Regal’s design team reaches great heights through innovation

Here at Regal Group, the Health & Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA), which came into effect in April 2016, has helped renew our focus on providing a safe and healthy workplace for our staff. This has resulted in some modifications to our operations and our vehicles, including the application of automatic covers and the building of non-tipping units.

Access to vehicle bins had been identified as an area which could be upgraded to enhance the health and safety of our drivers. So Regal Group’s design team got to work and came up with a prototype.

Regal drivers wear many hats. Not only do they drive their trucks from A to B, but upon reaching their destination they need to unload their cargo. Tipping removes the majority of the product, but not all. This requires the drivers to access the inside of the bins to sweep out remaining product residue left behind after tipping to ensure no cross contamination with the next load.

With the tail door propped open, drivers would have to jump or lift themselves up onto the floor of the bin (1.0m – 1.3m) before standing up. They would then have to repeat the process in reverse to exit. This caused the driver to get very dirty, and there was a high potential for slipping or falling, increasing the potential for injury or harm.

Wil Ashcroft, Regal design engineer, led the way in designing the new Bin Access Ladder. “We consulted with our drivers and then worked on a design that would meet the following criteria:

• The user needed to be able to maintain three points of contact at all times
• The ladder needed to be secure and stable on all terrain
• The ladder needed to be stored in an easy access location (it is currently mounted on the tail door of the truck bin)
• The ladder needed to be light weight and easy to handle.

“We then fitted the prototype and had it tested before producing a second model to fit onto our fleet,” says Wil.