The delivery arrives early. Someone points the driver towards the loading area, a pedestrian takes the usual shortcut, and suddenly the carefully drawn traffic plan is having a rather theoretical morning.
HSE’s workplace transport guidance is a useful reminder: people and vehicles need proper separation, especially where unfamiliar drivers, reversing and loading activities meet.
What HSE highlights
On its ports and docks workplace transport page (updated 30 June 2026), HSE notes that every year transport accidents kill or seriously injure people. People fall off vehicles, or are struck or crushed by them.
Many different people drive in docks: drivers from a number of employers, and members of the public. Not all of them will be familiar with the environment.
Typical hazards HSE lists include:
- Movement of vehicles and plant on and around the site
- Loading and unloading
- Unsecured loads
- Trailer coupling and uncoupling
- Unsegregated vehicle and pedestrian access
- Reversing, including near edges and open areas
- Vehicles with limited visibility
The same pattern shows up far beyond docks: yards, warehouses, factory gates and shared loading bays.
The practical implication
A route that works on a quiet Tuesday may not work when a courier, contractor or extra vehicle turns up.
Workplace transport safety only holds if the controls still work when the site is busy, the driver is new, and someone is late.
A simple management test
Try this this week: stand at the gate and follow one delivery from arrival to departure.
At every point where a person and vehicle could cross paths, can you see:
- physical separation,
- a clear rule, or
- active control?
If the answer is “they normally work it out”, there is work to do.
One small walk-through now can expose the blind spots before they become part of the routine.
Laws HSE points to
HSE links workplace transport duties in this context to:
- The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992
- Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER)
Sources
- HSE: Workplace transport in ports and docks, https://www.hse.gov.uk/ports/transport.htm
- HSE: Reversing, https://www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport/factsheets/reversing.htm
- HSE: Loading and unloading, https://www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport/factsheets/loading.htm
When did you last walk a delivery route yourself, rather than trust the plan on the wall?
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