'‘It's important for employers to provide workers with information, orientation, and training specific to live loads if they will be transporting such loads, even for short distances'
WorkSafeBC has released a bulletin detailing the hazards of driving trucks and trailers with live loads – or the ones in which a tank contains a liquid such as water, oil or milk that can slosh around during transport – and safe work practices that employers should use to keep workers safe while transporting live loads.
It also provides workers with information on their rights to receive training and refuse unsafe work.
“Transporting live loads can affect a vehicle’s handling and stability and put workers at risk,” according to the agency. “It’s important for employers to provide workers with information, orientation, and training specific to live loads if they will be transporting such loads, even for short distances,” it said.
Many Canadians are not willing to embrace proven measures for safer roads, according to a previous report.
Employers are responsible for ensuring the health and safety of their workers, and this includes making sure that workers who transport live loads receive information, orientation and training to address the additional driving hazards, WorkSafeBC noted in the bulletin.
They must also provide ongoing supervision to ensure workers follow their instruction and training, it said.
Employers are also responsible for managing risks associated with transporting live loads.
Businesses transporting live loads must also implement a procedure for assessing a worker’s competency to transport live loads.
“It’s not enough just to be licensed and trained — the worker should also be experienced with the vehicle being used and familiar with the potential hazards of live loads,” according to WorkSafeBC.
Also, workers who think their training was inadequate need to be able to report their concerns to a supervisor with authority to make changes.
If the data from Burnaby RCMP, in British Columbia, is going to be the basis, it seems far too many commercial vehicles are unsafe for the road. In a roadside safety check, inspectors found that 67 per cent of commercial vehicles were “unfit for the roadway”.
Also, more than half (55 per cent) of Ontario drivers admit to engaging in unsafe driving and nearly all (95 per cent) have witnessed dangerous driving from other motorists, according to a survey conducted on behalf of CAA South Central Ontario (CAA SCO).
