Employees repeatedly move beverages from a
delivery truck to a hand truck or stack. Product to be
moved can be stacked to shoulder height and may need
to be lowered to ground level. These lifting tasks pose an increased risk of pain and injury and should
be considered hazardous unless appropriate solutions are
implemented.
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Potential
Hazard:
- Employees must repeatedly bend the torso (Fig. 1) when unloading product from delivery
trucks.
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Fig. 1:
Bending the torso.
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Possible Solutions:
- For large quantity loads provide a four-wheel
platform-style cart or a two-wheel hand truck that converts to a
four-wheel platform-style truck. This will minimize bending the torso.
- Modify the current hand truck or supply a new
one that has an adjustable height load platform or toe plate. Devices having this capability
include a palletized hand truck, a chain/crank lifting hand
cart, a hydraulic foot pump hand cart, and/or a scissor cart
with counterbalanced technology. Or, provide a spacer for hand trucks with a fixed
toe plate so that the bottom loading level is elevated to
approximately knee height. Elevating the load by adjusting the height of
the toe plate will minimize torso bending.
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Potential
Hazard:
- When pushing up an incline the employee frequently has
to lower the angle of the load (Fig. 2) to generate enough force to push the load up the slope. Lowering the load angle
increases the amount of weight the employee must lift. In
addition to providing force in a horizontal direction, the
employee must now provide force in a vertical direction. This places
additional stress on the
shoulders, back and legs.
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Fig.
2:
Lowering the angle of
the load to create more force.
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Possible Solution:
- Provide a fold down third wheel on the back of
the hand truck so the load can be self supporting. This ensures
that the employee must only provide force in a horizontal direction.
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Potential
Hazard:
- Employees who deliver to
locations without docks must pull fully loaded hand trucks over
uneven walking surfaces, up and over curbs and up stairways.
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Possible Solutions:
- Provide and use curb ramps (Fig. 3). Curb ramps
allow for easy movement over uneven walking surfaces (Fig. 4),
eliminating the need to lift and pull fully loaded hand trucks.
- Use trucks that have several doors on the
side so loads can be accessed by means other than the back door.
A short ramp from a side door could eliminate pulling the hand
cart up steps and curbs.
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Fig. 3:
Curb Ramp.
Fig. 4:
Moving the load over
the curb with the ramp.
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Potential
Hazard:
- A poorly maintained hand truck will greatly
increase physical stress on an employee. When hand truck
tires are under or unevenly pressurized, the employee's arms, back, and
legs must provide more force to move the hand truck.
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Possible Solutions:
- The employee should have the option of hard
wheels (Fig. 5) or balloon tires (Fig. 6) for the two-wheel hand truck.
Keep balloon tires in good repair and properly
inflated. Check tire pressure on a quarterly basis
or more often if needed. Make available to the employees a pressure gauge, air compressor, and
pressure hose. Hard rubber
tires do not have the air pressure problems associated with
balloon tires. However, hard rubber tires do not move very well
over rough terrain.
- If rough terrain is encountered, use a
four-wheel hand truck in the upright position as a
two-wheel hand truck.
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Fig. 5:
Hard Wheels.
Fig. 6:
Balloon Tires.
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