Take great care when lifting, carrying or moving heavy objects. Whenever possible, avoid manual handling of loads. Use trolleys, sack trucks etc. whenever you can; this is essential if loads are to be carried any distance as to avoid any strain on your own body.
NEVER attempt to lift a load that you don’t think you or your equipment can manage – get help or split the load.
ALWAYS be in charge of the load NEVER allow the load to take charge of you.
Common Rules For Safe Sack Truck, Trolley & Hand Carts:
• Always wear suitable loose fitting clothing and safety footwear. Make use of personal protective equipment where appropriate e.g. gloves, safety hats etc.
• Always make use of appropriate handling aids e.g. barrows, trolleys, sack barrows, pallet trolley etc. to minimise carrying distances.
• Where possible avoid carrying loads up stairs
• If you have to move loads around the corridors then get somebody else to open fire doors for you.
• NEVER intentionally create large loads when a number of small loads is a safer alternative. Making sure everything is kept together may be a convenient method of housekeeping but is unacceptable if it creates an unsafe manual handling operation.
• When packing boxes, crates etc to form a load for transport, always provide an indication of the weight and centre of gravity on the outside. However, when handling loads use common sense if you suspect that such information may be misleading i.e. the information applied to the original load but the box has been repacked – always test the load.