Case study : Motorised tugs reduce manual handling of aircraft steps

Liverpool John Lennon Airport identified a manual handling problem during last year’s Backs! 2005 campaign. This was to do with towable aircraft steps, the steps were manufactured by a company called Airgate. The steps are towed up to the side of aircraft for passengers to get on and off. The procedure was that the baggage trucks towed the steps to within 3 or 4 meters of the aircraft. They were then uncoupled and two and sometimes three staff would manually pushed the steps the final distance. When the force required to move the steps was measured it was found to be in excess of 700 Newtons which considerably exceeds the Manual Handling Operations Regulations guideline figures of 200N.

There is no ready-made solution to this problem. However, it was suggested that there are motorised electric tugs used for moving large caravans around parks and in display sites. One of these motors was purchased and Liverpool Airport’s motor transport section adapted it for use on one of the smaller sets of steps.

A picture of the prototype is shown below on the right. On the left-hand picture, the operator is shown controlling it using a hand-held pad attached by a cable to the motor. It was found that remote control without a cable could result in other motors picking up the signal and moving as well. The cost of buying and adapting one of these conversion kits was £800.

So far the conversion kits have been attached to two small sets of steps and work successfully. The batteries need charging overnight and the smaller steps are towed into the workshop and charged up in situ. The larger steps present a problem because they are too large to go inside and there are no charging points outside the buildings for them to use. Removing the batteries to recharge them would create another manual handling risk. The airport is looking into how to resolve the battery charging problem in order to convert all steps to electric operation.