10 Tips to Avoid Warehouse Accidents

When working in warehouses, you are normally surrounded by a lot of people doing their job but they may not always be doing it safely. 

Everyone responsible for working in a warehouse should take extra measures to be safe and avoid any sort of accidents. 

Luckily, we can tell you everything you need to know about avoiding accidents and staying safe in your warehouse.

Let's dive straight in! 

1. Workplace Culture

Employers will usually focus on just getting the job done as part of the workplace culture.

However, in a warehouse, where the danger lies at every corner, it would be better if safety was part of the workplace culture as well.

In this respect, superiors must emphasize the importance of safety – always making sure that employees wear safety equipment, are properly trained, and so on.

This should be part of any warehouse safety message and can separate a superior warehouse from an ordinary one.

2. Safe Lifting

Working in a warehouse involves heavy objects that have to be lifted by employees, safely.

In this respect, before allowing workers to lift heavy objects and pallets, you must make sure that every employee is aware of how to lift safely and which tools to use.

For this, we recommend using pallet trucks as these allow you to elevate pallets off the ground and move them around easily.

For manual pallet trucks, all you have to do is pull the lever on the handle, position the pallet truck forks underneath the pallet and crank the handle up and down until the pallet is off the floor.

On the flip side, electric pallet trucks do the hard part for you.

All you need to do is use the controls to instruct the pallet truck on its next movement and continue to do so until your pallet has been lifted and moved successfully.

3. Machine Inspection

Inspecting machinery in the warehouse is a must. Not only will doing this help minimise the risk of accidents when handling pallets but will also ensure that your machines will stand to do their job properly and safely for the foreseeable future.

If you notice something odd when inspecting machinery, always point this out to your co-workers to prevent accidents from happening.

Thinking ahead and pointing out issues with warehouse machinery will help you figure out roughly when each piece will need replacing or even general maintenance.

4. Floor Check

Many accidents can also be caused by falls, trips, and slips.

In this respect, superiors must check the safety quality, so to say, of the walkways within the warehouse.

Slopes, unsecured mats, or stray cables must be either dealt with or got out of the way. They also have to make sure that the area is well lit.

5. Changes in Weather

With every change of weather, you must work hard to make sure that any natural hazards are removed from the floors or access areas, like snow and rain water.

Naturally, warehouse operatives have to either wash or wax the floors.

To do this, you would have to appropriately mark the area so that all employees can be more careful around it.

6. Proper Wear of Protective Gear

Naturally, you’ll have to wear protective gear at all times, as required by law.

However, your superior must also make sure that they wear such gear correctly.

The main parts of the protective gear must be in good, but ideally, pristine condition to avoid any types of incidents.

7. Protective Shoes

It is most likely that all workers will have to handle heavy and more than heavy cargo as well.

In this respect, you must be equipped with protective shoes, to avoid any foot or toe damage.

Usually, shoes with a metal tip are recommended for such work conditions.

8. Obstacle Clearing

Even though you’ll be working inside a warehouse, the place should not be a mess.

In short, the driveways and walkways should be clear of any cargo or obstacles, especially if you know that a forklift is going to be operated in that area.

For example, a forklift must be able to reach and access the pallets it needs without having to go through a path that has obstacles.

9. Forklift Safety

As forklifts are common in any warehouse, it's important that all workers who operate a forklift, as well as those that work around one, know the safety precautions that must be made to avoid any incidents.

Warehouse managers must make sure that their forklift operators are properly trained and experienced. 

Also, they should make sure those that don’t normally operate forklifts at least know how to behave and be safe when working around them.

Moreover, these machines have to be inspected regularly. 

Being able to point out any mechanical faults will prevent machine-related accidents from happening in your workspace. 

10. Workplace Safety Markings

According to the NIOSH, around 25% of accidents in warehouses are caused by faulty forklifts or people who don't know how to use them.  

This means that around 19,000 people are injured in warehouse accidents each year. 

As a result, the work area must be marked properly using visual barriers. These are normally painted onto the floor so workers know when to take extra care. 

A barrier system should be put in place and there must be warning signs that flag the pedestrians they are about to enter a hazardous area.

There should also be blue lights as well as red-zone warning to signal where heavy machinery is operated or approaching.

Hopefully, the above tips will help you avoid any accidents in your warehouse.

It goes without saying, take our advice seriously and put these measures into practice if you haven't done so already. 

Whether it's an accident that results in multiple damaged pallets or a worker mishandling a pallet and becoming injured, we will always offer a helping hand! 

For more advice regarding the safe handling of pallets, simply head over to our Help Centre.

You will find plenty of articles that may help answer your queries in more detail.