Working in loading and unloading bays

Work in loading and unloading bays could, if carried out incorrectly, lead to accidents involving serious personal injuries.

Managing the risks

To help you to identify the hazards associated with work in loading and unloading bays and the appropriate ways of controlling them, use our example Risk Assessment - Working in Loading and Unloading Bays. It covers the generic hazards associated with this type of activity and suggests control measures to reduce risks to an acceptable level. You should ensure that your document only addresses “significant” hazards, i.e. any that could, and more importantly are likely to, cause an accident or injury.

Make your instructions clear

Don’t include activities in your document that simply don’t need to be there. Work to the principle that if there is any chance of your staff being unaware of the safe way of doing something, then you will need to make it clear in your document. Finally, always ensure that any control measures you identify and follow are decided upon the principle of “so far as is reasonably practicable”.

Note. The list of potential hazards is not exhaustive. However, for your risk assessment to be considered suitable and sufficient in the eyes of the law it must accurately reflect the “significant” hazards found when working in loading and unloading bays under your control.

Note. This risk assessment only deals with the generic risks associated with the environmental aspects of such areas and not the actual loading and unloading process itself. As each work environment will differ, then you should include details of the specific hazards associated with your work environment and give details of the control measures to mitigate such hazards in order to reduce the risks to a minimum.