Grocery giant Loblaw revamps loading dock safety practices
Loading docks can be a hazardous area for workers.
People and products come and go. Heavy equipment and moving vehicles are ever present. Drivers who don’t work for the organization might not be aware of the procedures in the dock they drop a truck full of goods off at.
When national grocery retailer Loblaw wanted to improve its loading dock safety practices, it revamped its program to standardize protocols in stores and distribution centres coast to coast.
“What we had up until that point was very regional, site specific protocols and we wanted to standardize that,” said Jennifer Lennon, health, safety and wellness specialist, Ontario and Atlantic, at Loblaw. “We also wanted to get a feeling for the degree of incidents that we had across the nation.”
Development on the program first started in 2008 after benchmarks for loading dock safety were established. The company implemented a mandatory reporting structure for incidents and higher ups, including the vice-presidents of transportation and health and safety, were copied on all incident reports.
One of the goals of the program was to get everyone in contact with loading areas on board with the standardized procedures.
“Basically the message to them was: we wanted to heighten the safety program when it came to dock safety with all of our colleagues and we wanted to ensure their safety,” said Lennon. “We need them to come on board.”
All employees and drivers from third-party employers working around the docks had to undergo training, whether it was in class, from a company-produced DVD or online.
Third-party drivers had to complete an online test and received a dock safety certification card. The cards were good for up to two years, after which drivers and employees would have to take the training again.
The recertification requirement sent the message the program was a permanent one.
“This program is here to stay,” she said. “It’s not going away.”
The transportation community and employees were very receptive to the new program and, since its implementation in 2008, the company has seen a 73 per cent reduction in incidents.
“It’s become second nature for so many of our colleagues on the floor they don’t even think about the little individual steps anymore,” she said. “When we do our audits and we interview them, they say it like clockwork, they know what they’re expected to do.”
Employees and drivers are held responsible in the new system when there is an incident. If a dock safety incident results from failing to follow standard operating procedures, there is internal discipline, said Lennon.
Investigations are done alongside transportation partners and if it’s found that a driver who isn’t employed by Loblaw is responsible there is a fining process for carriers with fines up to $25,000, she said.
Loading dock maintenance is another issue Health and Safety Ontario consultant and materials handling specialist Chuck Leon said he notices is an impediment to safety when he is visiting clients.
“I think one of the biggest things is preventative maintenance, or lack of preventative maintenance,” he said.
Loading dock equipment comes with manuals that state how often maintenance needs to be done. The problem is many companies have had the dock for years and the manual is no longer around, he said.
The manual’s instructions on how often to do maintenance on the dock, usually the guides say it should be done annually or semi-annually, should be followed, said Leon.
“But a lot of companies just don’t,” he said.
Trailers that are pulled away without warning to those around them, carbon monoxide issues and back injuries from moving dock plates into place manually are other issues that can happen around loading docks.
Clients usually call Leon in to consult after they get a ministry order to do preventative maintenance or for not taking every precaution reasonable. They may also call him in if they are told to do an inspection of their loading dock.
The Ministry of Labour in Ontario conducted a loading dock safety blitz in February. During the blitz inspectors visited 1,089 workplaces during 1,285 blitz-related visits and issued 3,233 orders.
The most frequently issued orders involved violations related to maintenance of equipment, examination of lifting devices, provision of information and instruction to workers and securing of vehicles and machinery.
The blitz cut across all sectors in the industrial program so inspectors went to a lot of diverse workplaces, said Audrey Birkbeck, provincial specialist with the industrial health and safety program.
They focused on workplaces where shipping and receiving isn’t the main enterprise, like a manufacturing facility with a shipping and receiving area.
Part of the reason the blitz was held was a review of statistics in Ontario.
Over the past 10 years the incidents related to loading docks were very serious, including incidents where workers were pinned between vehicles and pedestrians were struck, said Birkbeck.
In November, the ministry will be conducting a blitz on racking and storage. Ontario employers in the industrial sector should expect that loading dock safety will come up again in that blitz, said Birkbeck.
“(Inspectors will) apply what they learned and observed during the loading dock blitz to certainly address the lacking areas in the shipping and receiving parts of workplaces.”
People and products come and go. Heavy equipment and moving vehicles are ever present. Drivers who don’t work for the organization might not be aware of the procedures in the dock they drop a truck full of goods off at.
When national grocery retailer Loblaw wanted to improve its loading dock safety practices, it revamped its program to standardize protocols in stores and distribution centres coast to coast.
“What we had up until that point was very regional, site specific protocols and we wanted to standardize that,” said Jennifer Lennon, health, safety and wellness specialist, Ontario and Atlantic, at Loblaw. “We also wanted to get a feeling for the degree of incidents that we had across the nation.”
Development on the program first started in 2008 after benchmarks for loading dock safety were established. The company implemented a mandatory reporting structure for incidents and higher ups, including the vice-presidents of transportation and health and safety, were copied on all incident reports.
One of the goals of the program was to get everyone in contact with loading areas on board with the standardized procedures.
“Basically the message to them was: we wanted to heighten the safety program when it came to dock safety with all of our colleagues and we wanted to ensure their safety,” said Lennon. “We need them to come on board.”
All employees and drivers from third-party employers working around the docks had to undergo training, whether it was in class, from a company-produced DVD or online.
Third-party drivers had to complete an online test and received a dock safety certification card. The cards were good for up to two years, after which drivers and employees would have to take the training again.
The recertification requirement sent the message the program was a permanent one.
“This program is here to stay,” she said. “It’s not going away.”
The transportation community and employees were very receptive to the new program and, since its implementation in 2008, the company has seen a 73 per cent reduction in incidents.
“It’s become second nature for so many of our colleagues on the floor they don’t even think about the little individual steps anymore,” she said. “When we do our audits and we interview them, they say it like clockwork, they know what they’re expected to do.”
Employees and drivers are held responsible in the new system when there is an incident. If a dock safety incident results from failing to follow standard operating procedures, there is internal discipline, said Lennon.
Investigations are done alongside transportation partners and if it’s found that a driver who isn’t employed by Loblaw is responsible there is a fining process for carriers with fines up to $25,000, she said.
Loading dock maintenance is another issue Health and Safety Ontario consultant and materials handling specialist Chuck Leon said he notices is an impediment to safety when he is visiting clients.
“I think one of the biggest things is preventative maintenance, or lack of preventative maintenance,” he said.
Loading dock equipment comes with manuals that state how often maintenance needs to be done. The problem is many companies have had the dock for years and the manual is no longer around, he said.
The manual’s instructions on how often to do maintenance on the dock, usually the guides say it should be done annually or semi-annually, should be followed, said Leon.
“But a lot of companies just don’t,” he said.
Trailers that are pulled away without warning to those around them, carbon monoxide issues and back injuries from moving dock plates into place manually are other issues that can happen around loading docks.
Clients usually call Leon in to consult after they get a ministry order to do preventative maintenance or for not taking every precaution reasonable. They may also call him in if they are told to do an inspection of their loading dock.
The Ministry of Labour in Ontario conducted a loading dock safety blitz in February. During the blitz inspectors visited 1,089 workplaces during 1,285 blitz-related visits and issued 3,233 orders.
The most frequently issued orders involved violations related to maintenance of equipment, examination of lifting devices, provision of information and instruction to workers and securing of vehicles and machinery.
The blitz cut across all sectors in the industrial program so inspectors went to a lot of diverse workplaces, said Audrey Birkbeck, provincial specialist with the industrial health and safety program.
They focused on workplaces where shipping and receiving isn’t the main enterprise, like a manufacturing facility with a shipping and receiving area.
Part of the reason the blitz was held was a review of statistics in Ontario.
Over the past 10 years the incidents related to loading docks were very serious, including incidents where workers were pinned between vehicles and pedestrians were struck, said Birkbeck.
In November, the ministry will be conducting a blitz on racking and storage. Ontario employers in the industrial sector should expect that loading dock safety will come up again in that blitz, said Birkbeck.
“(Inspectors will) apply what they learned and observed during the loading dock blitz to certainly address the lacking areas in the shipping and receiving parts of workplaces.”
