Hand pallet truck users urged to be vigilant

A third of all workplace injuries are of the type caused by their incorrect use, while worker claims for compensation are on the increase in UK courts and the results of a detailed study of hand pallet trucks is ‘alarming for any company using them regularly’.

The hand pallet truck study, by veteran handling equipment tester, Theo Egberts, measured the pulling forces on 17 popular models. The most shocking finding was not that most failed to approach UK regulations on lighter loads, but that none of the models tested met current UK legislation for a moving a heavier load at all.

Where a worker has to exert an unsafe force effort to undertake a task, it’s the duty of the employer to ensure that the worker either moves smaller loads or uses motorised equipment such as a powered pallet truck.

The UK legislation in the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (amended 2002) sets out to avoid work-related muscoskeletal disorders (MSDs), which account for over a third of all workplace injuries.

British work-related place injuries can result in costly court cases against the employer. In a recent case between Royal Mail and a Leeds postal worker, a hand pallet truck had to be used when a power pallet truck should have been available. The worker experienced sudden pain and was subsequently found to have sustained an injury to his back and shoulder. The court found in favour of the worker and awarded compensation.

Legal consequences aside, according to the Health and Safety Executive, more than one third of all injuries requiring at least three days off from work are caused by manual handling (lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling or carrying). On average, each sufferer took 20 days off in a 12-month period. Not only a significant injury for the worker but also a hindrance to effective operations.

In their study in the Netherlands, Egberts’ team measured 17 models of hand pallet trucks moving 500kg and 2000kg loads, measuring the force needed to start the load and the sustained force needed to keep the load moving.

These measurements were then compared to the UK’s requirements for maximum forces for pushing and pulling, for men and women, as set out in ‘Manual Handling at Work’ published by the Health and Safety Executive.

The official guideline figure for starting or stopping a load is about 20kg for men (typically the maximum weight for a suitcase at an airport check-in before you pay for excess baggage) or 15kg for women. The acceptable figure for keeping a load in motion is 10kg for men and about 7kg for women.

The results showed that very few models met UK regulations even on a small load, while none of the models tested met the UK requirement for a larger load.

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“If I were operating hand pallets regularly I would be concerned” said Egberts “The risks should be alarming for any company using them regularly.”

In many workplaces a manual hand pallet trucks is occasionally used on a bumpy floor or ramp. In those situations, sudden force spikes could increase the risk of injury many times over.

Handling injuries at work comes in many forms, but by far the most common is back strain from using the wrong equipment. That’s why the law in the UK insists that employees are protected by providing the correct equipment for the task. In most cases, using a power pallet truck instead of a hand pallet truck is the simple and inexpensive solution.

A worker is four times more likely to be injured during their first month, so employers of seasonal and other occasional workers should to be especially aware of the risk.

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