UKWA CEO, Peter Ward, chaired a discussion at the Forklift Truck Association’s recent Safety Convention

Peter Ward, CEO of UKWA, was in the chair to moderate a Practical Safety discussion at the Forklift Truck Association’s Safety Convention, which took place recently in Coventry.

Peter was joined on stage by Kanwal Kanda, Director of HSE, Adam Smith of AITT, Kirk Stalley of DHL and Mike Belson of Aggregate Industries. The panel focussed on innovative but practical real-world solutions that can be implemented on any site, often at low or no cost, before answering questions from the audience.

Peter Ward comments: “Despite the best efforts of the majority of companies operating in the logistics sector, warehouses and distribution centres remain among the places of work where an employee is most likely to be injured during the course of his or her daily routine. Indeed, It is sobering to consider that each year, 1300 people suffer life-changing injuries as a result of lift truck accidents, while figures released by the HSE in October 2018 report over 3.9 million days being lost in 2017/2018 due to non-fatal workplace injuries with an estimated cost to the UK economy of over £5.5 billion.

“Of course, successful warehousing is all about maximising efficiency and productivity but those joint aims should never be achieved at the expense of safety. The need to ensure that operational processes and systems do not put workers in harm’s way has to be among the modern logistics executive’s foremost considerations and it’s something that can never be compromised in the relentless drive for ever faster throughput speeds and pick rates.

“UKWA has always demanded that its members operate to the highest safety standards and all UKWA members undergo a thorough appraisal of their commitment to the wellbeing of their staff before being allowed to join the Association.

“Accident risk reduction will always be at the top of UKWA’s agenda because by tackling safety challenges in warehousing and logistics management can simultaneously ensure that their facilities operate at maximum efficiency and, therefore, profitability.”