Driving up health and safety with Driver Hire
Driver Hire, which provides people management services to the logistics sector, offers a selection of health and safety (H&S) courses via its Training arm.
The company highlights recent cases in which professional drivers, whilst unloading, have been seriously injured and – in some cases – killed.
“Sadly, you don’t have to look too far to find regular reports of similar cases in the transport press,” said Driver Hire, “all of which means that having an embedded Health & Safety (H&S) policy must be an essential part of your business.
“Apart from the natural human desire to prevent one of your colleagues coming to any harm, there is a more hard-nosed business protection argument. If the worst happens there’s loss of reputation and the not inconsiderable cost of fines and compensation.
“Driver Hire Training is an approved Institute of Safety & Health (IOSH) training provider. Courses are delivered in a virtual classroom by an experienced tutor, making arranging training for yourself and your colleagues easy, convenient and very worthwhile.”
John Keelan-Edwards, managing director at Driver Hire Training, highlighted some of the options available.
“‘Managing Safely’ is a three-day course designed for people in a management role,” he explained.
“It covers pretty much everything you need to know about H&S to meet IOSH standards. The course covers: assessing risk; recognising hazards and – if things do go wrong – how to investigate and improve H&S to prevent a repeat.
“Improved H&S improves productivity because there are fewer hours lost to sickness and accidents and it gives you a better company-wide safety culture.”
For drivers and other employees, there is a ‘Working Safely’ course, said to be ideal for anyone in a working role who needs to learn the basics of H&S. There is also a management refresher course which includes a ‘Plan – Do – Check – Act’ approach.
John continued: “According to Health & Safety Executive (HSE) figures, in 2021/22, 16 truck drivers were killed whilst loading or unloading their vehicle. In addition, across the whole of the workforce, there were over 500,000 self-reported injuries at work – that’s 1,790 self-reported injuries per 100,000 workers.
“There were 61,000 injuries reported by employers – significant numbers. Breaking it down into accident types, 18 per cent occurred whilst handling, lifting, or carrying; 11 per cent were the result of being hit by an object and eight per cent, falling from height – all risks faced by truck drivers out of their cab.
“It is in everyone’s best interest to ensure that H&S management in the workplace is always a priority. Good training has a central role to play in achieving that.”
