How often should racking be inspected? This can be explained in three simple steps.
Step one: Immediate reporting
As soon as a safety concern or damage is observed by any employee, it should immediately be reported to the person responsible for racking safety (PRRS). You should already have systems in place for reporting damage and defects.
Employees should receive training, information and instruction on the safe operation of the racking system, including the parts affecting their safety and the safety of others.
Step two: Internal inspections
This is a regular internal inspection normally carried out by the nominated PRRS.
The frequency of internal inspections will depend on a number of factors that are particular to the end user, such as size, low or high levels of operations / product movement and type of equipment used etc.
By nominating a PRRS, he or she can quickly determine the frequency of the inspections based on their risk assessment.
Recommendations are:
The PRRS should ensure that visual inspections are made at weekly or other regular intervals based on a risk assessment. A formal written record should be maintained.
Step three: ‘Expert’ inspections
As a minimum requirement, a third party racking inspection should be carried out at intervals of not more than 12 months. Again the frequency of the ‘Expert’ inspection will depend upon a number of factors including the type of operation and the storage equipment in use.
Normally the expert inspection is carried out on an annual basis, however bi annual and quarterly inspections are now being implemented by businesses with high levels of operation.
Once the equipment has been inspected, any serious risks that require offloading will be issued as ‘Red risk’ and notified immediately to the PRRS.
A written report should then follow and be submitted to the PRRS with other observations and proposals for any action necessary.
Normal rack inspections will be carried out from ground level unless there are indications of problems at high level that require further investigation.
