Yes, some stuff can seem bizarre, stupid or pointless… We’re grown-ups and can assess risk for ourselves…
But when you realise what the culture is like elsewhere and the result of the lack of H&S you begin to be a bit grateful for the seeming madness.
Italy for example - 2003-2006, there were more workplace fatalities than in the coalition forces in Iraq…
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7036442.stm
I’d rather live and put up with the nonsense, tbh.
I agree.
We should remember that the health & safety regulations are there for our benefit, it’s unfortunate that in the nanny society in which we now live there are always people who take these things to the extreme.
well its no suprise to me. as someone who lived in italy has a italian wife and speaks italian i can assure you that report is correct. heath+safety in italy is non existant. when i tell my friends “back home” about h&s in the uk they dont belive me. the italians have a scant regard to h&s and regard it as a hinderance rather than helping.
tachograph:
I agree.We should remember that the health & safety regulations are there for our benefit, it’s unfortunate that in the nanny society in which we now live there are always people who take these things to the extreme.
Its worth looking at the HSE Haulage website for some reasonable suggestions about H&S issues.
With everyone wearing a hi-vis on most sites, you get noticed more without one! try it, people will see you from miles away! 
I think tho H&S has gone to far in a lot of places in this country.
I think is counter productive some of the crazy H&S rules some companies introduce, i think rules should be sensible so they are followed. When you get stupid H&S rules people break them and when you start breaking a few rules then it soon becomes ok to break another few and another few.
Espec Morrisons where you have to go sit in a wee room to get tipped. Whats wrong with taking the keys, or dropping the trailer. Espec if you have to sit for 3 hours waiting, maybe more sensible for driver to get a few hours sleep.
I think the problem with H&S in this country is that it has gone too far. 
Also, I think a lot of people a hugely cynical that it is an exercise in ‘arse-covering’ 
by major companies to protect themselves in case something happens. In some ways you can understand it with the ‘blame culture’ we’ve inherited from America but some companies just take the mick.
I have to agree, they have taken H+S too far.
We all need some protection at work, but where do you draw the line.
For instance, H+S deemed it sensible, to inform firemen installing smoke alarms in homes, that it “was dangerous using a stepladder” to do so !!!
What next ? …" Sorry chaps, but you cant go near that BLAZING building, just in case you might get hurt "
H+S…Hinderance and Stupidity !!
What makes me laugh is a Hi-Vis is classed as PPE, so suddenly a bright vest is now everything proof, as soon as one is put on, you are invincible to all harm. Another funny one is when a hole is dug in the ground, so that means you have to wear a hard hat - stops you falling in the hole you see.
DAFMAD:
. Another funny one is when a hole is dug in the ground, so that means you have to wear a hard hat - stops you falling in the hole you see.
I’m sure i remember someone on here saying they have to wear hard hats when loading containers at the docks - a hard hat would be great for stopping a 20t container falling on your head 
H & S is good when it’s common sense rules to stop people getting hurt, but often it’s just CYA for companies avoiding getting sued !!!
Very true Denis, we have to at Teesport (amongst other places). But, you see, it’s nothing to do with protecting your head…It’s to make the mess easier to scoop up afterwards.
To be serious for a second…It’s ostensibly in case a shiplock has been left on one corner of the box and dislodges “in flight”. Same result though, I suspect - and it’s easy enough to just stand clear until you can see whether the corners have lumps of metal hanging out of them…
The plus side, mind, is that when Sod’s Law dictates that your box will have been the one on the top of the stack in the ■■■■■■■ rain for three days, your head stays dry when a small lake pours off the top and onto the driver as you stand and guide it on… 
Lucy:
Very true Denis, we have to at Teesport (amongst other places). But, you see, it’s nothing to do with protecting your head…It’s to make the mess easier to scoop up afterwards.To be serious for a second…It’s ostensibly in case a shiplock has been left on one corner of the box and dislodges “in flight”. Same result though, I suspect - and it’s easy enough to just stand clear until you can see whether the corners have lumps of metal hanging out of them…
The plus side, mind, is that when Sod’s Law dictates that your box will have been the one on the top of the stack in the ■■■■■■■ rain for three days, your head stays dry when a small lake pours off the top and onto the driver as you stand and guide it on…
Or as I seem to remember at Thamesport, the container at the bottom of the stack stood on granite ■■■■■■■■, which stuck to the bottom, more so new containers with undersides coated with black gungy rustproof paint.
By the time the crane reached the loading bays it was raining stones from a great height, it was then time to retreat even further away from a box dangling 60 feet in the air 
Health and WHAT ■■?
More like Health and Blame Someone Else
One of our drivers has pulled all his reflective strips off his hi-viz to be a bit of a rebel 
Im against sending 9 year old kids up chimneys now, they should be learning to sell drugs at that age.
However the H&S rules are inconsistent and stupid in many places. At one factory we load in, boots, a hard hat, hi-viz and safety harness must be worn. The boots, helmet and hi-viz must be supplied by the driver but the harness is supplied by the factory. This harness is dripping in liquid sugar and closely followed by wasps.
Another driver has his own harness that he keeps in the cab. its clean and adjusted to his size. However because the harness is green and not red he isnt allowed to use it
A pair of steely cap boots will not protect you from a 1200 ton train running over your feet but a hard hat will protect a roadworker from falling debris, from what■■?
I ride a motorbike, I drive a car. Im aware that the bike is probably more dangerous than the car. but its my choice, its my risk and it should be left to me to decide the risk against the freedom
Pinched off an avatar once used on this forum, I have printed on the back of my Hi Vis vest:
I’m only wearing this
To cover someone
elses a**e
I served in the armed forces.
The Iraqi’s didn’t get me
The Argentinians didn’t get me
The IRA didn’t get me
I used to be qualified to run a range, with REAL bullets flying down it.
I used to be qualified to play with explosives, including setting off 90 pounds of compound explosive in one go, 4oz plastic explosives, and more CS than you could shake a stick at
As a Medic, I could stitch wounds up, give injections, dispense drugs, prescribe drugs and treat all sorts of patients.
I have Parachuted, once only, didn’t like it, qualified to fly a glider, licenced to drive a tank, been shot at with a paint round from a MILAN anti tank missile while driving a tank.
Fired Pistol, SLR, SMG, SA80, GPMG, LMG, Target rifle, 66mm rocket launcher, 84mm rocket launcher, thrown live grenades.
I have also played with real radioactive isotopes, and had to account for them.
I am trusted to drive £100,000 truck, plus a trailer, plus the value of it’s contents, I drive on British roads with some of the daftest and dangerous drivers going.
Yet, to go to the loo in an RDC, I have to wear a HiVis jacket.
I am treated as though I know NOTHING about safety, or about Health, despite being a qualified nurse.
What makes these people think they are good enough to finish me off.
Then you get the “First Aiders” with the badge, sorry, I declined the suggestion to take up teaching “First Aid at Work”, because I couldn’t lower my standards quite that low, and couldn’t treat students with the contempt required by the FAW course syllabus.
What I taught in 4 days, would take about 4 weeks at HSE standards, if they allowed me to teach some of the content.
Holy hells teeth!! I just looked at the HSE website and to say that my flabbers are gasted is an understatement!!!
How does anyone ever get any work done in the UK??
And as for the firm who have to wear harnesses - why? Do you deliver by parachute or something??
i would love a H&S inspector to watch me change a offside tyre at the side of the busy A14…he would be getting a big clout with a tyre lever…opps sorry it slipped
more people need to use there common sense a bit more…
I went recently yo the Tray Wash at Normanton. The one that does the Morrison trays. I’ve been going in there, off and on, for a number of years, but earlier this year, they introduced a system whereby drivers need to wear a hard hat between their vehicles and the warehouse. 
Whilst in your vehicle, you don’t need to wear one. Whilst in the warehouse, where trays are stacked at multiple heights, you don’t need to wear one. It is only in the area between the loading bays and the ware house door (apparently).
Although another driver was bringing one to me, he was some way off, and therefore, I decided to try and ‘brazen’ it out. With there being no security, I was able to park in the yard and walk into the warehouse. However, because I didn’t have ‘possession’ of a hard hat, they refused to load me. FFS. I’m already in the building. I’ve survived this far without injury. What’s the problem? Lots of spare Hard Hats lying about, but would they lend me one. No chance.
My mate subsequently turns up with one in his vehicle and I again present myself and get allocated a bay. Having positioned the vehicle, and walking again towards the warehouse, I am carrying out a ‘risk assessment’ as to why a Hard Hat should be necessary. There are no high stacked pallets of trays. I’m nowhere in the vicinity of where ‘banded waste’ is being loaded by a FLT. I can’t see any genetically modified pigeons that are likely to ‘squirt’ guano the size of cricket balls.
So there I am, looking sky wards, checking the fabric of the building, examining the parapets for any loose masonry that might justify the wearing of a hard hat, when I trip up a step and fall flat on my face. 
Saw this while at a hotel at the weekend…It was right at the bottom of the stairs…