The Sam Carbis Solutions Group Safety Blog

When transporting bulk goods by rail, it’s important to have a safe, efficient way to load and unload your rail cars. Although this is a routine activity for many companies, it presents significant safety hazards, including the potential of injury or death after a fall. Having the proper fall prevention equipment is important, but proper rail car spotting and orientation also have a direct impact on rail safety. Even with all of the right equipment, your operators and employees are still at risk of a fall if your rail cars aren’t spotted correctly. Keys To Effective Rail Car Spotting Rail car spotting is one of the hardest practices to instill in your team, but it’s one of the most important steps in fall prevention. Best practices for safe and effective rail car spotting depend on whether your cars are coupled or uncoupled. Some factors to take into consideration when spotting a rail car include: Easy access to the rail car without having to climb over a railing Proper spott...

Increasing throughput is critical to your production facility’s bottom line. Workplace accidents create a substantial financial burden, and accidents that result in serious injuries or death often cause production delays and may take your facility out of commission. Your business can’t afford the consequences of a workplace accident, which is why it’s so important to invest in fall prevention solutions and improve truck safety. Truck safety cages are about more than simply meeting safety standards. They help your business’s bottom line by eliminating the need for complex harness systems, improving efficiency, increasing throughput and maximizing revenue. When a truck is spotted correctly, safety cages help to protect your workers from dangerous falls and injuries. Types Of Accidents Truck Safety Cages Help Prevent Accessing the top of a tank truck is a dangerous task, regardless of whether you’re at your production facility or on the road. In many cases, accidents occur due to a la...

A recent article in Bulk Transporter focused on the risks drivers face when working on top of tank trucks, highlighting the need for fall protection and prevention. The article , which reported on the September meeting of the Cargo Tank Risk Management Committee (CTRMC), included insights on tank truck safety from the perspective of drivers themselves: “Drivers would like to not have to go on top of tanks, but there are many reasons they have to for product quality and securement reasons,” according to the article. “Additional training on safe access to tank tops and better ladders is needed, especially when the need to carry equipment makes ‘three-point climbing’ difficult.” While OSHA and ANSI recommend maintaining three points of contact (such as two hands and a foot) while climbing up the side of a truck or ladder, that’s clearly not enough to prevent falls and accidents on your tank truck loading site. Where Does Your Tank Truck Safety Solution Fit In The Fall Protection Hierar...

A truck loading site presents a number of safety challenges, from truck spotting to securing and tarping loads, from preventing falls to keeping other employees out of harm’s way. Workplace injuries and fatalities are all too frequent during truck loading and unloading, according to a report by The Safety and Health Assessment and Research for Prevention (SHARP) Program at the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. Fortunately, these incidents “are preventable by following recommended procedures and the use of proper equipment.” Here are seven tips for better truck safety, drawn from the SHARP Program report: Analyze Injury Data Start by evaluating your company’s injury data to determine where and how injuries and “near misses” are taking place. These insights help you target the most serious hazards and maximize the effectiveness of your safety program. Establish Safe Procedures To protect drivers and operators, as well as any workers on foot, make sure you ha...

A well-designed flatbed fall protection solution helps your drivers feel safer on the job – without costing them valuable time. In fact, many of the injuries and fatalities in OSHA’s flatbed truck accident reports  could have been prevented with adequate fall protection. Here’s just one example: A subcontractor for a construction company was doing concrete work at a residential building in California, when two of the employees tried to move a piece of machinery from the back of a flatbed trailer to the front. The machinery was a tamper: a jackhammer with a flat attachment for compacting soil. But the flatbed also held a pile of lumber, and one of the workers stepped onto this unstable surface while trying to move the tamper. The worker slipped on the lumber and fell off the bed of the truck, striking his head on a concrete Jersey barrier and landing on the ground. He sustained a fractured neck vertebra, spinal injury and a laceration on his head, and was hospitalized for six days...

Turnaround time is always important when you’re working with commercial or military aircraft. A commercial plane that’s not in the air isn’t making money. A military helicopter that isn’t combat-ready could jeopardize a mission. At the same time, aviation sites require specialized safety equipment and fall prevention to protect the crew, maintenance personnel and the aircraft itself. This combination of safety challenges and time pressure makes it particularly important to choose safety solutions designed to also support efficiency. Any equipment you introduce must help workers to complete their tasks safely, without getting in their way. Choosing The Right Aviation Safety Equipment Every airport performs some level of maintenance, but these services vary depending on the site’s equipment and capabilities. Typically, a large international airport (such as LAX or JFK) is prepared to perform more complex maintenance tasks than a smaller, regional airport. Since each aviation site has di...

Chemical plants are filled with potential threats to the safety of your employees and to your company’s bottom line. Not only are you tasked with maintaining throughput efficiency, but also the nature of your business puts your workers in close contact with hazardous chemicals every day. Implementing fall prevention strategies is critical to protecting your employees from the dangers of the job and mitigating the risk of injury. Learn more about safety challenges chemical plants face as well as three fall prevention strategies for your facility. Safety Challenges Chemical Plants Face Employees working on top of trucks and rail cars are at risk of slips, trips and falls if proper safety equipment isn’t in place. Chemical plants also face a number of safety challenges that facilities in other industries may not experience, including: Multiple exits and hatches on vehicles Electrical grounding, which could lead to sparking Exposure to hazardous chemicals through spills, splash...

Your throughput depends on your ability to efficiently load and unload products at your food and beverage facility. But without the proper safety equipment, these tasks become incredibly dangerous for your employees, and even the most experienced workers could be injured or killed. Many companies fail to provide effective safety strategies and fall protection until a fatal fall occurs at their site. Although finding ways to reduce the risk of injuries is a constant challenge, it’s an important step in increasing safety and maximizing your bottom line. Learn more about safe access solutions for food and beverage facilities along with the importance of safety training for your employees. Safe Access Solutions For Your Food And Beverage Facility Fall prevention equipment for food and beverage facilities is similar to that in other industries. When considering safety equipment for your facility, it’s important to work with a trusted vendor  that can assess your facility and provide r...

Investing in the right safety equipment is a decision you should consider carefully. While the benefit of improved workplace safety often justifies the financial costs, you need to work with a vendor who is just as committed to your company’s industrial safety program as you are. How many times have you purchased a safety solution, such as fall prevention equipment, from a vendor and never received a follow-up call? After the sale is complete, your provider should check in to confirm that you were able to install the equipment properly and that employees feel protected against dangerous falls. Whether your vendor calls you, sends a service person to your location or provides you with other forms of customer service when you have questions, the day of the sale should not be the last time you hear from your vendor. There are other ways to tell whether the industrial safety equipment provider you are working with is right for you. Learn more about the characteristics of a high-quality ...

Maintaining a consistent and efficient throughput is critical to your food and beverage facility’s bottom line. Although you do your best to achieve OSHA compliance and maintain high safety standards, workers may cut corners to expedite the production process. Workplace accidents create a substantial financial burden on your business. Additionally, accidents that result in serious injuries or death may lead to production delays or shut down your facility for a period of time. Here are five tips to help you improve safety and increase throughput efficiency at your food and beverage facility: 1. Assess Your Site’s Current Fall Prevention Measures The first step toward increasing workplace safety and throughput is to conduct an honest evaluation of your current fall prevention measures. Ask an outside source to identify the following aspects of your facility: Safety equipment that is currently in place Shortcomings of your equipment, such as a safety cage that makes it difficult for ...

Unit trains, which are common in the crude oil market, consist of 60 or more tank cars carrying the same commodity to a single destination. Tank car design, along with loading and unloading processes, significantly impact rail safety and efficiency. Before crude oil unit trains, most companies left their cars uncoupled. Now, with unit trains having cars of varying lengths and platform configurations, you must take into account rail safety equipment, spotting and loading/unloading procedures. Since unit trains are almost always left coupled, you should take rail safety considerations into account to allow flexibility when positioning the gangways. It’s important to slow down, check your work and take the time to understand your rail site. Working too quickly may result in injuries or death. Why Uncoupling Is Not Ideal When it comes to rail cars, uncoupling is ideal in most situations due to the variations encountered during spotting. However, with unit trains, uncoupling is not recomm...

Providing a safer work site for your employees is essential to reducing the risk of accidents, increasing throughput and maximizing your business’s bottom line. Failing to take proper rail safety precautions may lead to serious consequences including deaths, injuries, OSHA fines and other legal ramifications. Rail hopper cars are used to transport dry bulk commodities, such as flour, sand, plastic pellets, sugar and grains. The hatches on top come in a variety of configurations, leading to spotting challenges that make it difficult to protect your workers. Additionally, chutes and other loading equipment may create obstacles that prevent safe access. Many injuries and fatalities  have occurred after workers fell from the top of rail hopper cars. Adequate fall prevention strategies may have prevented many of these accidents. Here are three tips for preventing accidents on rail hopper cars: 1. Install Rail Safety Solutions Installing rail safety solutions is an important step in re...

The chemical industry, the food industry and a variety of others make use of ISO containers, also known as isotainers and seatainers. These are essentially round tanks fixed in rectangular frames to allow for easy stacking on ships. When they’re not being transported via ship or barge, these containers are transferred onto different types of chassis and driven to their final destination. There are a number of safety concerns that must be addressed when loading and unloading ISO containers. As you develop a safety solution for your work site, consider the following isotainer safety challenges: Wide Variety Of Configurations While the International Standards Organization (ISO) regulates the dimensions of ISO containers, they come in a wide variety of sizes and configurations, each designed for a specific purpose. These containers must be loaded and unloaded in different ways, making it difficult for facilities to provide a comprehensive safety solution. According to engineering reso...

Providing a safe work site is critical for protecting your employees against accidents that may cause serious injuries. For rail sites in particular, fall prevention measures – such as safe access platforms – are viable safety solutions that may reduce the risk of preventable accidents, such as falls. However, you may not have the time to install a traditional access system. If you find that you need more flexibility, a portable platform might be beneficial for your work site. Portable platforms are suitable for rail car loading and unloading when installing permanent equipment simply isn’t feasible. Learn more about how to determine whether portable platforms are right for your rail site. How Portable Platforms Are Used Portable platforms designed specifically for rail cars are lightweight, low-cost safety solutions suitable for fall prevention during loading and unloading. Typically, a portable platform has wheels that make transporting the equipment more efficient. Many different ...

Loading and unloading goods transported by trucks, while a routine activity for many companies, presents a significant number of safety hazards, including the potential for falling employees, objects and machinery. These accidents often result in serious injuries or even fatalities, and you may be held liable as the employer. That’s why it’s important to identify safety issues early on, especially if you’ve experienced close calls in the past. In order to promote truck safety for your workers, your company should take certain expert-recommended precautions. You must choose the appropriate safety equipment, advocate proper truck spotting and implement employee training. These three best practices help you improve workplace safety at your facility. 1. Use The Appropriate Equipment For Your Specifications Simply telling your vendor you need a loading rack does not provide them with enough information to recommend the appropriate equipment. Before you place an order for your safety so...

Implementing the right rail safety solution is critical to protecting your workers from serious accidents that may cause injuries or fatalities. While these consequences are reason enough to improve workplace safety, failing to take proper rail safety precautions may also negatively impact your bottom line, lead to legal ramifications or result in fines from OSHA. Fall prevention equipment is beneficial for companies that need a way to safely access rail cars. With a wide variety of rail car types and hatch configurations, your safety equipment must be designed to accommodate your facility and processes. There’s no one-size-fits-all rail safety solution, which is why it’s so important to work with a trusted vendor  that can help you develop a custom solution for your site. Here are four crucial design considerations for your rail safety solution: 1. Your Current Safety Concerns Before you begin working with a vendor, it’s important to understand the conditions at your work site a...

Implementing the right industrial safety measures is vital for protecting your workforce from serious accidents that may cause injuries and fatalities. While these consequences are reason enough to improve workplace safety, your company may also be held liable after an accident if your work site does not meet OSHA standards. Fall prevention equipment is a beneficial solution for companies that need a system to access the tops of truck and rail applications safely. Many loading racks are configurable for single or multiple hatches. Depending on your work site needs, you may choose a loading rack that incorporates a combination of the following elements: Platforms Gangways Pumps Valves Loading arms Metering While choosing to protect your workforce with safe loading racks is a simple way to improve workplace safety, designing your custom solution may be more complicated. Learn the three key factors to consider when designing your loading rack based on your company’s...

Finding ways to reduce the risk of injury at your work site is a constant struggle, and there are many factors to take into consideration when implementing fall prevention strategies. Rail safety solutions play an important role in preventing injuries at your site, but to be effective they must be combined with safety procedures and training for your employees. Before implementing new fall prevention strategies, it’s important to understand common hazards associated with rail sites. Here are four common rail safety challenges and how to prevent them: 1. Safely Accessing The Top Of The Rail Car To prevent injuries, workers need safe access to the top of the rail car. Fall prevention equipment, such as rail safety cages, is often the best way to accomplish this. A lack of rail safety equipment makes working conditions dangerous and may lead to falls, injury and death. 2. Inability To Perform Tasks Safely This usually boils down to two factors: training and the right safety equipme...

Providing a safe work site is critical for protecting your workforce against accidents that may cause serious injuries. In particular, fall prevention measures such as safe access platforms are viable safety solutions that reduce the risk of preventable accidents. However, you may not always have the time or space available to install a traditional access platform. If you need a more flexible safety solution, portable platforms are often able to meet the specifications of your work site. Portable work platforms are suitable for truck and rail access when installing permanent platforms is simply not feasible. Learn more about how portable platforms help you meet your work site’s safe access needs. How Portable Platforms Are Used Some portable platforms are designed specifically for  tank truck access .These lightweight and low-cost safety solutions are suitable for fall prevention during loading and unloading. General truck and rail-access rolling platforms  usually have w...

 To keep your products and people moving efficiently, you need the right loading equipment for the job. While hoses are popular for loading and unloading liquids, they pose serious safety risks to your workers. When moving liquids in and out of rail cars, a safer rail safety solution is to use a loading arm .  In some instances, hoses are necessary for moving liquids. However, many facilities rely on hoses in circumstances where a loading arm would provide greater production efficiency while also benefiting workplace safety. Here are five ways loading arms improve safety and efficiency at your rail site: 1. Loading Arms Are Better For Fall Prevention Hoses lying around present a safety hazard, as workers could easily trip on them and get injured. Loading arms, when implemented in a custom manner by a qualified company, can be integrated with your facility’s existing fall prevention equipment. Additionally, loading arms are less likely to leak than hoses, which reduces the cha...

Companies that strive to protect their employees know that injuries on the job often cause time away from work, and fatalities may occur when the proper safety equipment is not in place. Fall prevention equipment such as safe-access gangways reduces the likelihood of serious accidents. But, what do you do when a safety solution  is damaged? If you have already made an investment in workplace safety, broken equipment is frustrating. Your initial thoughts may be that you should re-weld a damaged gangway to save on cost. However, even a small dent may affect the safety of your equipment permanently. Learn why repairs are not always the best course of action and how replacing broken equipment improves workplace safety. 3 Signs Your Safety Equipment Needs To Be Replaced It is vital to workplace safety that you provide equipment in safe working order and appropriate for the specific job at hand. If a safe-access gangway does not meet these requirements, you need an equipment upgrade...

Rail sites present a number of safety challenges, from spotting and orientation to safe loading and unloading of rail cars. Implementing fall prevention strategies is critical in mitigating the risk of injury at your site. In 2015, there were 16,710 cases of workplace casualties (deaths and nonfatal injuries and illnesses) at rail sites, according to the Federal Railroad Administration Office of Safety Analysis . Adequate fall prevention strategies may have prevented many of these injuries and fatalities. Additionally, failing to take proper rail safety precautions may lead to legal ramifications. Some examples include an employee suing post-injury, your company not meeting delivery deadlines for a client or OSHA compliance issues not being met. Here are four fall prevention strategies to help you maintain a safer working environment for your employees: 1. Install Safety Equipment Installing rail safety equipment is an important step in reducing the risk of injury at your site...

There’s more than one way to achieve a desired end result. Sometimes methods are employed because of history, budgets, purpose, preference, and/or safety. When loading and unloading tanker trucks and rail cars there’s more than one way to move product, too. Whether loading from the top or bottom, the two most popular options are hoses and loading arms. Each has its own purpose. There are three types of hoses: Vapor Recovery Hoses work best on jobs where light weight and flexibility are needed. They are appropriate for liquids including diesel, gasoline and lubricating oils. Steel Braided Hoses are used for hydraulic situations with high heat and high temperatures so they have to be extremely durable and reliable. Composite Hoses are compatible with the widest range of chemicals. They can transfer polar and non-polar liquids. These hoses also prevent sparking and arc-over hazards that can sometimes happen with metal hoses. Many times, Loading Arms are an excellent alternative to...