Vehicles

What you need to know

The law says you must put sensible precautions in place to reduce the risks that vehicles can cause.

In engineering premises the risks are most likely to come from delivery lorries and forklifts moving material around the workplace.

Vehicle deliveries

Forklift on its side next to front of truck with accident damage

Delivery vehicles can hit pedestrians and forklifts, so it is important that drivers understand and follow the site rules to control these risks.

You also need to think about preventing falls from the vehicles during loading and unloading operations. See HSE's website Falls from vehicles (links to the National Archives) for examples of good practice.

Forklift trucks

Forklift truck pulling pallates from the middle of a wall of pallets stacked higher than the vehicle. Pallets have fallen off

Forklifts should be suitable for the tasks required of them and be properly maintained.

Drivers should:

Site rules

Site rules for the safe use of vehicles should include:

Pedestrians

Wherever possible, pedestrians kept away from vehicles and there should be marked pedestrian walkways.

If a pedestrian needs to speak to the driver, they should make eye contact before approaching or moving away from the vehicle.

Workplace transport

You can find out more about assessing and managing vehicle and driver safety at work in HSE's website Workplace transport.

Updated 2021-11-02