Workplace transport is any activity involving vehicles used in a workplace. Vehicles driven on public roads are excluded, except where the vehicle is being loaded or unloaded on a public road adjacent to a workplace.

Every year, there are too many accidents involving transport in the workplace and a considerable percentage of these accidents result in people being killed.

The main causes of injury are people falling off vehicles, or being struck or crushed by them.

To manage workplace transport effectively, there are three key areas to consider when carrying out your risk assessment:

• safe site (design and activity).
• safe vehicle.
• safe driver.

2.1 Safe site – design:
Segregation:
Every site is different and likely to present different hazards and risks. However, a well-designed and maintained site with suitable segregation of vehicles and people will make workplace transport accidents less likely.

The most effective way of ensuring pedestrians and vehicles move safely around a workplace is to provide separate pedestrian and vehicle traffic routes. Where possible, there should also be a one-way system as this will reduce the need for vehicles to reverse, and will help pedestrians and drivers.

Your circumstances might mean that complete segregation is not possible, so you would need to have clearly marked pedestrian and vehicle traffic routes, using measures such as barriers and signs.

There should be separate entrances and exits for vehicles and pedestrians, and vision panels should be installed on doors that open onto vehicle traffic routes.

Where pedestrian and vehicle traffic routes cross, they should be clearly marked using measures such as dropped kerbs, barriers, deterrent paving etc, to help direct pedestrians to the appropriate crossing points.

Traffic routes:
The general principles for safe traffic routes are as follows:

Some parts of a workplace, such as cast-iron columns, storage racking, pipework and cables, are vulnerable to impact from vehicles and will need to be protected.