Ramps remove risk of fork lift accidents

BrightHouse’s loading bay alterations have been implemented as part of a company-wide plan to heighten operator health and safety, while minimising packaging waste and reducing delivery vehicle emissions.

Rob Higgins, a key member of the BrightHouse operation team, said: “We’d found that the practice of loading heavily packaged, shrink-wrapped pallets into distribution lorries using forklifts carried potential for accidents, required additional internal lorry space for fork lift manoeuvre, and generated both pallet and plastic waste. So we wanted to look for ways to make the delivery process leaner and safer."

A mobile pedestrian “Walkramp” designed and manufactured by Thorworld Industries provided a flexible solution for the manual loading of vehicles; removing the risk of fork lift accidents, the need for additional packaging, and requirement for space to be allocated for safe fork lift truck operations.

Thorworld’s engineers assembled an initial ramp on a test site, enabling operatives to trial the “Walkramp” over a three-month period. With high tensile aluminum floorplate entry ramps, rear casters with deadman’s brakes, hydraulic hand-pumps and 1000mm handrails, the ramp proved successful in achieving the company’s goals. The provisional apparatus was therefore retained, and eight additional ramps were assembled within BrightHouse’s other UK distribution centres.