The Pre-Use Check Everyone Wants to Skip
It is 07:00 in February and there is frost on the machine. You are carrying out the pre-use check on a 6-tonne forward-tipping dumper. You find a 40 mm cut in the sidewall of the front-left tyre with the cords visible; a damp, oily patch on the tipping ram hose near the lower coupling; a frayed section on the seat belt webbing; and frosted steps and handrails. The machine was due out ten minutes ago and the ganger tells you to "get on with it, we'll look at it at lunchtime". The machine was last used the previous afternoon, and the defect book shows no entries at all for the past week.
1. Assess each of the four findings and decide whether the machine can be used.
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The machine is not fit for use and does not leave the compound.
- Tyre cut exposing cords. The casing is structurally damaged. Under load, heat and flexing a damaged sidewall can burst - and a front tyre failure on a loaded dumper removes steering and can put the machine over. Safety-critical.
- Damp patch on the tipping ram hose. Either a weeping coupling or a failing hose. Hydraulic systems run at high pressure: a pinhole can inject fluid through skin (a serious injury needing urgent hospital treatment), and a burst hose drops a raised skip. Safety-critical.
- Frayed seat belt webbing. The restraint has lost strength exactly where it will be loaded in an overturn or sudden stop. A restraint that fails is worse than useless because you rely on it. Safety-critical.
- Frost on steps and handrails. Not a defect, but a slip hazard; clean and treat before anyone mounts the machine - most dumper injuries are mounting and dismounting, not driving.
None of the first three can be deferred to lunchtime. They are the findings the check exists to catch.
2. Set out the correct defect procedure from here.
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Isolate, record, report, repair, re-inspect - in that order.
- Park the machine safely where it is, on firm level ground with the skip lowered and the parking brake applied.
- Switch off, remove the key, and isolate as required by the site procedure.
- Tag or label the machine clearly as unserviceable, with the defect and your name, so nobody else takes it.
- Report to your supervisor immediately and in person - not at the end of the shift.
- Enter each defect in the defect book, with the date, machine, description and your name. Record what you have done (machine parked, tagged, key handed over).
- Repairs by a competent person only. Tyre replacement and hydraulic work are not operator tasks.
- Re-inspect after repair before the machine returns to work, and record that it has been done.
If you are told to move the machine to a maintenance area, only do so if it can be moved without endangering anyone, and only with authorisation - a burst front tyre at low speed is still a loss of steering.
3. What does the empty defect book tell you, and what are the duties behind it?
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A week of blank entries is itself a finding.
- Either checks are not being done, or they are being done and not recorded. Both mean the site cannot show the machine has been maintained and inspected - and if a defect has been present all week, nobody has caught it.
- It also tells you the culture: the pressure to "get on with it" is not new.
Duties:
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974: employees must take reasonable care of themselves and others, cooperate with their employer, and report hazards and defects. You cannot be disciplined for refusing to operate unsafe equipment.
- PUWER 1998: work equipment must be suitable for its intended use and maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair, with inspection where conditions are corrosive or deteriorating.
- The daily pre-use check is the operator's control in that system. Signing a book for a check you did not do falsifies a safety record and defeats the whole arrangement.
Report the blank book as a management issue as well as reporting your four findings.