A truck driver is exposed to all sorts of dangerous, harmful and nuisance factors. Prolonged sitting, monotonous driving, and constant focus on the road may pose a potential risk of accidents and lead to health deterioration.

Performing activities related to driving a vehicle or its maintenance requires special care and unconditional compliance with health and safety regulations and rules.

Dangerous factors

This category includes primarily mechanical factors that cause immediate injuries.

These include:

• moving parts of supported vehicles: rotating engine parts or moving parts of truck drive components,
• other means of transport moving around the parking or maneuvering yard (e.g. lift trucks with manual or mechanical lifting, mobile or vehicle-mounted cranes, other trucks, etc.),
• sharp, protruding and rough parts of vehicles (e.g. parts of car body and chassis, parts of machines used for loading or unloading goods) and hand tools,
• falling elements or loads from vehicles (e.g. when loading or unloading them, checking the technical condition of the engine),
• slippery, uneven surfaces (e.g. ramps, parking, maneuvering or loading and unloading places),
• limited spaces (walkways, passages, access points), e.g. entrances to the vehicle body and to the truck cabin,
• location of the workplace in relation to the ground (work at the height of the entrance to the box and in depressions, e.g. in a sewer),
• corrosive substances (e.g. transporting hazardous materials).
• explosion and fire from the engine or from the flammable material being transported.

Harmful factors

These are factors that can lead to a driver’s health deterioration. Belong to them:

• noise (emitted by a running engine, poorly secured load on the vehicle’s load box or used devices and tools), makes it difficult for the driver to identify external or internal sounds, e.g. emergency vehicle signals;
• the microclimate (mainly high or low temperature of the environment or in the driver’s cabin and high air humidity) causes a reduction in driving comfort, a malaise of the driver and a reduction in the ability to work;
• vibrations (occurring while driving the vehicle on city roads) adversely affect the well-being of the driver, reduce the ability to perform work, and may even deteriorate the driver’s health;
• operating fluids, oil, fuel, solvents (gasoline, benzene, toluene, xylene, etc.) and other factors related to washing, waxing and drying vehicles.

Bothersome factors

They do not pose a threat to the health of the driver, but significantly hinder the performance of their duties. We include among them:

• long hours of work in the vehicle cabin, which is not adapted to the physical and mental characteristics of the drivers,
• lifting, carrying and moving heavy goods on the vehicle’s load box or in the place of their storage (e.g. in a warehouse) during loading and unloading works,
• stress caused by rush at work so that the goods are delivered on time to the address indicated.
• The employer is obliged to identify threats related to the presence of hazardous and harmful factors, and should take appropriate remedial measures that will improve the health and safety at workplaces.

Source: CIOP-PIB

Source: https://www.seka.pl/zagrozenia-zawodowe-w-transporcie-samochodowym/

Projekt otrzymał dofinansowanie z Norwegii poprzez Fundusze Norweskie 2014-2021, w ramach programu „Dialog społeczny – godna praca”.