Occupational injuries have been on the rise in the last few years, and transportation based accidents account for 40% of occupational deaths.
The issue can arise from driving in poor weather conditions, the distraction of your employees while controlling your construction work trucks, or even the poor state of the vehicles. The effects of such injuries are far-reaching.
Other than leading to lawsuits, they also can make your construction business understaffed as the injured employees have to seek treatment. If you have a publicly known history of occupational injury, it might be a little bit tough to find new construction projects too.
The good thing is that avoiding occupational injuries is quite easy.
Here are some tips to follow:
Inspect the Vehicles Daily
Regardless of whether you have your own construction work trucks or lease them from a rental company, you need to have the vehicles inspected before every shift.
This will include looking for issues with the brakes, tire treads, horns, and reverse alarms. In case a vehicle isn't good enough to be used in the shift, it should be taken for maintenance.
Ideally, you should have policies for identifying such vehicles and how to have them maintained as soon as an issue is found. Also, focus on making these inspections a necessity rather than a necessary evil that employees have to do.
Install Warning Systems
Sure, the reverse alarm in the construction trucks might alarm workers about incoming vehicles, but it isn't enough.
For some jobs, workers might need to wear noise-canceling headphones to protect their ears from high-frequency noise. In other cases, they may be completely distracted on the job. Be sure to install warning systems throughout your construction site.
You can use mirrors on the site and add additional mirrors on the cars too. It might also help to add cameras to the vehicles.
As for the construction ground, install markers too. It might also pay to use construction work trucks that have safety technology, such as emergency brake systems.
Eliminate Distractions
What are your drivers doing while in their trucks? If a driver is always on the phone while driving, they risk being involved in accidents.
Also, listening to loud music or wearing headphones while driving is an easy way to cause an accident on the job. Urge workers to avoid such distractions.
When at work, they should leave their phones at a certain point if they want to resist the urge to use them. Drowsy driving can also be a cause of distraction.
To be safe, ensure your workers always have enough rest. It might pay to make it easy for them to report to you if they feel that they aren't rested enough to work.
Remember, it is easier to have a driver miss working for a day than come to work and cause an accident.
Train Your Drivers Accordingly
Construction workers might have many excuses as to why training might not work for them. Some might move from one construction job to another every few weeks, with every job exposing them to an entirely new scope of risk.
While some working sites will be in a rugged landscape, others tend to be in areas of inclement weather. In other cases, the issue might be that you do not train your drivers effectively.
Ideally, you should train drivers for any job that comes with different risks. If you are using different types of construction trucks, take them through training or only hire drivers who have already been trained on how to use the trucks.
For new recruits, be sure to take them through enough training. Also, monitor driver behavior throughout to identify areas that need more training. With this level of fine-tuning, you can reduce occupational accidents one risk at a time.
Construction accidents can be avoided by being proactive in dealing with the risks. It all trickles down to how well you maintain the vehicles and how careful construction workers are.
Consider the tips above to turn your workplace into a safe haven. Looking for a construction work truck, contact Wilmar.
