it got me wondering people views and honest (not what i would say bout wouldnt say) views are…
where i used to work on the bulk, we collected regularly from a place where to get near the maximum weight, you needed to heap your load up as high as you dare.
recently after popping in their office for a chat, i noticed a memo from said company stating that a driver had heaped his load up (as most do), then tried to sheet it, but his sheet strap had snapped and he fell over and broke his leg.
the 2 biggest problems are: 1 the guys rope was knotted in several places, indicating it needed replacement.: 2 there is no sheting gantry supplied, and when loading you are told, spill any load you have to pay clean up charges
i was just wondering what people made of this situation, i know the guys ‘pull sheet over’ rope was bad, but when i used to load there my rope was fine, but you really struggled to sheet the load because of the height of the load without a proper gantry, and with the guys watching making sure you did not climb on the load to sheet up if it got caught up at any point (which can easily happen with a bulker) you had the choice of being seriously underweight, or hurting yourself (being underweight was not an issue for me due to being hourly paid, but for many others it was different)
just wondering what people make of this situation, and what they were honestly thinking about your rights as a driver
I think it’s a disaster waiting to happen although some people would tell you it’s just part of the job, get on with it and don’t claim even if you do get injured in the course of your work!! 
However much H&S has been ‘over-done’, this situation sounds like what it was brought in for. It proves that the [H&S] system has gapping flaws in it when places like this can get away with unsafe loading practices for so long. 
I THINK this next statement is right.
By law you can demand to see the RISK ASSESSMENT for this situation and if the company has not done one then they leave themselves open to prosecution by H&S.
If they have never been asked for a risk assessment for this situation, I believe they have a restricted time frame in which to do one.
Any H&S reps on here to correct the above?
If someone was hurt under those circumstances I would say claim all you can. I think this is very different form the other thread which was just someone doing something daft, albeit with unfortunate results.
depends very much on who was injured, if it was a pye employee, by all means sue the arse of them, if an o/d i’m afraid it’s tough ■■■■■■■ unless he’s somehow managed to blag an el policy that covers him for injuries that he causes to himself.
or paye even, pye is probably just someone that should take up jogging.
Reminds me of my last job in the UK a few years back when I was a forklift driver. We had a fleet of articulated bulk tippers, mainly fruit and the transport office was alway trying to pinch me from the yard manager to go out and do a job on the lorries.
So I ended up loading something or other and climbed up the “inbuilt” ladder on the side of the trailer to pull the sheet across. The bugger wouldn’t move first of all but then all of a sudden the long heavy bar which is sewn into the whole length of the leading edge of the sheet came flying across the load, whacked me in the chest and I went flying backwards. Don’t know how, but I just managed to stretch one arm out and managed to grab a rung of the ladder.
A double back somersault might have earnt me a 10 from the judges but I hate to think of the head injuries I would have received had I not been able to reach the rung of the ladder. 
Tell them to have the trailers ready and loaded for you, i couldn’t be doing with all that messing about. Cleanup charges !! Looks like they have al their bases covered, the only one liable for anything is the driver!
Thats what Greedy Boards woz invented for 
granted it is a bit of a different situation from the other thread but really isn’t it a case of defecting the rope? and if he is gonna claim surely it’s from his employer and not said company.
but if you need to heap a bulker like that (and it sounds as though everyone has to) then yes surely their should be a gantry supplied, even being 3 or 4 feet of the ground would help surely. knowing h+s though you would need a harness and hard hat
I had a similar problem where I was before. I was expected to sheet 12 or 13 foot high loads of timber, which was already soaking wet anyway, as all loading was done outdoors.
The sheet was already soaking wet too as it had usually only just came off the lorry before reloading.
Then I had to un-sheet to crane the drops off and re-sheet afterwards as it was multidrop…sometimes in the middle of nowhere and all by myself.
After I kicked up a bit of a stink about this and a few other things the end result was that I found myself another job.
We still do some timber at my new place (a heavyside buÃlders merchants rather than just a timber yard). I asked about sheeting up when I went for the interview and the TM said “no, we just let it get wet”.
It’s the same story isn’t it the lorry has to go out at max weight, never mind the fact the driver might seriously hurt or kill himself sheeting it!