designing the vehicle with low level controls and ground based sheeting systems. These methods are becoming more the norm in many industries.
• Where access is unavoidable the followign areas should be assessed and measures taken to reduce the risk of falling:
   - Access to the cab - non slip steps and handholds
   - Access to the fifth wheel area for coupling/uncoupling - evenly spaced steps & handhold with provision of a suitable catwalk constructed of slip resistant materials.
   - Access to the load area - evenly spaced steps with good handholds and a non slip surface for the load area.
• Further information is available on the HSE Workplace Transport website www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport/factsheets.htm  and in the HSE report 'The underlying causes of falls from vehicles' which can be downloaded from http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr437.htm