Improving Health and Safety in Construction Logistics

Nov 15, 2011 | Blog

Construction Logistics has brought a number of positive changes to construction sites today. For example, best practice around health and safety has partly increased because of legislation and partly because of improved construction logistics. Far from constraining the industry in red tape, as perhaps some would have feared, it has challenged the industry to perform and deliver at higher levels.

The increasing attention to construction logistics has had a surprising and positive impact on the health and safety records of sites for a number of reasons. Firstly, less idle materials on sites means less causes of accidents – excessive manual handling, trip hazards etc. Secondly, as sites adopt a “Just-In-Time” or JIT approach to work and materials, less people are required to be onsite at anytime. Thirdly, trained logistics operatives are now offloading vehicles and distributing materials to point of use, rather than skilled tradesman having to down tools to lift and shift – those trained to move and handle material are less likely to have an accident. Finally, lean logistics has seen less heavy machinery on site for less time, resulting in fewer accidents too. 

All in all Construction Logistics has helped not just cut accident figures but save lives.