https://www.ihsa.ca/pdfs/magazine/volume_20_Issue_1/transportation-firms-need-to-have-fall-prevention-plans.pdf

Prevent Slips, Trips and Falls in all Workplaces

• Issued: February 9, 2015
• Content last reviewed: February 2015
• See also: Fall Hazards

Slips, trips and falls are among the leading causes of injuries resulting in workers missing time at work in Ontario.
Preventing such injuries is a key goal of every safe and healthy workplace. Employers must:

• Provide information and instruction to workers on slip, trip and fall hazards.
• Encourage workers to report slip, trip and fall hazards.
• Identify and assess the risk of job-specific slip, trip and fall hazards.
• Establish controls to eliminate or reduce workers’ exposure to slip, trip and fall hazards.
• Ensure the control measures are working.

This fact sheet is intended to help employers, workers and other workplace parties:

• Understand slip, trip and fall hazards.
• Implement occupational health and safety policies.
• Develop and maintain programs to prevent workplace injuries.

Common hazardsConsider the following slip, trip and fall hazards in your workplace:

• slippery surfaces (oily or greasy, etc.)
• seasonal slip, trip and fall hazards (snow and ice)
• spills of wet or dry substances
• changes in walkway levels and slopes
• unsecured mats
• unsafe use of ladders
• poor lighting
• falls from beds of trucks, trailers or loads
• debris and cables in walkways
• smoke, steam or dust obscuring view
• lack of guardrails on mezzanines and balconies
• unsuitable footwear
• poorly maintained equipment (ladders, fall arrest, etc.)

Controlling hazardsWhen a hazard has been identified, the employer must take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances to protect workers. Employers must provide information, instruction and supervision to workers to protect their health and safety.
Consider the following when establishing safe work practices for your workplace:

• characteristics of physical work area
• weather conditions (snow, ice, rain, etc.)
• tasks performed
• workers’ work practices

Control measures for slip, trip and fall hazards may include:
Engineering controls

• slip-resistant flooring and slip-resistant mats
• slope of surface (ramps, handrails)
• surface free of obstructions/holes
• appropriate drainage
• adequate lighting (minimize glare and contrast)
• minimize environmental influences (blocking wind, preventing wet surfaces from icing, etc.)
• guardrails for raised floors, mezzanines andbalconies
• sound footing for ladders and work platforms

Administrative controls

• provide wet floor signage
• train workers to prevent slips, trips and falls
• establish safe work practices
• communicate a procedure for reporting hazards
• ensure prompt maintenance
• design jobs to minimize tasks requiring excessive pushing/pulling, line-of-sight obstruction and over-reaching
• ensure shovels, mops and buckets are readily available
• correct poor work practices
• conduct Joint Health and Safety Committee monthly inspections
• review slips, trips and same-level fall incidents

Safe work practices

• clean up spills promptly
• remove debris, snow and ice
• routinely clean floors with appropriate solutions
• use two hands to climb\descend ladders
• maintain three-point contact on ladders
• clean castors on wheeled carts
• remove clutter from walking surfaces
• clean grease build-up from slip resistant mats

Personal Protective Equipment

• Select appropriate footwear based on a risk assessment of the job task.
• Wear proper-fitting footwear that may include slip-resistant soles.
• Properly select, use and maintain fall protection equipment.

All workers have the right to work in a safe and healthy environment. A strong workplace health and safety culture requires all workplace parties to adhere to the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) and its regulations. This includes paying constant and appropriate attention to workplace health and safety issues.
More information

• Ontario.ca/healthandsafetyatwork
• Ontario.ca/stopfalls
• Ontario’s Health and Safety Associations
• Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

​https://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/hs/sawo/pubs/fs_falls.php

More needs to be done to attract women to industry, says WBF panelby Truck West
October 4, 2018EDMONTON, Alta. – Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA) president Chris Nash believes companies that do not embrace diversity and inclusiveness will soon struggle to find talent.
“Diversity will bring more ideas and progression,” Nash said during the Women Building Futures Work Proud Summit in Edmonton Oct. 3. “Going forward, it will be less appealing to work for a company that is not diverse.”
Nash was part of a four-person panel that tackled the question several company executives may ask themselves of late: why does being a divers and inclusive workplace matter?
Nash said during his more than 30 years of experience in the industry before coming to his current role with the AMTA, he saw firsthand the challenges of inclusivity in trucking, particularly when it comes to women.
“I remember back when women first started coming into the workplace, (women) had no place to change, and where it’s gone from there is that it’s better but there’s still more to go,” said Nash. “We have to step back and not go the status quo. It’s going to have an impact; there’s going to be a possible cost upfront. It’s similar to trying to get across the river – you can continue to swim or we can build a bridge.”
Nash said the AMTA works to promote these ideas to the industry and its members, making it more accessible to more people who can bring these ideas to the industry.

An industry panel that included AMTA president Chris Nash discussed the importance of diversity and inclusion during the WBF Work Proud Summit in Edmonton Oct. 3.

Paul Verhesen, CEO of Clark Builders Group of Companies, said with each generation, the biases we see toward women in traditional male roles starts to diminish.
“The next generation is far more inclusive and accepting of diversity than even my generation,” said Verhesen. “It’s going to get better than it is today, given the fact that the unconscious bias is getting less and less.”
Nash said companies need to examine the reasons a person would decide to leave a position, and then compare that to the list of reasons someone working in an industry where they are typically not the type of person to fill such a role would have.
“It really goes back to quality of life and how you can give that to your staff and the people around you,” Nash said. “It has to come from leadership, it can’t come just from your HR department or your dispatcher or people up front, it has to come from the top for it to be successful and move forward.”
Dean Wilcox, vice-president of the Edmonton refinery for Suncor Energy, said his company is short-staffed, and ignoring the female talent pool would be a mistake.
“If we want to strive for top performance from a business perspective and attract the best and the brightest, it’s a necessity today,” said Wilcox. “It’s also the right thing to do.”
Verhesen said businesses that reject the idea of diversity and inclusiveness will miss something.
“When you put a different group of individuals who have had different experiences, different life lessons, the thinking and the outcome of thought benefits the business far greater than if you put a bunch of similar folks together in a room,” he said.
In addition to diversity as it pertains to women, Wilcox underscored the importance of other under-represented groups as well, like Aboriginals. He said top companies are tapping into Indigenous groups to bring the best pool of candidates through their doors.
Millennials were another group addressed during the panel discussion.
Nash said it can be a challenge for his generation to wrap their minds around the millennial worker and the different attitude they bring to the table compared to generations before.
“We have the millennials coming, which we’re responsible for because we gave them everything and brought them to this point,” he said, stirring a chuckle from the crowd. “If we don’t think about what we’re going to do to bring them in, we’re going to have challenges. You have to think about how to change your workplace to accommodate them.”
Companies looking to bring more diversity and inclusivity to their workplaces must do so in a well-thought out manner, and avoid going at it half-assed.
Brent Davis, vice-president of mining solutions for Finning Canada, said he has been part of efforts that seemed like good ideas at the time, but backfired.
“It came across as a straight gender-diversity play, not an inclusive play,” said Davis. “And the unintended impact of a good overall vision was that the thought of ‘am I getting this job just because I’m female and not because I’m good at doing this job?’”
Davis said the “good idea” was implemented without proper planning and education, and it ended up creating an unintended negative impact that slowed down the entire process of diversification and inclusiveness.
Now, the company educates its employees why diversity and inclusion is important, something Davis said most people understand.
Nash said the AMTA establishes benchmarks and measurements of what an employee should be, regardless of gender or identity.
“Really that’s the starting point for all of us,” he said. “(We need to) start looking at how we see value in an employee, that’s the start point of it all.”
Verhesen believes conversations about inclusivity need to happen earlier rather than later, and one of his biggest regrets is that his company was not forward-thinking when it needed to be.
“There’s only two ways to change,” said Verhesen. “You either choose to change or you’re forced to change, and as humans, I believe we don’t often choose to change. Being forced to change obviously isn’t the right way to do things. You’re better off if you make a conscious decision to make changes as opposed to being forced.”
Verhesen added that one of the industry’s biggest challenges is its past success.
“As an industry, we’ve been very successful doing it the old way…the old boys club or however you want to characterize that,” he said. “So there’s still a belief out there that why would we change something that has always worked for us? There are societal pressures to be more inclusive and more diverse than we have in the past, so I think our biggest hurdle is our past success.”
Nash said the trucking industry also waited too long to move toward diversity and inclusiveness.
With the average age of a truck driver now 47-year-old, and expected to be 49 by 2024, there is a need for fresh blood.
“A lot of the work we do as an industry is how we can show the industry is good, but in order to do that we have to make some changes,” said Nash. “I think of myself, and I went off the highway because of quality of life. I needed to be home more. My kids walked right past me and didn’t want to have anything to do with me because I was gone all week. How do we create our work atmosphere to make it more inclusive so that people can have that quality of life?”
One area Nash pointed to that needs improvement is rest stops, which are lacking in Alberta and nationwide.
“When your option to pull over is a wide spot and there are no facilities, it’s not really a thrilling adventure,” he said. “It would be like walking out your door where you work and having to go to the washroom outside.
“It’s things like that that we have to look at the bigger picture and these are going to be larger fixes that we need to make.”

​https://www.trucknews.com/business-management/more-needs-to-be-done-to-attract-women-to-industry-says-wbf-panel/1003088025/

​https://www.wscc.nt.ca/sites/default/files/documents/Falls%20Leading%20Cause%20of%20Truck%20Driver%20Injuries.pdf

​https://www.ihsa.ca/pdfs/safety_talks/slip_and_fall_hazards_for_truck_drivers.pdf

https://www.thesafetymag.com/ca/topics/convictions/worker-fatally-injured-while-fixing-a-strap/249299

​Saskatchewan company Basic Truck & Trailer Repair Incorporated was fined $65,000 plus a $26,000 surcharge after pleading guilty to one count under Occupational Health and Safety legislation.
The charge stemmed from a July 31, 2018 incident, where a worker was fixing a strap on a truck box's hydraulic cylinder. The strap broke, resulting in a fatal injury to the worker.
The company was charged with contravening subsection 164(1) of The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, 1996 or, being an employer, having failed to ensure that where a worker may be required or permitted to perform maintenance, repairs or other work on or under an elevated part of a unit of powered mobile equipment, the elevated part is securely blocked to prevent accidental movement, resulting in the death of a worker.

https://www.trucknews.com/features/trips-slips-and-falls/

T​rips, slips, and falls by Karen Bowen
February 21, 2019This time of year – the season of slippery, icy surfaces – we all need to watch our step and move carefully to avoid falls. Did you know that truckers experience one of the highest number of falls annually when compared to other similar occupations?
For truckers, slips, trips, and falls cause over 30% of all work-related injuries and 50% of these injuries are critical injuries. Over the next few months, you should be particularly careful, since typically, more than half of these falls occur during the winter season.
These falls are costly. A recent North American study shows that each trucker who reports a fall injury will lose an average of 19 work days. As well, one third of all fall injuries are so severe that the trucker requires 29 days off work, significantly impacting an injured trucker’s health and income.
Surprisingly, studies show that the following factors have little or no impact on a driver’s chance of falling: mileage driven; shiftwork (day, night or swing); job type (owner-operator or company driver); exercise routine (in or outside of work); vision (whether or not glasses are prescribed); hand dominance (left-handed, right-handed, or ambidextrous); age; and feeling rested at the beginning of a day.
However, location and other factors do come into play.
Almost 80% of trucker fall injuries occur close to the cab and not the trailer, box, catwalk, etc., and more than half occur when dismounting. Some other factors include: vehicle design, including truck height and step/handhold configurations; environmental influences, such as muscle instability due to prolonged body vibration; and ice, snow, water, or mud covering the ground or step; and personal habits, such as mounting/dismounting techniques, fatigue, coordination, strength, fitness, and body weight.
Another recent study found that 93% of truckers are overweight with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or higher. Since weight influences the ground impact reaction force and joint torque created when a driver exits the vehicle, carrying excessive weight may lead to falls, especially when the driver’s leg muscles have been inactive and destabilized over hours of driving. Maintaining a healthy weight will help reduce leg strain and the risk of weight-related falls.
Intentional movements can also be effective for avoiding falls. When you first leave the cab after a long run, descend slowly to avoid pulling a muscle – never jump.
When getting in and out, follow the three-point contact rule and make sure that one hand and two feet, or two hands and one foot touch the equipment at all times. Securely grip the handhold (and not the door frame, door edge, etc.) before stepping up or down. Keep your face directed towards the cab to maintain equilibrium.
Before exiting, look for obstacles on the ground that might interfere with a stable landing. When exiting, position your foot firmly on the step/foothold (and not the tire or wheel hub) so that it rests in front of your heel and under your foot’s arch. Keep your free hand empty when climbing down so you can quickly catch your balance, if necessary. If you are removing something from the cab, set it on the truck floor and pick it up after your feet are firmly planted on the ground.
In bad weather, be cautious and move slowly. Monitor all walking surfaces for black ice and obstacles hidden under the snow. Be especially careful on metal surfaces because their lower force of friction and traction make them extremely slick when contaminated with ice, grease, oil, moisture, mud, or dirt. Adjust your movements accordingly when walking on ramps, gang planks, dock boards/plates, as well as rungs, steps, footholds, treads, running boards, and equipment platforms.
When working with flatbeds, which are exposed to the weather, keep your footwear clean and free of ice, snow, mud, grease, or other slippery substances and use a shovel, broom, and rags to ensure all metal surfaces are clean, dry, and safe.
Don’t fall down on the job.

​https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/prevent-falls-from-trucks-2

​Prevent falls from trucksOctober 1, 2012
 
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TRUCK DRIVER SAFETY VEHICLE SAFETYAlthough truck drivers and delivery workers are exposed to a number of traffic-related hazards every day, one hazard that may not be apparent is the risk of falling from a vehicle. To help reduce the risk of this hazard, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries recommends:

• When entering or exiting a vehicle, use the three-point rule: Have at least one foot and two hands, or both feet and one hand, in contact with the vehicle at all times.
• Always use the mounting handles and stepping surfaces designed for entering and exiting. These aids assist with balance and provide a non-slip surface.
• Employers should provide a ladder that enables workers to access the top of a load.
• When working on a truck bed, always face toward the edge so you are aware of your clearance