Vehicle Maintenance

Sticking with the transportation safety topic, lets look at the vehicle maintenance. There are 2 categories of vehicle maintenance.

• Preventive Maintenance is conducted to keep equipment working and/or extend the life of the equipment.


• Corrective Maintenance, sometimes called "repair," is conducted to get equipment working again.

Repairs themselves can be classified in 1 of 6 different types:

• Necessary Repairs would be made as soon as possible because something important is worn out, broken, damaged, inoperative, loose, failed, about to fail or is creating an unsafe condition.


• Manufacturer's Warranty Repairs; made to meet the vehicle manufacturer's recommendations or warranty requirements. Example: Your owners manual says the oil and filter has to be changed at least once every 7,500 miles to keep the engine warranty in effect.


• Should-Be-Replaced Repairs are made for items that are going to fail or wear out with in the next 6 months, are still functioning now, and do not currently create an unsafe condition. Many times, it is cheaper to do these repairs now than when the part fails. Example: Your brakes are low, it is cheaper replace now than when they fail and you need to replace the rotors too.


• Upgrades: sometimes repairs will be recommended or suggested because they could provide some benefit to you (like more reliable starting, improved fuel economy, better ride or handling, etc.).


• Preventive Maintenance is conducted to keep equipment working and/or extend the life of the equipment. The manufacturer has a schedule for these repairs.


• Unnecessary Repairs, repairs that there is no legitimate reason to perform.

Vehicle Maintenance & the Pre-Trip Inspection

Vehicle maintenance is extremely important to ensure that the vehicle is safe to operate and preforms as it is suppose to. Vehicle inspection, repair, and maintenance standards are critical to the safe operation of commercial motor vehicles. They are designed to reduce accidents, injuries, and fatalities resulting from unsafe vehicles operating on the highways.

The Pre-Trip Inspection is done prior to beginning a new work day, job, or trip. There are three major reasons why a pre-trip inspection is required. First, it is the law. Secondly, it reduces accidents, injuries, and fatalities and legal liability is reduced. Lastly, expensive roadside repairs can be avoided if a problem is spotted before a driver is on the road. At the end of the final trip of the day you should conduct a post-trip inspection on your vehicle.

Loading Dock Safety

My last post was on seat belts for professional drivers, so I am going to stay on the topic of transportation safety. This post is going to remind you about Loading Dock Safety.

• Chock wheels or use vehicle restraint systems.


• Secure dock leveler.


• Use portable jack stands in addition to the forward landing gear of spotted trailers. Too much weight in the nose can tip a trailer.
  


• Ensure forklifts used to load/unload trailers are equipped with spotlights.


• Ensure forklifts side shifts as standard equipment; they increase productivity & help to prevent product damage.


• Do not allow pedestrians in trailers while a lift truck is loading/unloading.


• Perform a visual inspection of the trailer prior to driving a lift truck into it.


• If you require your employees to install or remove security seals for truckloads and containers you should designate a safe area away from the dock to do this. Never allow an employee to stand between a trailer and the dock.


• Instruct employees not to climb on docks or to place any part of their bodies outside of the dock door. If employees need to climb down into the dock area make sure proper ladders or stairs are provided.


• Train all employees that work in dock areas on the hazards, not just lift truck operators.

Remember Trailer Loading Procedure. For Palletized Loads :

• Ensure trailers have chocks, and portable jack stands for spotted trailers.


• Plan before you start to load. Stage the load so that you know how much cargo you have, what goes first, what gets stacked, etc.
• Distribute the weight of the cargo evenly as you load, in the fore-to-aft as well as left-to-right.


• Keep the center of gravity low; place heavier items lower on the trailer and lighter ones higher if you have to stack.


• Secure the load, use load locks, ratchet straps, etc.


• Watch the weight; too heavy and the trailer could split.

Tractor Trailer Seat Belts

Over half of all tractor trailer occupant deaths last year happened when the truck rolled over. Most large truck drivers are killed in single vehicle accidents.

According to a prominent Chicago injury lawyer, truck drivers killed in a fatal tractor-trailer accident were equally as likely to be wearing a seat belt (39 percent) as not wearing one (39 percent). Seat belt use was unknown for 22 percent of fatal truck crash victims.

By comparison, 50 percent of passenger vehicle drivers killed in a crash were unbelted, while 43 percent were wearing a seat belt and seat belt status is unknown for the remaining 7 percent of fatalities

It's NOT only IF you wear a seat belt, it's HOW you wear it!

The injuries and fatalities from not wearing the seat belt correctly are due to blunt force trauma, internal injuries, and ejection.

Here is the correct way to wear a seat belt. (Click on the image for a larger view.)



Lets not forget our best friends either.

Even pets need to be properly secured. If large enough, they should be properly fitted with a seat belt or in a kennel that is properly anchored.

Earthquake Tuesday, August 23, 2011

MINERAL, Va. - The most powerful earthquake to strike the East Coast in 67 years shook buildings and rattled nerves from South Carolina to Maine on Tuesday, August 23, 2011.



The most important thing to take away from this (for me) is what an aftershock feels like. We felt the aftershock all the way here to Northeaster Pennsylvania. I was working at my computer when I had a strange feeling. It was almost like a "dizzy feeling," but without the nausea.

Other people I talked to said it was a feeling to a high blood pressure spike of blood sugar levels dropping. I suspected an earthquake, but nothing had moved in my office, not even the blinds.

Here is a great source for earthquake info: US Geological Survey Earthquake Center.

Oil Spill in the Gulf

It is a tragedy the oil spill in the Gulf and the response by the Federal Government and BP seems to be half-hearted at best. As a safety professional who subscribes to root cause analysis (see my blog post on root cause analysis), I want to know what caused this disaster.


Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the lack of attention paid to investigating and determining the cause? I hate to jump the gun, but was it terrorism or stupidity?


I think that the public should be updated on the progress by both BP and the Federal Government. At the very least, every State that has an ocean shoreline or oil/natural gas drilling in it should demand the report on the cause of the disaster.

Wire Rope Safety

Just recently I added a winch to my utility trailer. I had to string the winch with wire rope and a hook. It got me to thinking, what a great blog topic. When adding a bight (The term bight is used in knot tying to refer to any curved section, slack part, or loop between the two ends of a rope, string, or yarn.) to wire rope, there is a right way and wrong way to attach the clamps to make the bight.


The way to remember the correct procedure is the saying, "Never saddle a dead horse." The saddle is the part of the wire rope clamp that the U-bolt passes through. The saddle always goes on the working end of the line (the longer line) and the U-bolt goes on the dead end (short end).


The pic shows the parts of the bight, the clamp, and the proper way to install it. You can download "the proper installation and warnings" from Crosby, a manufacturer of wire rope products here: Crosby card