So a Daf 18 ton rigid…8 to 12 drops a day…and, not unreasonably, I need to check that each bit of freight is loaded. Could be a 1kg box or a 1750kg crate and everything in between.
So I clamber up on the bed, in the dark most of the time and sometimes when it’s soaking wet.
If I slip off and fall on my back and get injured ( like a few of my workmates have done) who is to blame.
One guy has been off with a fractured hip for 8 months…
Is it my employers responsibility to load the truck so that it can be checked without me clambering around in the wet and the dark looking for a label ?
I do my best to be careful but accidents happen…
I would say ,if YOU slip and YOU fall then YOU have exposed YOURSELF to danger.YOU make out that this has become something of a regular occurence at YOUR place of work. Safe working practices have to be in place.
Where there’s blame, there is a claim 
I would not be checking it before i left just go to each drop have a look when you get there and if not there then it’s not there on to next one and any small boxes should be left at eye sight
I collected a load of bauxite in bulk bags this week from Lkab at flixbrough and they won’t load flat beds any more because it was their policy that all loads must be sheeted but it’s now deemed to dangerous because you have to climb on back of lorry to sheet up and it’s classed as working at hieghts health and safety gone mad again
Working at heights? Those were the days when I had to load continental TILT trailers at south Area Stores,ICI Wilton.They insisted that the trailer was stripped right down to the front section including roof and sides before they would load it.In effect they would load nothing but flat beds.How times change.I used to be young,fit and keen in those days before experience and cynicism kicked in.
I would imagine its your bosses responsibility as far as is reasonably practical at your depot.
When you get outside its down to you, the worst things in my opinion are too small tailifts in the soaking wet.
I always put human safety first and then worry about the load.
Simple answer YOU put your self at risk by not sorting out in daylight either before it gets dark or in the morning.
If you can`t find items for your next drop move on, if the missing items turn up further down your load tough either deliver them later or take them back to base.
can you not go to the company and ask for the correct risk assessment, failing that buy some Alli step ladders. Or get the company to supply them
All our wagons have a harness system fitted.
You slip the high visibility harness on when you get to delivery point, and then you locate the lanyard which is suspended inside the vehicle and attach the two together .
It works on an inertia wheel system.
Can be a pain but you soon get used to it. Looks like you’re going mountaineering.
We must wear it at all times when the rear doors, or the curtains are open, unless we are on a docking bay.
Many building sites are insisting on this type of system. I’ve been to many sites where you cannot stand on the bed of your vehicle to unload, unless there is some kind of fall and arrest system in place.
A word of warning, they are becoming more common.
It’s a lorry hardly Ben Nevis
discoman:
can you not go to the company and ask for the correct risk assessment, failing that buy some Alli step ladders. Or get the company to supply them
^^^^This^^^^
Some very useful points made…thanks.
The general opinion seems to be that me and my colleagues are being put at risk.
Most of us are 50 year plus and should not be clambering around in the dark and sometimes wet to try and find labels that may or not be there…
To add to what alamcculloch said, officially you and your employer have a joint responsibility to risk assess and reduce the risks to yourself and others through “safe working practices” and to remove risks “where practical to do so”. The latter is a bit of a get out clause for the employer in many cases.
In reality, if you fall off then it’s between you and the insurance company to argue it out. If you were climbing over and fell off and HSE had the time to investigate (unlikely), they’d likely state that you were putting yourself and others in danger, thus breaching regulations such as Working at Height regs and the Health & Safety at Work Act. Effectively you can end up in more trouble than your employer for trying to do your job!
Personally I’d want to get out of pallet work as quickly as possible as it’s potentially dangerous and I’ve fallen off both bed and taillift, been crushed and still got other injuries from 12 months of it. Falling off the bed while trying to find a pallet seems to be part of the game. Unless you die, HSE are very unlikely to care.
Heard a bang in back of trailer one night.
Pulled in lay by, climbed in trailer, slipped on wet shiny galvanised steel, and hit my head going down.
I must have knocked myself out as I got a ‘‘just waking up in morning’’ feeling as I got up, hadn’t a ■■■■ clue where I was, but reckoned it was only a couple of minutes at most that had lapsed…luckily.
It was winter also so could have been bad if I had layed there all night.
Big lump on head, but did not ruin my good looks, and no damage to steel before anybody asks. 
Own Account Driver:
:roll:
It’s a lorry hardly Ben Nevis
It’s still a drop of at least four feet from the bed to the (probably concrete or tarmac) floor, and that’s enough to do you some serious damage. Happened to me once, chucked an empty pallet off the back of a 7.5 puddle-jumjper, nail in pallet caught my trouser pocket, pulled me off balance and I fell off the bed; landed upright on my feet which really was the worst thing because it damaged my knee ligaments and I was off work about a fortnight.
Had I, however, overbalanced completely and landed on my crust, easy way to fracture my skull or perhaps worse.
Harness is fine of you’re sheeting with a gantry or suchlike, wouldn’t be much help in OP’s situation. Best to have a sheet of paper with your drop order noted, with a grid so you can note which pallet’s loaded where.
As the driver YOU are responsible for the safe securing of your load?* So you must be able to access that load. If you vehicle has no steps to get up onto the bed then you need a set of step ladders or similar. Ask for some. Send an email so you have written record of that request. Its not being a "prima donna", its taking reasonable precautions to look after yourself. If you don`t take care of yourself no one else will.
- Containers with seals loaded prior to collection may be different.
Around 96 ish I did a couple of months for a mate pulling the old style chipliners out of Cowie and South Molton.
No easy sheet or sliding roof then, it was like a long letter box type hole section jobby, in the top of the trailer from back to the front.
You had to walk (or in my case crawl, as I aint too good with heights ) either side of it about 18’’ either side, to roll the sheet over.
No probs on a nice dry day, but in the wet, the strong wind, or worse when iced, it was ■■■■ lethal up there.
Falling of a 14’ or so high trailer would have been a wheelchair job.
Those type of trailers may even be illegal now are they?