Top Warehouse Hazards in Winter and How to Prevent Them

Winter can be particularly challenging, particularly for those who work in warehouses. The colder temperatures are made worse by the continual opening and closing of the warehouse doors. Icy paths, heavier rain and the potential for falling debris outside as a result of strong winds can all pose challenges. However, it is possible to educate yourself to the hazards you might expect to encounter. With a proactive approach and plenty of appropriate safety measures considered, you can create necessary arrangements in place to prevent them. 

Let’s take a look at some of the top warehouse hazards that occur in winter and what you can do about them. 

Spotless floors

With the arrival of winter, you are more likely to have water on your warehouse floors. There are several reasons for this:

• Rainwater or snow on clothing - this might be on the clothing and footwear of your warehouse operatives and melting snow can travel a good way into your warehouse
• Puddles near doors – there is no way of avoiding the necessity of opening the doors of your warehouse in order to let goods come in or go out. This can result in puddles forming near the entrance to your warehouse, which can then easily be tracked in. 
• Water on forklift/pallets – if you need to unload pallets in the yard rather than in the entrance to the warehouse during the rain then this will also track water into your warehouse. 

Fortunately, this is a relatively easy hazard to deal with in your warehouse. Regular mopping and drying of your floors should ensure that there are no wet, slippery, patches that could result in avoidable accidents. 

Faulty machinery

Sometimes the winter weather can play havoc on some of your machinery, and faulty equipment can be very hazardous to those who work in your warehouse or even those who are visiting. It has the potential to cause injury or worse. 

Whilst every warehouse should have a robust maintenance schedule for all its machinery to prevent accidents at any time it can be a good idea to add in additional maintenance during the winter. This will ensure that you keep on top of any issues before they become dangerous, and help to prevent accidents from happening. 

If you have your maintenance undertaken by an external contractor, then make sure that you ask them to add in additional maintenance visits over the winter months.

Clear walkways 

With the colder weather some people can experience circulation issues that make them a little slower when it comes to response times. This means that they may be less quick to react when coming across a potential hazard. Whilst it is good practice to keep your walkways clear at all times, it can be hard to keep on top of this during busier times of the year. However, it is essential that nothing is left in your walkways that shouldn’t be there. This means keeping an eye out for ice and water from outside, excess packing materials and any other trip hazards. 

Keep warm

One of the reasons that accidents occur is because they are not dressed appropriately for the weather or the work that they do. When working near open doors in the winter, your warehouse operatives should wear gloves, hats and other layers to keep them warm. This will help to prevent the type of accidents that occur when someone is too cold to respond quickly to hazards.

Putting a few simple measures in place should significantly help you to reduce the risk of accidents occurring in your warehouse this winter. After all, the last thing you need is the winter woe of an injured member of staff, especially when it could have been avoided.