Traffic management and pedestrian segregation
This domain tests how well you can separate four traffic streams that share a terminal: quay cranes working over the apron, internal tractors and trailers, yard and mobile equipment, and people on foot. Most terminal fatalities are struck-by or crush incidents, so segregation is the control that matters most.
Core principles
- Separate by design first: dedicated pedestrian gates, walkways and crossing points, fenced routes, barriers around work areas, and stairs or footbridges over vehicle lanes.
- Where separation is impossible, control by procedure: permitted crossing points, a radio or lights protocol, escorting, and a banksman for reversing or blind-side moves.
- Manage speed and sight lines: posted limits, speed humps at crossings, mirrors at blind corners, clear corner radii, and no parking on sight lines.
- High-visibility clothing is the last layer, not the separation itself, and it must be clean and retro-reflective to work at night.
Working around equipment
- Never walk under a suspended container or through the backreach of a working crane.
- Keep clear of reversing equipment; make eye contact with the operator before entering an area, and never assume you have been seen.
- Lashing gangs work in an exclusion zone agreed with the crane operator, entered only when the crane is parked and the spreader is clear.
- Chock trailers before approaching to release twistlocks, and never reach between a trailer and a container being landed.
Worked example
A route used by internal tractors from the quay to the container freight station crosses the walkway used by gate staff. Controls in order: reroute the walkway behind a barrier; if that is impossible, install a marked crossing with a pedestrian-activated light and speed hump; add a banksman during peak periods; issue and enforce high-visibility clothing and brief both groups at induction.
Traps that cost marks
- Answering only personal protective equipment when the question asks for segregation.
- Ignoring night conditions, when glare and dirty high-visibility clothing defeat visibility.
- Accepting a shortcut through a yard block as normal practice, which then becomes the accepted standard.
- Forgetting that the crane operator's blind spots are largest on the blind side and directly under the spreader.