SouthEastCashew:
Not seen a Howdens wagon on the roads for ages… probably had to sell the majority of his fleet to pay that fine off Jesus!
They have a fleet over 100 units and over 600 trailers and in September and October their busiest period they almost double the size of the fleet with rentals. November though is usually dead but they’re still running. The company has a turnover of over £1Bn and their drivers are on serious money so it isn’t short of money.
PunchyDan:
Why don’t they use bigger forklifts , if I can afford to run different sized forklifts iam sure howdens can ?
Can’t fit in the store in between the isles. Howdens are trade only suppliers with each store stocking their full product range, they’re not like Wren. Inside the building is like any other warehouse with racking.
albion:
If it is Howdens that have failed to have the correct forklift to lift two tonnes, then it’s their fault.
The only stacks that weigh that much are the ones with packs of worktops/breakfast bars on. Stacks are usually 2 or 3 pallets high. The driver is expected to take a stack off in two or three lifts or more if needed but if it is breakfast bars or worktops unless the one on top of a pallet of worktops/BBs is a light one then each pallet is taken off individually. So if there was a stack of 3 pallets of worktops or two pallets of worktops and say a pallet of kitchen unit doors the banding holding all three pallets together would be cut and it would take three lifts to take it off the lorry.
What is the score if you have apolicy that says, you only move loads over say 1 ton with x forklift and the forkie, takes no notice and does his own thing. Why is that the Company’s fault - surely the HSE should be sueing the forkie ( for a fiver).
That is what happened. Forklifts are fitted with an alarm which is set to a lower value than the maximum the forklift capacity is so as soon as the forkie starts to lift a load too heavy an alarm would sound unless it was faulty or it was a spot hire forklift say whilst theirs was being repaired. There isn’t a single pallet on its own which is heavy enough to trigger the alarm.
On the Hull Daily Mail’s website it states that the forllift truck was 42% over loaded when it tipped forward and that in 2014 alone there were 4 similar reports of forklifts tipping/tilting at the firms various depots. Granted its a large company, but seems as though it was an accident waiting to happen.
SouthEastCashew:
Not seen a Howdens wagon on the roads for ages… probably had to sell the majority of his fleet to pay that fine off Jesus!
They have a fleet over 100 units and over 600 trailers and in September and October their busiest period they almost double the size of the fleet with rentals. November though is usually dead but they’re still running. The company has a turnover of over £1Bn and their drivers are on serious money so it isn’t short of money.
PunchyDan:
Why don’t they use bigger forklifts , if I can afford to run different sized forklifts iam sure howdens can ?
Can’t fit in the store in between the isles. Howdens are trade only suppliers with each store stocking their full product range, they’re not like Wren. Inside the building is like any other warehouse with racking.
albion:
If it is Howdens that have failed to have the correct forklift to lift two tonnes, then it’s their fault.
The only stacks that weigh that much are the ones with packs of worktops/breakfast bars on. Stacks are usually 2 or 3 pallets high. The driver is expected to take a stack off in two or three lifts or more if needed but if it is breakfast bars or worktops unless the one on top of a pallet of worktops/BBs is a light one then each pallet is taken off individually. So if there was a stack of 3 pallets of worktops or two pallets of worktops and say a pallet of kitchen unit doors the banding holding all three pallets together would be cut and it would take three lifts to take it off the lorry.
What is the score if you have apolicy that says, you only move loads over say 1 ton with x forklift and the forkie, takes no notice and does his own thing. Why is that the Company’s fault - surely the HSE should be sueing the forkie ( for a fiver).
That is what happened. Forklifts are fitted with an alarm which is set to a lower value than the maximum the forklift capacity is so as soon as the forkie starts to lift a load too heavy an alarm would sound unless it was faulty or it was a spot hire forklift say whilst theirs was being repaired. There isn’t a single pallet on its own which is heavy enough to trigger the alarm.
I was speaking to a very good friend of mine about this this evening after work, he works for Wincanton on the Topps Tiles contract. From the horses mouths of both the Howdens staff and the Topps Tiles staff who tried in vain to help at the scene, it seems the driver was warned several times about getting in the way as the pallets were taken off, also warned at previous stores regarding disappearing out of sight of the forks lift driver, he was very keen on getting things done quickly.Seems as though the load was always going to slip, however had the driver taken notice of the warnings from shop staff then he might be alive today.
He says it appears that Howdens have been desperate to blame everything on the driver alone and not the state of the pallets or the method of getting them off in order to avoid any fines, also seems they have been nailed for not having sufficient procedures in place at stores for taking pallets off, they are unloading while parked on the road across a car park with no markings. Mate says that to begin with after the accident they would cone and tape off a big area and have management out supervising things but as ususal things have slacked off and recently he witnessed no cones or tape and just one man in a tie too busy on his phone to take and interest in pallets being taken off. He also said that some of the pallets being taken off were ridiculous. Might not have much weight but were very tall and completely obscured the fork drivers view. I trust his view as he lifts off pallets anything up to 5 feet tall weighing up to 1.3t.