Container Terminals

Risk of:

• Serious injury, crushing or death.

Possible causes:

• Gangways not properly rigged.
• Walkways and handrails not in good repair.
• Inadequate access to areas such as lashing platforms.
• Failure of access interlocks on the crane - crane operator not seeing person and moving the trolley towards the docks and crushing the person.
• Unsafe access methods - walking across beams over open hatchways.

Risk of:

• Fire.
• Respiratory Problems.
• Death.

Possible causes:

Exposure to:

• Toxic gases from vessels and exhaust fumes from vehicles, especially quay crane drivers.
• Leaking or damaged chemical containers.
• Unidentified hazardous cargoes.
• Nuisance dust from neighbouring bulk cargo operations.

Risk of:

• Collapse of a stack causing personal injury or property / container damage.
• Being hit or crushed by a falling container.

Possible causes:

• Empty or partially loaded containers being affected by the wind.
• Impact from mechanical handling equipment.
• Ground for stacking not level and smooth and capable of withstanding forces generated by stacks and handling equipment.
• Deformation of bottom container in stack.
• Stack collapse due to misdeclared weights.
• Misjudgement of height of transported container above the stack.

Risk of:

• Electrocution.
• Burns.
• Death.

Possible causes:

• Contact of work equipment with overhead lines.
• Refrigerated container lifted whilst still connected to electrical supply.
• Adjacent electrical risks from temperature controlled unit cable connection etc. during lashing.
• Inadequate or lack of maintenance of straddle carrier electrical points.
• Unsafe system of work for connecting and disconnecting electrical connections.
• Failure to take faulty electrical equipment out of use e.g. lock and tag out system.

Risk of:

• Sprains, strains and musculoskeletal disorders.

Possible causes:

• Poor ergonomic design of cabs, plant and other seating.
• Poor working positions maintained over long periods of time e.g. crane, reach stackers and straddle carrier drivers, working activities require long periods of static posture.
• Hard physical work e.g. lashing, handling heavy twistlocks.
• Kneeling for long periods whilst working within container safety cages.

Risk of:

• Serious injury or death.

Possible causes:

• Being hit by falling tools, lashing gear or other objects.
• People not physically isolated from areas where loads are being lifted or lowered.
• Container being dropped or nudged onto vehicles or pedestrians.
• Driver error.

Risk of:

• Increased risk of accident or incidents occurring e.g. drivers falling asleep at the wheel.

Possible causes:

• Lack of job rotation.
• Unpredictable ship arrival times.
• Requirement for a fast turnaround.
• Long hours, pace and intensity of the work.
• Physically demanding nature of the job - close to sailing time the work becoming more frantic.
• Excessive glare or inadequate lighting.
• Working in cramped, confined conditions.

Risk of:

• Burns.
• Serious injury or death.

Possible causes:

• Electrical or machine room fire on lifting equipment.
• Carriage of dangerous goods such as explosives or highly flammable chemicals.
• Unsafe method of work during ship's bunkering.
• Cutting or burning jammed twistlocks.
• Explosion of compressor unit on reefer container due to being charged or topped up with contaminated gas.
• Unsafe system of work for refuelling plant.

Risk of:

• Serious injury, crushing or death e.g. being crushed by a moving load or lifting equipment, being run over by moving equipment, falling from equipment at height, being jammed between moveable parts of the crane.
• Property or ship damage.

Possible causes:

• Crane collapse or collision e.g. boom to ship collision or gantry crane colliding with objects on the rail track, crane being blown down or jammed container attached to crane causing crane damage.
• Knocking containers from stacks.
• Failure of lifting equipment.
• Lack of equipment maintenance and thorough examination.
• Falling loads.
• Over complacency or over familiarity with the job.
• Poor road and dockside surfaces, equipment and infrastructure.
• Lack of or failure of interlocks on crane access gates.
• Lifting of road vehicle as well as container.
• Crane being blown along rails due to wind.

Risk of:

• Musculoskeletal disorders, back problems.
• Muscle injuries.
• Poor quality of life.

Possible causes:

• Handling heavy items e.g. lashing bars, turnbuckles and twistlocks.
• Lifting lashing poles overhead.
• Working in restricted areas or spaces, often on cluttered decks and platforms at night in poor lighting and bad weather.
• Repetitious reaching, twisting and turning when lifting and lowering heavy gear.
• Poor handling techniques.
• Manual manoeuvring of lifting gear and attachments or slung loads.
• Breaking out containers.
• Hauling mooring ropes off large ships.
• Technical staff carrying heavy loads and equipment up and down stairs.

Risk of:

• Noise induced hearing loss.
• Stress.
• Failure to hear communications.

Possible causes:

• Containers hitting each other or the quayside (i.e. steel on concrete).
• Straddle carrier and other alarms.
• Machinery and refigerated cooling equipment on reefers causing noise.

Risk of:

• Serious injury, drowning or death.

Possible causes:

• Working near unprotected edge on a ship.
• Lack of edge protection.
• Roll of the ship causing imbalance.
• Failure to wear personal flotation devices when working near or over water.

Risk of:

• Minor injuries such as cuts to major injuries such as broken bones.
• Concussion.
• Serious injury, death or drowning.

Possible causes:

• Working on uneven, wet, slippery or icy surfaces both on the vessel and on the quayside.
• Badly stowed container lashing gear, equipment, ropes or cables.
• Oil spillages or leaks.
• Unprotected openings.
• Unsuitable footwear.

Risk of:

• Adverse health effects.

Possible causes:

• Induced through shift patterns, hours worked and nightwork.
• Long irregular hours.
• Pressure to finish off work in a shift.
• Payment systems that encourage operatives to work faster and to take risks in order to get work completed.
• Work intensity.

Risk of:

• Whole body vibration.

Possible causes:

• Operation of mobile machines especially if ground uneven or going over rails.

Risk of:

• Fall from height during routine operations or one-off maintenance activities resulting in serious injury, death or drowning.
• Being hit or crushed by lifting equipment.
• Body parts being crushed or trapped

Possible causes:

• Unsafe work practices - stepping across gaps between stows, walking across beams over open hatchways.
• Container top working - lack of systems of work, equipment and training.
• Body parts outside the safety cage when safety cage in motion.
• Damaged ladders, inappropriate ladders or ladder use e.g. when accessing the ship's hold.
• Weather conditions - high winds, icy surfaces and visibility all increase risk of a fall.
• Working on elevated equipment such as cranes e.g. crane maintenance, repainting the crane, lubrication, inspection and changing of wire ropes, work on electrical conductors rails etc.
• Inadequate lighting.

Risk of:

Serious injury, death or property damage due to:

• Being hit or run over by a vehicle.
• Collisions with people, property, other tractor trailer units, straddle carriers or other mobile equipment.
• Vehicle overturning.

Possible causes:

• No traffic management system in place.
• Truck drivers and contractors unfamiliar with the terminal - lack of directions, site rules etc.
• Inadequate or no arrangements for segregating pedestrians and vehicles.
• No safe system of work for people who have to work in operational areas e.g. reefer engineers.
• Restricted driver vision e.g. blind spots.
• Quayside work badly organised.
• Inadequate space for manoeuvring trucks. and lift trucks.
• Runaway trailer.
• Inattentive / distracted drivers or misunderstandings.
• Overloaded or misdeclared container weight or eccentrically loaded containers.
• Road damage.
• Speeding vehicles.
• Tight turns.
• Carrying containers at high level.