Can Rack Inspection Training Help You With Best Practice?

Rack inspection training should act as a template on which businesses base their actions

When you want to teach your employees how to perform staff-led racking inspections, the best way to do this is to make them attend rack inspection training. Doing so will give them the confidence and the expertise to perform rack inspections themselves. The reason for this is that — arguably — rack inspection training is an example of best practice. Still, what does that mean?

What Is Rack Inspection Best Practice?

The Amazon warehouse has 45,000 robots in it and the company is looking to introduce even more in the coming years. To Amazon, there is a right way and a wrong way to operate within a warehouse. It believes that — should a robot be able to learn the right way of doing things and execute its tasks accordingly — this robot can work for Amazon.

Behind all this is the idea of “best practice”. Like a “zero accident” workplace, best practice is best understood as a way of thinking, rather than a goal which can be achieved. A workplace where one way of doing things is the right way of doing them on every occasion; that’s best practice.

In reality, of course, it doesn’t always work like that. This is why HSE’s HSG76 places emphasis on the fact that their guide to warehouse safety doles out “good practice” advice, but that other courses of action might be taken in other instances.

While it’s good to have some leeway, the benefit of rack inspection training is that it can give you some guidance as to what best practice is. Of course, as with HSE’s guidance, it’s also perfectly fine to view it as “good practice” instead.

Why Should Businesses Follow the Guidance Given in Rack Inspection Training?

In recent years, we have been plagued by a lack of belief in experts and what experts have to say about issues. With so much information out there, people want to believe that they can figure out difficult issues for themselves.

Safety is one of many sectors where this is a problem. When health and safety myths make their way into the public consciousness because of a newspaper headline or some internet rumour, it can be hard to stamp these false ideas out. It’s because of issues like this that health and safety experts are so important.

The people who deliver rack inspection training at Storage Equipment Experts are — well — experts. This is the label which HSE’s HSG76 gives to SEMA approved racking inspectors (SARIs) and our rack inspection training course is delivered by a SEMA approved racking inspector (SARI).

To become a SARI, a person needs to pass a pre-course qualifier, attend a three-day intensive SEMA approved racking inspector course, pass the end of course assessment, and continue to top up their knowledge by attending seminars and additional courses. The failure rate for the SARI course is high, which is why there are only 107 SARIs in the world.

It is because of SEMA’s high standards and the high failure rate of the SARI course that the people who are SARIs are labelled as experts. As such, the guidance they give in rack inspection training courses should be trusted.

Rack inspection training may not be best practice advice, but it’s certainly good practice advice which goes hand in hand with the advice from HSE’s HSG76 as well the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and the CDM Regulations 2015.

To receive rack inspection training from an expert, contact Storage Equipment Experts for a FREE, no-obligation consultation on our range of racking inspection services.

Pallet racking inspection training

Rack Inspection Training and Mechanical Handling

Warehouse safety is a complete system which requires pallet racking safety as well as mechanical handling safety in order to function.

A safe warehouse is like a well-oiled machine. This means that every part needs to work safely and efficiently with every other part. You cannot ignore other elements of warehouse safety and you cannot view one aspect of warehouse safety in isolation. It’s for this reason that it is vital to know about how pallet racking safety interacts with mechanical handling safety.

However, before that happens, it’s important to define terms.

What Is Pallet Racking Safety?

Pallet racking safety consists of all the procedures, whether those are legal requirements from HSE or recommendations from SEMA, which are concerned with making pallet racking safer.

These procedures include proper installation, proper use, regular inspections from an outside expert, regular inspections from staff members, and rack inspection training to make sure that staff members can perform these internal inspections. As well as all that, warehouse owners are required to repair and/or replace a racking system when necessary.

What Is Mechanical Handling Safety?

Industrial trucks, tractors, forklifts, conveyors; mechanical handling refers to moving anything around warehouse using any of these pieces of technology. Mechanical handling safety refers to all the procedures outlined by HSE, both in HSG76 and in LOLER 1998, which are concerned with making mechanical handling safer.

These procedures vary depending on the type of mechanical handling equipment you’re referring to. As with racking, most equipment requires inspection and users should never exceed the recommended guidelines. What’s more, it’s vital to make sure that you are using equipment which is cleared for usage in the EU. This is true of health and safety in general. However, with mechanical equipment being used in a confined space in combination with other mechanical equipment, it’s especially important.

When Should You Consider Mechanical Handling Safety & Racking Safety Together?

Ideally, you should consider the two kinds of safety together at all times. However, because the two disciplines are often separated by different professions (a SEMA approved racking inspector, for example, is not qualified to inspect a forklift truck) it can be difficult to think of the two safety protocols alongside each other. Still, don’t feel too bad; a lot of research suggests that all humans are terrible at multitasking.

Yet, with our handy ‘cheat sheet’, you won’t need to multitask. You can focus on table to know exactly what HSE recommends you do when these two different safety disciplines interact:

#	Situation	Racking Safety Considerations	Mechanical Handling Safety Considerations
1	Driving an industrial truck, lift truck, or tow tractor in bad light.	You might crash or bump into your storage system, damaging your racking. If so, your system would require an immediate inspection from a SEMA approved racking inspector and be immediately offloaded.	Be sure to add lights to your truck or tractor as a precaution for if you ever happen to be driving it in bad light. Better yet, improve the overall lighting of the warehouse.
2	Driving an industrial truck, lift truck, or tow tractor through an aisle with racking systems either side.	The narrow space could damage your racking systems. However, the issues to consider here are likely to be unique to your warehouse. As such, HSE recommends “site-specific control measures” which, in turn, means a risk assessment.	The narrow space could damage your vehicle. Once again, you will need “site-specific control measures” to tackle this particular issue.
3	Driving an industrial truck, lift truck, or tow tractor over an uneven floor.	An uneven floor could cause you to temporarily lose control and crash or bump into your storage system. If that does happen, the same advice from #1 follows.	Never use a vehicle if the unevenness of the floor exceeds the recommendations of the manufacturer. Perform regular checks of the floor for unevenness.
4	Using a truck to lift storage onto a racking system.	As before, there are the usual concerns with damaging the racking system, but it’s also important the racking system isn’t overloaded. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions in this case.	Be sure to lower the load onto the racking system *as soon as the load is clear of the racking*. Don’t create unnecessary risk by lifting the load higher than needed. Also, be sure to make sure that anyone operating the truck keeps constant, two-handed control of the vehicle to prevent any possibility that they might get trapped in between the vehicle and the storage system.

Rack Inspection Training: You Can Never Be Too Safe

Our rack inspection training course covers the many, many aspects of racking inspection safety and how they interact with the rest of the warehouse. A racking inspection training course is a great way for staff members to learn about warehouse safety as a whole discipline, rather than simply one particular aspect of it.

Rack inspection training course is the perfect way to piece together all of the individual parts safely into one complex discipline.

Pallet Racking Inspection Training and Work At Height

a man looking up at a tall warehouse racking

Pallet racking inspection training is one of the many safety procedures warehouse owners should follow. Working at height safety is another.

When working at height, it’s important to be aware of your surroundings and the potential dangers around you. One such danger might be that you ignore racking safety, so it’s important to consider the two safety disciplines together.

In order to do that, though, the definition of terms is vital.

Pallet Racking Safety Is…

Pallet racking safety refers to any kind of procedure designed to make pallet racking — and its use — safer. In the UK, the official safety procedures most relevant to pallet racking come from HSE and SEMA. These safety procedures include pallet racking inspection training, among other things. Pallet racking inspection training and pallet racking inspections in Ireland are not directly recommended by HSA, but there is an informal recommendation.

Work At Height Safety Is…

According to HSE’s HSG76, “work in any place, including above or below ground level, where someone could fall and injure themselves” counts as work at height. In the UK, the Work at Height Regulations 2005 outlines in full an employer’s legal responsibility when asking their staff to work at height. This includes, for example, making sure that people using a mobile elevating work platform (MEWP) are either trained themselves or are supervised by a trained person.

Considering Pallet Racking Safety & Work at Height Safety Together

Pallet racking inspection training covers a whole range of procedures for ensuring pallet racking safety through inspections. However, inevitably, the course cannot cover everything. If it did, then HSE would not also recommend annual racking inspections from an expert (such as a SEMA approved racking inspector).

While you should always bear the whole warehouse in mind when thinking about safety, it’s often difficult to consider pallet racking safety and work at height safety at the same time. There are only a handful of specific situations when the two kinds of safety do need to be considered together, though it’s still important to be prepared for said situations.

It’s because of all of this that we have prepared a cheat sheet for the situations when racking safety and work at height safety should be considered together and what you should do in those situations.

#	Situation	Racking Safety Considerations	Work At Height Safety Considerations
1	Items falling from racking	Items should be stored properly. While this often means not overloading a racking system, it also means making sure that things are stacked properly and are placed securely. To make sure this happens, always follow the manufacturer’s advice and follow the guidelines for storage set out in the Storage systems chapter of HSG76.	The Work at Height Regulations 2005 spells this out as law: “Every employer shall, where necessary to prevent injury to any person, take suitable and sufficient steps to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, the fall of any material or object.” This section of the law goes on to explain what employers are legally obliged to do to prevent injury from falling objects.
2	Climbing on racking which is not designed for climbing	In short, don’t do it. However, if someone does climb on it (even though they definitely shouldn’t have) the person responsible for racking safety (PRRS) should immediately check for damage. If there is any visible damage, immediately offload the system and book a racking inspection from a SEMA approved inspector.	Once again, don’t do it.
3	Climbing on racking which is designed for climbing	Unless it is specifically designed for the purpose of being climbed on, you shouldn’t climb on racking. Even if the racking system is designed to be climbed on, be sure to follow the manufacturer’s instruction and don’t add too much weight to the system. If the system appears damaged after it’s been used, immediately offload the system and book a racking inspection from a SEMA approved inspector.	If racking is designed for climbing, follow the same advice for working on a ladder. Keep three points of contact, don’t overstretch, etc. Even if racking is specifically designed for the express purpose of being climbed on, do not climb from an elevated working platform into a racking system.

If you want a better understanding of rack safety, Storage Equipment Experts.
Pallet racking inspection training course will outline all the information and procedures that HSE recommends.

Pallet racking inspection training racking inspections sema racking inspection training work at height safety

Racking Inspection Training & The Oakland Ghost Ship Fire

The Oakland Ghost Ship fire was a tragic event which should serve to remind all warehouse owners about the duty they have to keep people safe in their buildings.

The Oakland Ghost Ship fire was an awful event. 36 people lost their lives in the deadliest fire in the California city’s history. The tragedy underscores the importance of warehouse safety. This doesn’t just mean racking inspections training; it means a holistic approach to warehouse safety and to safety in general.

Would A Greater Racking Inspection Frequency Have Prevented the Tragedy?

As of February 2017, the investigation is still ongoing, so it is impossible to say what exactly caused the fire and who is ultimately responsible. However, what we do know is that the warehouse had not been inspected in three decades. As a warehouse converted for the purposes of art installation and artistic performances, racking inspections might not have been legally required. This is because, in the US, racking inspection frequency is not laid out by OSHA, and much of it is left to the warehouse owner’s discretion.

OSHA’s handbook on warehouse safety mentions racking inspections, but it does not state how often they should happen or even who should perform them. This vagueness was noted by journalist Travis Rhoden, who pointed out that while rack safety might seem pretty simple to the uninitiated, “it’s actually the source of much confusion among safety professionals — largely because there isn’t a clear-cut OSHA standard to help employers with many of the practical aspects of racking safety.”

It’s also unclear whether greater racking inspection frequency would have helped to stop the fire, as there are many other elements of a warehouse which also need to be inspected and maintained. Over the course of the last thirty years, they evidently were not.

Why Is Racking Inspection Training So Important?

Racking inspection training might not have stopped this tragedy, but there are other tragedies which could have been stopped by racking inspection training and a greater racking inspection frequency.

Our racking inspection training course is designed to make sure that racking collapses and other warehouse disasters don’t happen. An expert racking inspection at least once a year is extremely important but, for the day-to-day, warehouse owners need internal staff to inspect the warehouse and storage systems, too. HSE is clear on its recommendations about this, but it doesn’t define how often is enough for these internal, staff-performed racking inspections. The Canadian government is clearer on this front, recommending once a day.

OSHA’s vagueness might be frustrating for American warehouse owners, and HSE’s vagueness might be frustrating for British warehouse owners. However, you can never be too safe when it comes to warehouses. As a result, following Canada’s advice in the absence of advice from HSE or OSHA is a perfectly sensible thing to do. Listening to advice from around the world, while still sticking to the law laid out in your particular country, is the best way to achieve the optimum racking inspection frequency.

Would Complete Warehouse Safety Prevent All Accidents?

This is a matter of some debate. While SEMA president Matt Grierson believes in the possibility of a zero-accident workplace, the EU’s official health and safety board see the zero-accident workplace as “more a way of thinking rather than a numerical goal”.

At Storage Equipment Experts, we do believe in a zero-accident workplace. We do believe that racking inspection training and racking inspection by a SEMA approved inspector are the best tools we have for making warehouses as safe as they possibly can be right now. However, to achieve a zero-accident future much more needs to be done.

It’s impossible to say what would have been enough to prevent the Oakland Ghost Ship tragedy. No country has the technology or the ability to create zero-accident warehouses just yet. Still, we can do our best to reduce warehouse fatalities to their lowest possible number in our lifetime.

Make sure that your warehouse is the safest it can be. Contact Industrial Storage Equipment Experts today for the best-quality racking inspection services in the UK.

Pallet racking inspection training

Relationship Between Pallet Racking Inspection Training and the UK’s Economy

Pallet racking inspection training plays a big role in the British economy, perhaps bigger than most people would have originally realised. Upon close inspection, it becomes clear how racking inspection training can be used as both a tool to boost the economy and as a measure of economy’s health. Some might take for granted the fact that we can now state, with some accuracy, how well a given economy is doing at a given time.

During the Great Depression in the United States, much of the data used to judge how the economy was doing was incomplete and so a lot of economic policy at the time was guesswork. We now live in a hyperconnected and data-driven world where figuring out the current state of a given economy is much easier than it once was. There is still room for debate about the economy. Yet, there are some things that almost all economists agree are good for an economy. And one of them is pallet racking inspection training.

Are Free Markets Danger Free? The British Government’s Role in the Racking Inspection Training Market

Depending on your political affiliation, the role a given government should play in the economy ranges from “a very big one” to “a very small one”. However, one thing that all mainstream economists can agree on is that the government should play at least some role in the economy. With regards to rack inspection training, the best thing the government can do is to legitimise the importance of pallet racking inspection training through regulation. The creation of HSE, and the subsequent racking regulations that came with it, are exactly that.

Pallet racking inspection training is not a free-for-all; it is not a marketplace where anyone can say and do as they please. For a start, not just anybody can call themselves a SEMA-approved rack inspector (SARI). That title is hard earned, and being part of the SARI programme is something HSE recognise as vital to the rack inspection process. In the case of racking safety, the government’s influence on the market is subtle but effective.

Fewer Accidents and More Whisky:

The Direct and Indirect Benefits of Rack Inspection Training on the British Economy

Just as the British government does good things for the rack inspection training industry, so too does the rack inspection training industry do good things for the British government. Namely by helping to better the British economy. A well-trained workforce is more productive, and productivity is key to a thriving economy. In fact, some economists would go as far to say that the most important difference between an economically developed region or nation and a less economically developed one is how productive they are.

Moreover, a workforce that is safer is less likely to be involved in accidents. As every employer knows, accidents cost time, money, and (in extremely tragic cases) employees’ lives. It’s hard to put a figure on how much this costs a business, especially when it comes to fatalities. Still, that hasn’t stopped OSHA, the USA’s government department for health and safety, from trying. They have long argued that for every $1 spent on safety, businesses can save up to $6.

Then there are the indirect benefits. Businesses that are safer make more money, but pallet racking inspection training has benefits beyond safety. Trained employees are happier and happier employees make more money too. A well educated and happier workforce is one of the many positive externalities of rack inspection training.

Another benefit of pallet racking inspection training is increased investment. Businesses who know that their racking systems are safer and more secure, as a result of rack inspection training for their staff, can buy more stock with great confidence. In other words, if a business is made up of staff that know the limitations of their racking systems, how to effectively deliver rack inspections, and when to call in a SEMA-approved rack inspector, then they can better look after their product.

This is especially true with the whisky industry, which has real potential to boost the British economy. Whisky businesses with pallet racking inspection training can brew and store more whisky, more often, with more confidence. This is great news for UK economists and whisky aficionados alike.

Safe Money: Rack Inspection Training as a Measure of the British Economy

There are three key indicators that economists use to judge an economy’s health: GDP, inflation rate, and unemployment rate. These three statistics are to macroeconomists what pulse, heart rate, and brain activity are to doctors. Using this same analogy, the number of businesses delivering and receiving rack inspection training is important too.

It’s not exactly as directly related to health as heart rate or brain activity but it’s definitely another factor, perhaps more akin to weight, amount of sleep a person gets, or the amount of plaque on someone’s teeth. In essence, the more a given economy is spending on pallet racking inspection training, the healthier that economy is.

There are a couple reasons for this. First, if a business is spending money on rack inspection training, it means that they are able to spend their businesses budget on investments rather than the day-to-day running costs of the business. Second, if that business is a small business or a startup, then it is a business that is beginning to think bigger which is a key indicator of growth.

The relationship between rack inspection training and the British economy is intimate and complex, but the overarching theme is that good news for one means good news for the other. For the UK’s economy to grow, we need a more intelligent, more motivated, and — above all else — safer workforce. The best way to do that is with pallet racking inspection training from Storage Equipment Experts.

Whether it’s because you’re doing your bit for the British economy, or whether it’s because you just want to make your business better, pallet racking inspection training from Storage Equipment Experts is always a safe choice.

Pallet racking inspection training

What Is A Pallet Racking Inspection Training Course?

We believe in the importance of pallet racking inspection training courses, which is why we offer the best pallet racking inspection training course in the UK. But what is a rack inspection training course? How does it differ from any other safety course? And what exactly does it aim to achieve?

In essence, a pallet racking inspection training course is a one-day course delivered by a racking inspection expert. The course teaches people who work in a warehouse how to perform routine checks on racking systems. It sounds simple enough, but there are a few other details…

A Pallet Racking Inspection Training Course Versus a Generic Safety Training Course

If there are more than five people in your business, you are legally required to give them a brief rundown of your health and safety policy. This is the law, but it does not really qualify as training. A rundown of your health and safety policy does not even cover the specifics of warehouse safety, let alone racking safety.

When it comes to warehouses specifically, HSE states that everybody in your warehouse needs to be “competent” and anybody performing a rack inspection needs to be “technically competent”. But what does that even mean, and how much training can achieve this competence? For years, this question went unanswered, which lead the rise of over 300 different card schemes. With each new card, a new definition of “technically competent” was created.

The new CDM regulations now mean that the definition of “technically competent” is determined by the employer, legally titled the “client”. However, it’s fair to assume that a generic safety course will not make anyone “technically competent” enough to inspect racking. Rather, a pallet racking inspection course which specifically covers the details of rack inspection is a better bet. Our one has the added benefit of being delivered by a SEMA approved rack inspector (SARI); HSE labels SARIs as “expert inspectors”.

If I Complete a Rack Inspection Training Course, does that make me an “Expert Inspector”?

In a word, no. We like to be honest here at Storage Equipment Experts, and the fact is that no one-day course alone will mean that you are considered an “expert inspector” in the eyes of HSE. That title is reserved for people who have spent years achieving and maintaining a high level of racking inspection knowledge. HSE specifically label a SEMA approved rack inspector as an “expert inspector”, and this is not a title that can be achieved by any course except one delivered by SEMA itself.

A pallet racking inspection training course means that you can now consider yourself “technically competent” in the eyes of HSE. This means that you are able to perform the kind of day-to-day racking inspection that HSE expects your staff to do. Added to this, HSE insists on yearly racking inspections from an “expert inspector” such as a SEMA approved rack inspector. Your business needs to do both of these things to be on the right side of HSE, and knowing the difference between “technically competent” and “expert inspector” is crucial.

Our rack inspection training course covers a lot of detail, but we do not pretend to cover everything. Stating otherwise would encourage overconfidence and danger in the workplace. At Storage Equipment Experts, we are happy to make distinctions clear in the name of safety. It is this commitment to clarity that inspires us to spell out exactly what a pallet racking inspection training course is and, more than that, why ours is the best rack inspection course in the UK.

Contact Storage Equipment Experts today for the rack inspection training course that insists on clarity, expertise, and value for money!

Pallet racking inspection training

Can Rack Inspection Training Help You With Best Practice?