Automation highlights trucker safety issues
Significant safety concerns about the trucker/automated stacking crane interface at automated container yards were highlighted at TOC Europe in Rotterdam this week.
Despite a considerable reduction in accidents at automated yards, TT Club global risk assessment director Laurence Jones told delegates “we are still killing far too many external truck drivers”.
The debate centred on whether the driver is safest in his/her cab while the loading or unloading operation takes place, or whether he/she should exit the cab to wait in a designated safe area.
Drawing on experiences at his terminals, Ports America chief engineer Tom Ward raised the point that regardless of procedures and practices, truck drivers are not employed by the port and often have differing views of safe working practices.
“The safest bet is to assume that the worker is a suicidal idiot,” he said. “We can define a procedure to keep a human being safe, but we must assume that the human being will not follow that procedure. Therefore, how do we deal with what the workers will and won’t do?”
Mr Ward added that enforcing a safety regime for truck drivers at automated terminals could inadvertently “disengage his own safety awareness”, which could actually raise the risk of injuries.
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