The Bottom Line Stuff
Safety in Mind (and Body)
One of the comments we hear all-too often from our potential customers: “If we had a ramp for a month or more, it would make all the difference.”
In our business, as it is with the industries that buy and rent our yard ramps, it’s almost always about efficiencies.
When you’re offloading your product, whether it’s palletized or not, a crew of 2-4 employees typically needs a couple of hours to take inventory off a truck, or pull it to the end of the truck for a forklift to drive it away.
That’s just a lot of labor. And the truck driver has to sit there, waiting. Time is money.
On the other hand: with a ramp, it’s one worker with a forklift, unloading in 20-25 minutes.
Fold the safety factor into that. If you have 2-4 employees using muscle to move hundreds upon hundreds of pound of inventory manually, you run a higher risk of injury, followed by workers’ comp claims. According to Safopedia, the top three workplace injuries are:
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Slips, trips, and falls
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Injuries from lifting, pushing, pulling, or reaching
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Material handling and forklift accidents
These accidents translate into 15% of all accidental deaths, 25% of all injury claims, and 95 million lost work days every year
Again, Safopedia: “Fines from OSHA can be costly for businesses. Serious and other-than-serious infractions come in at $12,600, while willful or repeat violations will cost you $126,000.” The human safety issue informs the financial cost to your company.
Then there’s the opportunity cost. What could your employees be doing with their time instead of loading and offloading trucks?
All of this reflects the 5 Ps: Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.
Or, as Jerry Smith said, “Don’t learn safety by accident.”
From The Ramp Rules Blog:
