Safe handling when securing loads

Safe handling when securing loads - webinar

Shane:

Welcome everybody to Workplace Health and Safety Queensland's Safely Securing Loads Webinar. My name's Shane Stockill and I'll be the facilitator for today's session.

I'd just like to introduce our two presenters for today. Firstly, we have Pam Knobel. Pam is Principle Advisor Ergonomics with Workplace Health and Safety Queensland. Pam works with the transport industry currently investigating the impacts of the supply chain on road freight transport operators, particularly relating to MSD and work-related stress. Pam has also worked as a small-business advisor with Workplace Health and Safety Queensland.

Wayne Wootton is from Daryl Dickinson Transport. Wayne is a compliance manager with Daryl Dickinson's and has twelve years with that firm. His current role involves the ongoing safety and compliance of all of Daryl Dickinson Transport's operations, including employees and subcontractors. Wayne has worked in supervisory positions with the safety focus in various roles, including steel construction, hospitality, and the transport of steel.

Just for today, I wanted to talk a little about today's process. Today's webinar will focus on the work health and safety implications of workers when they're conducting the activities required to restrain loads safely and will be following risk management approach to do this. We'll be hearing from both Workplace Health and Safety Queensland and also from Wayne, to provide an industry view about availability and implementation of controls, including gaining ownership of those controls by drivers.

While workplace health and safety legislation does interact with the national heavy vehicle regulator chain of responsibility laws, our focus today will be on work health and safety requirements. Workplace Health and Safety Queensland's focus is on ensuring that workers our safe when conducting the activities associated with securing loads, whereas the national transport commission is responsible for the safe carriage of loads on road vehicles and to assist industry in doing this, it publishes the load restraint guidelines.

Therefore, the focus of today's webinar is the safety of workers when they're conducting the activities required to secure loads. Feel free to send in your questions during this session. I just wanted to let you know that we've had over five-hundred and fifty registrants for today. There's been a high level of interest and we've already received some questions. If we don't get to your specific question, we'll respond by email to you out of session.

Pam:

Okay, everyone, we got a polling question for you now. If you can just fill in the type of load restraints that you use in your workplace. We've got multiple options there, so you can choose as many of those as you like in the first question. Then the second question is for those of you that use dogs and cheater bars in your organization. I'll just give you a few moments to fill those in and then we'll talk about the results shortly.

Okay, so we got the results in now and for the first question, we got multiple answers. Most people are using the curtains or load binders and gates and interestingly only very few people are using dogs and cheater bars. We might move on from here now.

The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 is based on risk management. Section 17 specifically outlines how businesses should apply risk management principles. The act doesn't specific guidance about the use of particular load restraint methods; however, the principles of risk management should be applied to restraining loads. The legislation outlines duties of businesses and workers to ensure good communication in the management of work health and safety risk. Duty holders are required to ensure work health and safety by eliminating or minimizing risks to health and safety so far as it's reasonably practicable.

The national transport commission publishes the load restraint guidelines to ensure the safety of loads during carriage and these guidelines will be updated and they are scheduled to be re-released in 2017. Also, the NTC (national transport commission) recommends that chain and dogs aren't used for safety reasons, as it's been realised that dogs either with or without an extension, also known as a cheater bar, can cause serious injury to the operator, when applying or releasing the chain.

A workplace health and safety analysis showed that around a hundred workers' compensation claims a year are associated with load restraints. Although, it's not clear how many of those are directly related to the use of dogs and cheater bars. To look at some real cases, in one instance a worker had his leg broken when the chain dog he was using flicked back and hit him. Then in 2011, another incident occurred where a worker was using a dog and cheater bar to secure machinery on a truck. He was struck in the eye and blinded. That company was found guilty and fined $40,000. That time would have been in addition to any worker's compensation and common law costs associated with the incident. That company has since replaced dogs with turnbuckles.

Also, around 80 per cent of transport workers in the transport industry have reported that they've had an incident with a dog and cheater bar or they know someone who has. From that, it's clear that there are risks associated with dogs and cheater bars. So, we're just going to look sprain and strain injuries now. Sprains and strains are a real concern for the transport industry. 60 per cent of the injuries in the transport industry are from the musculoskeletal disorders, which are also known as MSDs or sprain and strain injuries. The back and shoulders are the most commonly affected body parts. While the most common cause of sprain and strain injuries are hazardous manual tasks followed by slips, trips, and falls and hit or being hit by a moving object.

The average cost of a serious injury claim in this industry is approximately ninety-five thousand and that's comprised of about nineteen thousand in worker's compensation costs, with the remainder coming from other costs such as business disruption, administrative, legal, and other welfare costs. These injuries can have a substantial impact on your business.

A national work health and safety regulators working group was established to raise awareness among the transport industry about the risks of using fixed leaver over central load tensioners, also known as dogs and extension bars, also known as cheater bars, and it worked towards phasing them out as the load tensioning system in the industry. Alternate load restraint devices are available; however, a perception exists that amongst some operators in the industry that sufficient tension cannot be achieved with the alternate devices, that they introduce new hazards and also that the risks posed by dogs and cheater bars can be adequately managed just by being careful.

Following on from this work, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland conducted the safe handling when securing loads campaign which had a focus on dogs and cheater bars and it also included other common activities associated with securing loads. The campaign involved close to six hundred inspections at transport work places across Queensland. Workplace Health and Safety Queensland along with WorkCover New South Wales and WorkCover Victoria all recommend alternatives to dogs for load restraints and not to use cheater bars. Dogs have been phased out by some work places, after acknowledging the serious risk of injury.

Customers of the transport industry are also moving towards not allowing dogs and cheater bars to be used on their site. For example, BlueScope Steel has prohibited the use of dogs and cheater bars on their sites. As a result, Toll Global Logistics has removed them from their operations. There's a case study on our website which outlines the process they use to do this. Daryl Dickinson Transport has also removed dogs and cheater bars from use. Wayne's going to tell us about their journey a little later on.

When Workplace Health and Safety Queensland had discussed the issues of dogs and cheater bars with industry, concerns were raised that alternate load binders may increase the risk of sprain and strain injuries. While there were other perceptions that dogs and cheater bars didn't cause serious injuries. To look into this issue further, a study was conducted by an external engineering and ergonomics company to assess the potential musculoskeletal and impact risks associated with dogs and cheater bars as well as other inline tensioners.

The study included a data review, physical assessments and consultation with the industry through surveys and focus groups. The study found that dogs and cheater bars present a fatality risk from impact injuries. Alternate load binders are the preferred option as they don't present a fatality risk. It was found that both dogs and the alternate devices had risks of sprain and strain injuries.

The study recommended the development of load restraint devices that a truck mounted below the tray, so that work can be done with the worker's hands between waist and shoulder height, when they're standing on the ground. These devices should have release mechanisms that do not permit the sudden or uncontrolled release of the load, as well as having tension indicators.

It was also recommended that the design of inline chain tensioners be improved, and the use of dogs and cheater bars discouraged as per existing guidance from Workplace Health and Safety Queensland as well as other jurisdictions. The study acknowledged that implementing these recommendations would require time and collaboration between Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, industry, suppliers, and manufactures. There's more details about this study about this study on the Workplace Health and Safety Queensland website.

We got another polling question for you now. Again, if you can select which of the following tasks that your workers do, and you can select multiple options. We'll just give you a few moments to fill that in.

We'll just give you a little bit more time there.

Okay, we're just waiting for the results to come in. It helps us to get a bit of an idea of the type of tasks that your workers are performing in relation to these activities.

Okay, so we got our results there and by far the most common task there is tensioning chains and webbing. Then, all the other tasks are represented at a much lower rate, but there all there. It's handy to know that as we talk about some of these things that they are relevant to your workplaces.

In talking about these hazardous tasks, the Workplace Health and Safety Queensland safe handling and securing loads campaign did have a focus on dogs and cheater bars. It also identified other tasks that are hazardous to workers when they're conducting loading activities. These included handling gates and curtains as well as placing lashings and corner protectors. The type of risks that are present in these activities include high or sudden force; awkward postures; repetitive movements; slips, trips, and falls, as well as falls from heights; and hit or being hit by objects.

The risks identified in those hazardous load securing tasks that we've talking about result in four main types of injuries and they are sprains and strains; slips, trips, and falls at the same level; falls from heights; as well as traumatic injuries. To manage the risk of injury, duty holders need to identify reasonably foreseeable hazards, asses the associated risks, and manage them in accordance with the hierarchy of control, and a diagram of that is on your screen.

We need to start at elimination then work down the hierarchy through substitution, isolation, engineering controls, followed by administrative controls, and finally personal protective equipment. The more effective controls come from further up the hierarchy. While controls at the bottom of the hierarchy are less effective as the risk factors haven't been changed. You might need a combination of those controls to minimize the risk.

Guidance can be sought from the Work Health and Safety regulation and codes of practice for how to manage work health and safety risk, hazardous manual tasks, and managing risks plant in the workplace.

Now we're going to talk about some of those hazardous activities, starting with handling gates. Lifting and handling gates can result in the risk of a sprain and strain injury as the activity often results in the worker needing to use high force or another way to think about that is physical effort, due to the weight of the gates, also awkward postures such as lifting above shoulder heights to move the gates. There is also a risk of impact injuries occurring if a worker is struck by a gate; and Wayne, have you got anything to add about handling gates?

Well, Pam, it's an issue that we've looked at long and hard. We're always working towards that. Unfortunately, truck drivers believe they're Hercules; they can lift anything. They get a gate up over their head, next thing they're out of balance; it's off-height. We're starting to look at shoulder injuries, back injuries. We mostly work with flattops, where there's no real provision to assist them, other than finding assistance from someone else on site. We tried to develop techniques and procedures to lift gates out to make it safer and easier for them.

Wayne:

Our biggest problem really is delivery points and delivery sites and getting people to help either by forklift or by someone on the other end of the gate, to share the load.

Excellent. Thanks for that, Wayne. It is important to look at the control measures that we can put in place for handling gates, whether it be at a customer site or the transport depot.

Pam:

We'll just go on now to talk about some of the controls that are available for handling gates. The elimination is the preferred method of control for managing risk, and using approved load bearing curtains can eliminate the need for gates. To minimize the risk of handling gates, sliding or swinging gates can be used to decrease the force and awkward postures associated with the task. This type of device may also reduce the risk of impact injuries from falling gates.

The next task that we're going to talk about is handling curtains. The risks associated with the activity of handling curtains include awkward postures; forceful exertions; and slips, trips, and falls. While handling curtains, workers often have their shoulder and arm in an awkward posture, behind their body and above their head. Force or again physical effort may also be an issue to pull the weight of the curtain and that can be increased if the rollers don't roll freely, which can caused by things like a lack of maintenance, contamination, damage, or poor design. Also, in windy weather conditions, the force required to move the curtains can also be increased. Curtains that have buckles introduce repetitive movements, force, and awkward postures to the hand and wrist; and because workers often work backward to conduct this activity, there's a risk that a slip, trip, or fall might occur.

Wayne, what issues do you see when workers are handling curtains?

Some of our issues really respond around the fact that we have what are called prairie wagons, which have to be moved from both sides at once, unless the prairie wagons and the rollers and that themselves are maintained to a high standard, they're very difficult item to move. The guys, yes, we have problems with them moving backwards, but most of the time, if they can get assistance to push them back, they can always push forward and it rolls very easily. By maintaining the rollers and bearings, everything runs smoothly and we don't have these issues. Daryl Dickenson Transport has a real focus on the maintenance of their vehicles and make sure that all these things are bound for the driver to reduce the effort needed.

Wayne:

Excellent. Thanks, Wayne. That point you make about maintenance is really important, that even if you've got a control in place, you do need to make sure that it's maintained, so it's offering the level of protection that you intended it for. Now we're going to look at some other control options for handling curtains. There are a number of them that can be used to reduce the risk. For example, automatic curtains that are self-opening and closing eliminate the risk associated with handling curtains. Buckle-less curtains can assist in reducing force and repetitive movements. Also, as we've just spoken about, ensuring curtains are well maintained, so they slide easily, helps to reduce the force needed to handle them. An extension strap may also help to reduce awkward postures.

Pam:

It's also important that loading and unloading areas are free from tripping hazardous and containments as this helps to reduce the risk of slips, trips, and falls.

Now we're going to talk about lashing activities and throwing lashings such as chains or webbing over a load involves awkward postures. For example, that might be when the arm and shoulder are above head height. It also includes high or sudden force due to the weight or nature of the chains and repetitive movements, for example if a number of lashings are required to secure a load. Climbing onto the trucks to place lashings, taps, or corner protectors can result, again, in high or sudden force and awkward postures. It also introduces the risk of falls from heights. There is also the potential for other people in the areas to be struck by a chain, particularly if they're on the opposite side of the truck when a chain is thrown.

Wayne, what common issues do you know that some workers are using lashings?

What we tried to develop, we encourage our guys to use ropes when they use chains, put the rope over first to reduce the weight and the height thrown. In that way, they can just hook the chain on the end of the rope and pull it back over the load, which reduces the effect on their bodies considerably. When it comes to straps, we get them to roll them from the loose end back and hang on to the buckle and throw the light end, once again reducing the weight of the throw and the force required to enter in that.

Wayne:

That's great, Wayne. Thanks. That's always good to get some practical information on what the industry's doing.

Pam:

Now we're going to look at tensioning activities, and using dogs and cheater bars can result high or sudden force to tension or release tension as well as awkward postures, again, in the shoulder and back. Impact injuries and falls from heights may be an issue, as well as being hit if the cheater bar flicks back and strikes the worker or others in the area, particularly when releasing tension. Using wenches or hand ratchets can result in repetitive movements and awkward wrist and shoulder posture, particularly when they are above shoulder heights.

In relation to some industry perception that dogs pose less of a risk of a sprain and strain injury, let's consider some of the findings from the Workplace Health and Safety Queensland ergonomics study that we spoke about earlier. The force required to tension a dog without a cheater bar was found to be sixty kilos of force. While the study recommended that the maximum force to tension should be twenty-five to thirty kilos of force. It was found that dogs were much higher than that. The force to release dogs when using a cheater bar was significantly lower; however, as we've already mentioned dogs pose a fatality risk, especially when using a cheater bar. Another interesting find from the study was that it was found that the tip of the handle of a dog travelled at fifty-five kilometres an hour during the release of tension, so these findings confirm the risks that are associated with dogs and cheater bars.

We're going to look at the controls now for the lashings and tensioning tasks, and we've grouped them together because the controls are similar. A number of controls can be used to minimize the risk from these activities. You can eliminate the use of chains and webbing by using a custom design truck that is specific to the load or other systems that reduce the need for lashings. You could also use a platform ladder to reduce the risk of falling from the truck. Lightweight extension poles could be used to place lashings and corner protectors from the ground. While webbing straps can be used as an alternative to chains. That will be lighter, require less force, and also reduce the risk if others are struck. Retractable webbing straps can also be suspended from the roof of a trailer. If chains are required, use alternate load binders to avoid using dogs and cheater bars. As Wayne mentioned earlier, you can use lead ropes if you are using chains. Also, turnbuckles are another alternative as they don't have kickback when they're released.

Wayne, do you have any other comments on those activities?

I think you've pretty much covered off on most of it. To do these activities, we re-train our guys on load restraint annually and the retraining seems to over a period of time lessen the chance and lessen the opportunity for injury. They start to get used to using the right way to do things and they cut-out the shortcuts, where most of the injuries occur.

Wayne:

Thanks for that, Wayne, and training is definitely important, I guess too coupled with the other controls that you mentioned earlier.

Pam:

A really important tonight is that there's no one size fits all solution when it comes to binders. Different types work for different types of loads. It's important to try various types of binders in your workplace to determine which ones work best for the type of freight that you're transporting.

Wayne, what have you found in terms of binders and the ones that work best for the types of loads your company transports?

Daryl Dickinson Transport have been travelling this journey for quite a long time. They made a decision in back of mid 2002, 2004, 2005, that the lever dog was just not the place to be. Not that we were having a terrible amount of injuries, but there was so many opportunities for injuries and near-misses, from bars slipping out and cheater bars being thrown through the air. What they did is they started to look at what was available in the market. The first one that they looked at was the av-cam, which at the time was only suitable for some types of loads, not other loads, plus it was very heavy to position. You had to have another spanner, which led to another cheater bar being involved on a nut, which had the opportunity for it slipping off.

Wayne:

Then we can get to the real issue that it's in the transport industry, is the expense of doing it. Av-cams were a very, very expensive item. Since then, we've journeyed on and travelled through all the different devices that have come on the market. We've worked very closely over the years with the manufacturers and distributors of these devices, going back and forth, always keeping in mind to involve your staff, because the staff are the ones who use it. We always work on having our guys look at what it is and they're the ones that try it, not management. The drivers, the guys at the cold face are the ones that try it. What they decide is the best.

Excellent. Thanks for that, Wayne. I guess we're just going to talk about your journey now with that. Definitely consulting with your drivers is important. Did you find that they responded well to that inclusion in the process?

Pam:

As with everyone, the early journey was "Nah, that's impossible; it's never going to work. These are the best things" and over the time, we travelled through all the different devices and we've had yes and no's and all that. At the current time, the two devices that we've settled on is the Web Dog and the Maxi Binder. That's not talking out of school by mentioning names. The guys have really settled into these, especially the Maxi Binder; they put them on and they said, "Where were these thirty years ago? They're so easy to use."

Wayne:

One of the issues we do have with it, and I do believe I should bring it up, is too often in workplace health and safety we move the issue sideways. We've swapped a fatal injury as in with the lever dog and we've replaced it with having to use safety steps in our case to reach up to put these devices on because the stretch that they've got to go up to is much higher up the load. Some of the guys can do it, some don't. We got a mixture of guys that can do it easily, but others that need a safety step. A safety step, all it did was introduce a fall component into it and slip. We decided to un-wheel the safety steps so at least it's not going to roll away on them.

But it's a long, long journey, and unless you bring your staff in on this journey, it's never going to work for you. You need total management commitment, you need manufacturer's onsite that are willing to work with you, and you need the guys on the floor to accept it. We've got to the point now where our guys not only accept it, but they embrace it. Even new drivers coming on the scene go straight in there and there's no comment on going back; they're all looking to the future. We're hoping the right device is out there somewhere and improves the safety for our drivers.

Thanks, Wayne. That was a really good point about other hazards, because we spoke earlier about a risk management approach to managing hazards and part of that is being aware that you're not introducing new hazards or changing a hazard, so that is important, to look holistically at the task when you are introducing change.

Pam:

You mentioned the challenges of getting drivers involved and other hazards; was there any other challenges in your journey to make this change?

The biggest challenge is the cost. The difference between a lever dog, which I think at the moment you can buy for under $20, to some of these other devices that go sixty, seventy, eighty, and well over a hundred dollar mark. There is a big cost component involved. Then you got to look at the resilience of some of the devices we've travelled through and the long-term, where a lever dog would last for years and years and years, some of the devices we tested and tried wouldn't last weeks. When you add the cost and durability, they were obstacles we had to get over.

Wayne:

But through time, and I'll use the word training and that's always at the bottom of the hierarchy of control... but when your guys know how to use the gear properly, they can really enhance the elimination of the lever dog, so I think this is one thing that we've got to take into consideration: don't forget your drivers when you're looking at it and make sure you try different devices that will work for your business. I think this is the way to go and we've proven it over the last few years. The reduced number of injuries from load restraints is dramatic in our business.

Excellent. Thanks for that, and you do make a valid point there, Wayne that training is at the bottom of the hierarchy of control. But I guess in your instance and what we like to see is that you're it in combination with other controls that are actually higher up the hierarchy. Again, we do need to see that combination of controls being used.

Pam:

What would you say to the businesses that say they can't tension adequately with alternatives to dogs and cheater bars.

Any other business that believes they can't do it with other devices hasn't tried another device. You look at somewhere where you can use a lever dog, most of the time you can use a Maxi Binder or even a Web Dog. They've got the same strain; they're easier to fit. Just get out there and try it. Put it in the hands of your drivers and let them decide for you. I know what their answer will be. They'll come back to whatever's safer and what's the more likely to work better for them.

Wayne:

Good points again there, Wayne. I guess, just to round off the discussion here, what changes do you see in the industry in managing risk in this space?

Pam:

Well, maybe I'm a bit cynical, but I think the way the industry is at the moment and cost is very, very, very hard thing to deal with in the transport injury, and I think, unfortunately, as I look around some of the sites of our competitors and in the marketplace, safety is coping a little bit of a slackening and I don't like to see that. When it comes down to the dollar, we struggle sometimes in the sheer effect that we try to be 100 per cent compliant all the time. When you're competing against people that aren't, it really makes it difficult out there in the industry.

Wayne:

But in saying that, all of our subcontractors that work for us are eager to come on board with the advances in load restraint lashings that we've come through. And so, I think there's a huge positive out there and I think we're all moving in the right direction, and once we all move together, I think we'll really come ahead.

Excellent. Thank you, Wayne. I think you really added that practical side of what we're talking about today and just to finish up that point about cost, you have acknowledged that the alternates are more expensive than dogs and cheater bars, but your company has gone down that path and the benefits they see. and from earlier on in the session, we did talk about the cost of a sprain and strain injury, so we've talked about that being about $95,000, so again that's an awful lot of load binders that is a potential injury, not to mention all the other impacts that an injury has in the workplace.

Pam:

Just moving on from there, there is further information about the issues that we've talked about today on our website. There's some links on your slide there now and the first couple of those relate to the Safe Handling when Securing Loads Campaign that I've been speaking about during this. There's some resources there and there's a short film, which is also good resource for you. The two points down the bottom there relate to the ergonomic assessment that was done in relation to dogs and cheater bars and alternate devices. If you're looking for some more information about that, you can follow those links to get there.

Have we got any questions now?

Yes, Pam. We've got quite a few number of questions come in. The first question is "Have dogs and cheater bars been outlawed?"

Shane:

Excellent. Thanks for that, Shane. No dogs and cheater bars haven't been outlawed, but we have been speaking today about the risk management approach that needs to be taken to ensure that your workers are safe when conducting this type of activity. We've also heard about the type of risks that are associated with dogs and cheater bars, so you need to take that information into account when doing your risk assessment to determine what type of device that you're going to use.

Pam:

Thanks a lot, Pam. Now I have a question for Wayne: "What about using a device called a strong-arm, apparently this keeps the load below the shoulders while pulling curtains?"

Shane:

A strong-arm can be very useful, not that we deal a terrible lot with them. As I said, we got prairie wagons and not taught liners. The strong-arms are generally used for pulling the curtain along to make the grip easier for the driver. As I said before, sometimes when we look at some methods, we don't exactly eliminate it. We move a bit sideways. The strong-arm still leaves the opportunity for slips, trips, and falls, because most of the time you got to walk backwards or sideways, but yes, it is a valuable piece of apparatus and it's a step in the right direction.

Wayne:

Thanks for that, Wayne. I guess when we're looking at sprain and strain injuries, we need to look the risk factors that are associated with that type of injury, so when we're talking about the strong-arm, Wayne's mentioned a few things--and particularly what we're looking at there is awkward postures. Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has a couple of different tools that you can go and actually assess your task because again risk management needs to be on assessment of task. We've got our perform program and a component of that is a simplified risk management tool for hazardous manual tasks. That is based on workers being the experts and using their knowledge. It's also heavily based on consultation with workers to identify hazards and potential controls.

Pam:

If that's not suitable for your business, we also have another tool, which is a simple two-page risk assessment tool specifically for hazardous manual tasks. If you're looking at that sort of device or looking to assess your risk in this area, then those are a couple of really practical tools that we offer that can assist you to do that.

Okay, Wayne, we have a question here: "Are ratchet bars as effective as dogs in securing the loads?"

Shane:

Actually, I believe the question means ratchet devices or web binders or Maxi Binders or other similar products effective as dogs. I'll go down the track. First off, Web Dogs. Web Dogs actually have a small plastic device set into the webbing, when you reach 750 kilogram feet, it actually shows you what's closed up. That means it's to the full strength of it.

Wayne:

Maxi Binders, for argument's sake, have the fact that once you take up the tension on the chain, it takes about three pumps to the handle and it's as tight as it's going to get. The problem also with dogs is people also had the tendency with dogs and lever bars and cheater bars, they'd over-tension the chains. A dog was designed to be pulled down by a standard man of standard height to pull the lever down without an extension bar to attain 750 kilogram feet. Once you put a cheater bar on it, and as most truck drivers did, they bounced and bopped and jumped down with it, you're actually exceeding the 750 kilogram feet and possibly putting too much strain on the dogs.

Thanks for that, Wayne. We're running out of time, but just a couple more questions. "Are ropes able to be used now or does it need to be an item that has a specific load rating?"

Shane:

Now you're bringing up the old age in me. I remember when ropes were the only thing we used, but in the case of ropes, no there is no load rating on ropes, so under Workplace Health and Safety, if there's no load ready, there's no use for them. All that ropes are used for now are tying down tarps, lashing your dunnage down to the deck, or securing gates. Most of the time, in our instance, we've replaced the dunnage's and the gates. We use webbing straps, because it's more safer and much more practical to use.

Wayne:

Thanks very much, Wayne. Now I just have one last question for Pam: "Are there any resources available to assist business with communicating to workers, for example: posters, toolbox scripts, etc.”

Shane:

Excellent. Thanks, Shane. That leads us nicely into the next slot of information there about where you can get further assistance. The slide we spoke about earlier had information about the Securing Loads Campaign and the ergonomics study on it. I've mentioned a couple other resources as well, relating to hazardous manual tasks.

Pam:

On our website as well, there is a particular section for transport. There's a variety of tools and resources for you. There's findings from campaigns, there's webinars that we've had other areas and other resources as well. I encourage you to jump on our website and the links there and go down to the transport section, which will give you some transport specific information. You can also sign up for our eSafe newsletter, which is a free newsletter to receive updates from Workplace Health and Safety Queensland and again another way you can do that is through our safety leadership at work program and information about that's on our web.

In terms of load restraint itself and the load as opposed to the safety of workers when they're conducting those activities, there's a couple of links down the bottom for the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator and National Transport Commission, so that can help you to answer some of those other questions. I just wanted to thank you for participation today. Any other questions, as Shane mentioned earlier, we can answer that out of session. Thanks for your participation and I hope that's helped you out. Thank you.

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