The goal of your local Health and Safety Inspector is to reduce the number of accidents in your workplace by ensuring your health and safety policies, programs, procedures, maintenance of equipment and all other aspects of your IRS are compliant with the OHSA and provincial legislative requirements.

My future blogs will outline different areas that you need to focus on so that you are prepared for the inspector and will hopefully walk away from the investigation with a smile on your face and no orders.

Shipping and Receiving accidents are prevalent where workers are not aware of loading dock hazards, don't know how to identify and control the hazards and where equipment are not maintained. Workers have been pinned between loading docks and vehicles, by vehicles, mobile equipment or unsecured loads, trips and falls and improper use of fork lift/tow motors in the loading dock areas.

In Ontario – February 2011, the Ministry of Labour Health and Safety Inspectors issued 3233 orders including 84 stop work orders in relation to loading dock safety in the industrial sector. The focuses of their visits (these are your clues to compliance) were:
• Pedestrian and traffic safety in interior and exterior areas of workplaces
• Maintenance and housekeeping of the general work environment
• Immobilization and securing of vehicles against accidental movement
• Guarding and lockout
• Material handling equipment safety
• Safe manual material handling activities

The top 10 most frequently issued orders related to the failure to comply with the requirements for:
• Maintaining equipment and facilities in good condition
• Taking reasonable precautions to protect the health and safety of workers
• Examining lifting devices
• Providing workers with information, instruction and supervision to protect their health and safety
• Addressing work surface hazards
• Immobilizing and securing vehicles against accidental movement
• Pinch point hazards
• Securing machinery, equipment or material against tipping or falling
• Preparing and reviewing of health and safety policy and the development of a program to implement the policy
• Posting a copy of the Occupational Health and Safety Act at the workplace

So where do you go from here? Outlined below are a few areas to review. These are not exhaustive, but will give you a head start in developing your Shipping Receiving Health and Safety Program.
1. Complete an audit of your shipping and receiving department.
2. Ensure that all equipment, materials and protective devices are maintained in good condition such as:
• racking systems
• electrical installations and equipment
• eyewash stations
• loading docks e.g. bumpers, lights, levelers
• lifting devices
3. Ensure you are compliant with all health and safety regulations,
4. Ensure that there are no gaps in your workers knowledge, information and instruction when it comes to material handling:
• General loading dock measures and procedures
• Ladder use
• Immobilization and securing of trucks/trailers
• Operation and maintenance of lifting devices
• Manual material handling activities
5. Ensure that you have safe vehicle immobilization and secure procedures at loading docks
6. Ensure that safe loading and unloading activities are in place
7. Ensure that you are taking all precautions reasonable in the circumstances to protect workers including:
• Securing vehicles against accidental movement
• Safe loading and unloading procedures
• Wheel chocking
• Using the appropriate type of ladder for the activity
• Electrical hazards