Are you concerned that you are not fulfilling your requirements with regards to racking safety and the law as specified by HSE?

Racking Damage Surveys and Safety Assessments

Why does your industrial racking need checking?

If your warehouse racking installation is to stay safe, it needs regular checks. Even day to day use of industrial racking, and the general bumps and knocks it receives from forklifts, can weaken its structural integrity.

Faulty or damaged warehouse racking equipment can increase the risk of collapse – something which can put lives and livelihoods at risk.

The HSE requires that regular racking damage checks should be carried out weekly by the person in your organisation with responsibility for your industrial racking. Then “at intervals of not more than 12 months” a “technically competent person” should carry out a detailed racking damage inspection and supply a report.

Rack-Master Storage Systems' fully trained and qualified Racking Safety Inspectors meet the HSE’s requirement for a “technically competent person” and can complete visual inspections of your equipment at competitive rates.

Low cost Racking Damage Surveys

Our typical price for H&S Racking Damage Surveys is £250.00 per day + VAT and £150.00 + VAT for the written report which includes a full site layout plan.

Each Racking Damage Survey includes:

  • An on-site visual inspection of your warehouse racking equipment, with any damage (and its location) marked on inspection sheets.
  • A written report for your Health & Safety file (in accordance with HSE guidelines and current legislation).
  • A competitive quote for any industrial racking repair work. We present this in a way that enables you to A) check the damaged locations for yourself and B) get a comparative quotation from one of our competitors), removing any potential conflict of interest.

How long do Racking Damage Surveys take?

We complete the vast majority of Racking Damage Surveys within one day. This typically only increases with particularly large warehouse racking installations, or where there are numerous issues with the condition of the equipment.

Please contact us for more details and to arrange your free no obligation quotation (quotes are produced based upon warehouse size, number of pallet bays, level of damage and geographical location).

Industrial racking and you – your obligations

The following is an excerpt from the “SEMA Guide to the Conduct of Pallet Racking and Shelving Surveys”

There are generally four basic reasons for requiring Racking Damage Surveys:

  • As a regular audit to check the condition of warehouse racking equipment for health and safety purposes.
  • As a means of assessing the amount of work to be done to repair or replace damaged parts of equipment.
  • As a means of assessing the structural safety of industrial storage equipment following an accident involving severe structural damage and/or failure.
  • To verify, or otherwise, that the equipment has been designed and built to the required specification and standard.

The following is an excerpt from the "HSE Warehousing and Storage: A Guide to Health and Safety"

Racking inspection and maintenance:

641 - In general, racking is manufactured from relatively lightweight materials and, as a consequence, there is a limit to the amount of abuse that it can withstand. The skill of lift truck operators has a great bearing on the amount of damage likely to be caused. Any damage to racking will reduce its load carrying capacity. The greater the damage the less its strength will be.

642 - To ensure that a racking installation continues to be serviceable and safe, the storage equipment should be inspected on a regular basis. The frequency of inspections depends on a variety of factors that are particular to the site concerned and should be determined by a nominated ‘person responsible for racking safety’ (PRRS) to suit the operating conditions of the warehouse. This will take into account the frequency and method of operation together with the dimensions of the warehouse, the equipment used and personnel involved, all of which could damage the structure. The inspection follows a hierarchical approach using several levels of inspection.

Immediate reporting

643 - As soon as a safety problem or damage is observed by any employee, it should immediately be reported to the PRRS. You should have systems in place for reporting damage and defects.

644 - Employees should receive training, information and instruction on the safe operation of the racking system, including the parts affecting their safety and the safety of others.

Visual inspections

645 - The PRRS should ensure that inspections are made at weekly or other regular intervals based on risk assessment. A formal written record should be maintained.

‘Expert’ inspections

646 - A technically competent person should carry out inspections at intervals of not more than 12 months. A written report should be submitted to the PRRS with observations and proposals for any action necessary.

647 - A technically competent person might be a trained specialist within an organisation, a specialist from the rack supplier, or an independent qualified rack inspector.

648 - A programme of rack awareness training is run regularly by SEMA to address the issue of visual inspection and a more formal course is run to qualify expert inspectors under the SARI (SEMA approved rack inspector) scheme.

649 - Normal rack inspections will be carried out from ground level unless there are indications of problems at high level that need investigation.

650 - Automated and high-bay systems, however, while less prone to damage at high level, require inspection and the higher levels cannot be seen from the ground. Formal inspection of these systems should include the following:

  • an immediate written reporting system by the maintenance engineer who will have day-to-day responsibility for the system to ensure that the quantity and scale of any problems can be analysed by the PRRS;
  • an expert inspection every 12 months consisting of a minimum of 20% of the installation carried out on a rolling basis so that the complete installation is inspected every five years as a minimum requirement;
  • an appraisal of the problems found by the inspection should be carried out by the PRRS to identify if a more wide-ranging inspection is necessary. The racking manufacturer should be contacted for advice if there is any uncertainty as to the integrity of the racking system.

651 - You should keep a record of inspections, damage and repairs. This could be done in a logbook.

652 - Where damage is identified that affects the safety of the racking system, the racking should be offloaded and controls introduced to prevent it being used until remedial work has been carried out.

The following is an excerpt from the "The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) 1998 (as emended)"

Section 5; requires the storage equipment to be maintained in an efficient state, efficient working order and in good repair.

Arrange your Racking Damage Survey now, and keep your people, your business and your reputation protected. Please contact us or phone 01422 300 644 for more details and to arrange your free no obligation quotation.