Case Studies - Safety of Roll Containers

Roll containers are half-pallet sized platforms with four running castors and a wire cage used to contain goods during transport. They are used to carry goods in lorries between warehouses and retail stores or within supermarkets to move products from the storeroom to the sales floor. Roll containers are now in widespread use and evidence has emerged over recent years that they are a significant source of accidents. There are also concerns about the manual forces needed to move containers especially where space is limited.

HSL was asked by HSE to investigate the extent and causes of roll container accidents and to develop advice on container design. Accident analysis showed that they are involved in a high proportion of accidents in the retail and distribution sector. For example, they contributed to 30% of manual handling accidents to sales assistants referred to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, 35% of reported accidents in a major distribution company and 20% of reported accidents in a major supermarket chain.

The design study showed that there were a number of important features which would help to reduce accidents by improving stability and manual handling. These were the use of larger diameter castors positioned close to the corners of the containers, the incorporation of handles to assist manoeuvring and the marking of maximum load heights.

The research also investigated the forces needed to move the roll containers both on level surfaces and on the sort of slopes found in storerooms and warehouses. For level surfaces the maximum forces needed to manoeuvre containers carrying a typical load of 400kg are within the capability of nearly all men and most women. However, where containers need to be handled on even slight slopes the position is very different. Here the operator has to overcome a force proportional to the load and the angle of the slope. For a 400kg load and a slope of 1 in 12 the force needed is well above what an average man might be expected to handle and almost double the force a woman could handle. As a result of the research load limits for roll containers have been proposed for a range of slope angles.

It was decided that a video would be the most effective method of passing the results of the investigation to end users in the retail sector and Local Authority enforcement officers. The video was produced by HSL and has received good feedback following wide distribution to the interested parties.

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