Been driving for a shade under 2 years now in civvy street and the 2 things that are beginning to get on my t*** is the constant need for building sites, warehouses etc to insist on you doing their H&S brief before you start a regular delivery.
Every site is the same format, don’t walk in front of vehicles, wear PPE, always put 4 ways on or beacon if you have it. Don’t do this, don’t do that, observe all safety protocols etc etc etc. Surely, if i need to have a licence to drive, DCPC, first aid etc, i can have a certificate readily available to produce instead of watching more DVD’s and slides which inevitably come from the same bloody production company!!!
And point 2: Security of loads on pallets. Time after time I’m coming across all manner of weird and wonderful products simply placed on a pallet and a cursory wrap around with cling film! I mean if the customer wants their product to reach its final destination then surely (please, no jokes about Shirley!)it is in their interest to secure it to the pallet in such a manner as it can be secured to the wagon with the aid of ratchet straps etc, thus cutting down the risk of toppled, spilt, wrecked etc etc etc products!
Especially with all the alarm and despondency being shouted about load security by VOSA!
I mean how do you secure a pallet of crisps, sack of potatoes, or 250kg of bottles water simply dumped on the pallet with some cling film whose sole purpose seems to be somewhere to put the address on?
Rant over…medication for ulcer taken…and whale songs now playing on the hi-fi.
I’m on holiday in Holland for this week, and must admit I’ve been horrified at the lack of H&S.On the site where we’re staying, the staff are going round in maintenance vans without flashing lights, no Hi-viz jackets, helmets, safety footwear. They don’t cordon off areas when they’re working, they don’t have supervisors with clipboards. They must have literally thousands of deaths every week! To say nothing of all the cyclists mixing it with road traffic at junctions.
Or maybe it’s just something about people being desperate to grab any bit of power they can in the UK?
Gary
Health and Safety has gone way over the top in this country.I suppose it is better that way than the other but it drives you daft sometimes.
scaniason:
I’m on holiday in Holland for this week, and must admit I’ve been horrified at the lack of H&S.On the site where we’re staying, the staff are going round in maintenance vans without flashing lights, no Hi-viz jackets, helmets, safety footwear. They don’t cordon off areas when they’re working, they don’t have supervisors with clipboards. They must have literally thousands of deaths every week! To say nothing of all the cyclists mixing it with road traffic at junctions.
Or maybe it’s just something about people being desperate to grab any bit of power they can in the UK?
Gary
perhaps they do not have the "where there is blame theres a claim " culture over there
which is part of the reason we have so much ■■■■■■■■ here now
You do realise that most of the H/S bull comes from Brussels anyway and at least the original 12 members of the EU supposed to abide by those rules, only problem is, this is England, and when they say jump, our government says How high
There was a case of H/S the other involving the singer SUBO it was her birthday, and they brought to her a birthday cake on stage, along with a man in a high vis, with a fire extinguisher, now thats h/s gone mad.
I have never got over the Steel toecaps as a driver, who is normally not allowed in a warehouse, and must not sit in a truck, but instead only sit in a mess room.
H&S is probably going to be the catalyst that almost bring this industry to its knees, and the problem being is that is has to happen first before someone behind some redwood desk finally realises that maybe these truckers do actually know a thing or two about their chosen profession.
Even now, it never ceases to amaze me that at my current workplace i have to wear a safety helmet inside the shed, but outside, where all the real loading, unloading is done, nothing!
Would be a lot easier if they replaced Elf&safety with common sence might be able to actually get the job done then instead of all this faffing about.
I will let you into a secret about H&S its not about your H&S …its to cover the companies you work for /deliver to arses.
i.e. he was instructed not to do this /wear that etc ,you watched the video.
Now you are seriously injured /dead. 50% less compo paid out as you have been trained/attended site inductions…
james now a qualified construction/transport trained H&S rep.(redi mix/aggregate hauling).part 1&2. 
i should have known better to agree to be trained .
JIM I don’t believe it are we talking about the same JIM here the one I knew flew round Dumfries with the binmen hanging on the back,and on the wrong sides o the cab doors. H&S rep ohh wee McNeil would have a right laugh at that. Over to you.
Cheers Eddie.
aye Eddie ive went to the dark side!!
yup im H&S qualified,(at the moment only for the company im with) days off through the year to go to college to upgrade
dont really want to go much further with it at the mo as im still happy driving but you can never tell 
jimmy
AW NAH you will be strolling round in a suite !!!, Eddie.
My pet hate, hazards on whilst driving on site! Absolutely pointless and potentially dangerous. I’ve seen a few near misses over the years caused by this.
What gets me are the places that only practice H&S during office hours and/or it doesn’t apply to their own staff.
the maoster:
My pet hate, hazards on whilst driving on site! Absolutely pointless and potentially dangerous. I’ve seen a few near misses over the years caused by this.
+1
and the ones that use them for parking illegal or otherwise.
truckyboy:
You do realise that most of the H/S bull comes from Brussels anyway and at least the original 12 members of the EU supposed to abide by those rules, only problem is, this is England, and when they say jump, our government says How high
There was a case of H/S the other involving the singer SUBO it was her birthday, and they brought to her a birthday cake on stage, along with a man in a high vis, with a fire extinguisher, now thats h/s gone mad.
I have never got over the Steel toecaps as a driver, who is normally not allowed in a warehouse, and must not sit in a truck, but instead only sit in a mess room.
I think you’ll find most of the H&S in the UK has very little to do with the EU or even the HSE, it comes from the no win no fee legal operations and insurance companies who don’t want to pay out when somebody does something stupid.
It’s also used as an excuse by inept management and supervisors, when they can’t actually think of a good reason for some ruling they’ve come up with.
Although we all think there was a time before H&S when common sense prevailed, it didn’t really, all that happened were more people were injured or died whilst just getting on with their job. Some because of lack of training or experience, others because they did the job day in day out and got blasé, and then there were the companies who couldn’t be asked to invest in or maintain safety equipment, to expensive to protect thier workforce.
A good health and safety regulation should either be obvious or at least easily explained, just saying its due to H&S isn’t good enough.
JIMBO47:
I will let you into a secret about H&S its not about your H&S …its to cover the companies you work for /deliver to arses.
i.e. he was instructed not to do this /wear that etc ,you watched the video.
Now you are seriously injured /dead. 50% less compo paid out as you have been trained/attended site inductions…
james now a qualified construction/transport trained H&S rep.(redi mix/aggregate hauling).part 1&2.
i should have known better to agree to be trained .
But you cant be blamed for an accident caused by someone else!!! =100% compo.
Thats a quote from my no win no fee solicitor. H&S is total bullock and they still get sued. Case closed.
Oh Oh here’s two JIMBOS going to war over H&S. Eddie.
I went to a place where they had an elaborate way of stopping you driving off a bay when not authorised. Probably old hat to you but new to me. You handed in you keys and they have you a red lock with a key in it. You un clipped the emergency airline, put the lock on the trailer airline nozzle, rotated the lock and removed the key. You then took the key to a lock by the bay, pushed it in a rotated it which activated the lock! I was quite impressed. Pain in the arse that I couldn’t use the radio but had to admit it was a pretty decent system to stop you killing a fork lift driver by mistake. I never liked relying on the old way of just the green light. I can’t stand a lot of health and safety but don’t mind the stuff like that as it is the result of some deaths and does help.
