Pallet-Track and the Road Haulage Association (RHA) have teamed up to create a road safety training initiative aimed at increasing staff awareness of the problems faced by HGV drivers both on the road and on site. The training programme was launched to coincide with World Day for Safety and Health at Work and involved an interactive session for office staff, who were taken through the challenges of HGV driving and shown areas where visibility can be severely restricted. The positive reaction from staff means the initiative is likely to be rolled out more widely in the ongoing drive to improve safety.

“Safety is our biggest priority at Pallet-Track and we are committed to providing our team with regular training activities that enhance their knowledge around HGV safety. We would like to thank the team at the RHA for its support with developing an interactive safety activity that was engaging and had real impact,” said Caroline Green, chief executive at Pallet-Track.

“As an industry, it is essential that we work to improve awareness of the difficulties faced by lorry drivers every day on our roads and improve safety for all road users. To achieve greater awareness, Pallet-Track will be rolling out this initiative more widely and working with our local community to increase knowledge around HGV visibility restrictions.”

The interactive training session provided staff with the opportunity to gain a lorry driver’s view of the road with the help of blind spot mats, which highlight potential danger zones where pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users cannot be seen.

Visibility is one of the leading causes of accidents involving an HGV; in 2021, 207 people were killed in road collisions involving an HGV that were reported to the police, according to Department for Transport figures.

Participants took it in turns to sit in the cab and gain first-hand experience of the zones at the front, rear and sides of the vehicle and trailer where visibility is severely restricted. The groups were also educated on the challenges HGV drivers encounter every day and how everyone can play their part in helping to keep all road users safe thanks to a talk from the RHA and training videos.

The interactive activity was positively received by the team and will be rolled out more widely as part of Pallet-Track’s ongoing safety drive.

“There is nothing more important on our roads then keeping people safe. It was a thoroughly informative and productive day – we were delighted to be involved with Pallet-Track in delivering this life-saving training,” added Simon Priest, RHA area manager.

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