Pall-Ex UK has underlined its commitment to being market leading by promoting health and safety in the logistics industry after becoming the first UK pallet network to achieve another gold standard – the latest ISO accreditation.
The haulage giant has achieved accreditation for the ISO 45001:2018 in Occupational health and safety management. This is a new International standard that gives organisations a framework to improve employee safety, reduce workplace risks and create better, safer working conditions.
The standard is risk-based and uses the ‘plan-do-check-act’ and high-level structure that are common to all management system standards.
An audit for the accreditation highlighted the benefits of a £250,000 forklift truck investment, which has seen its fleet clock up 559,502 miles in a year– the equivalent of driving to the moon and back.
Forklift accident figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) demonstrates the need for improved training and investment across the industry; 25% of workplace transport injuries are a direct result of forklift truck accidents, with 1,300 UK employees hospitalised each year with serious injuries following a forklift accident.
The fleet of 45 Hyster H2.0FT Advance forklift trucks has improved efficiency and safety at its Coalville hub, which handles thousands of pallets daily thanks to features including blue light safety technology, a telematics system to disable the engine if an error or impact is detected and with seatbelt lockout which will not allow the FLT to operate if the seatbelt is not engaged.
Kevin Buchanan, Group Managing Director at Pall-Ex, comments:
“This latest achievement demonstrates Pall-Ex’s commitment to not only providing the best and safest working environment we can for our staff but to use the discipline and rigour required to achieve such a standard to drive operational excellence."
“This is a great accreditation to achieve and further cements our mission to be market leaders; we want to be the number one network for all, for our members, customers and staff, and this underlines that quality is at the forefront of our entire operation.
“We have made a major investment in our forklift truck fleet, which is maximising safety within our hub, while the forklift truck driver academy we have created ensures all drivers receive regular refresher training to ensure we have a quality workforce operating to the highest standards.
“We started 2018 on the right note by achieving the ISO 9001:2015 standard across our network, so we’re proud to be ending it with another significant first in the sector by obtaining this accreditation.”