Look Before You Load: Managing Loading and Unloading Risk Amid a Labor Shortage

Nov 26, 2023

With industries across the spectrum and around the world struggling to find good labor, employers are often settling for less. The labor shortage has hit lumber and building material dealers particularly hard, as demand for our goods and services exploded during the past two years.

In our industry, cutting corners on hiring and training can translate directly to property and equipment damage, employee or bystander injuries or even death. One area where unskilled, untrained and/or uninterested workers can significantly raise a lumber and building material dealer's risk exposure is loading and unloading. Fortunately, lumber and building material dealers can take steps to make sure they are protecting their businesses from loading and unloading risk exposure – even as reliable workers become more difficult to find.

Though the housing market may be cooling in today's post-pandemic, rising-interest environment, the global construction industry is still on the rise, expecting to grow to roughly $10.5 trillion by 2023, at a CAGR of 4.2 percent from 2018 to 2023. Meanwhile, the industry is grappling with an uncharacteristically tight labor market with the national unemployment rate at just 3.5 percent. What this means for lumber and building material dealers is that business will likely continue to be busy and good workers will continue to be hard to find.

When balancing production and safety in a busy environment, safety often goes out the window as employees can rush through or skip critical safety steps and managers fail to enforce protocol. Failing to follow safety protocols when loading or unloading lumber and building materials can result in injuries, fatalities, costly insurance claims and litigation.

To some, loading and unloading may seem like a fairly mindless aspect of working in a lumber and building material facility, but it can't be.

Recently, we saw a $4 million case involving a forklift accident. The forklift operator failed to notice the delivery driver wearing dark clothing rolling up a dark tarp nearby. The forklift operator noticed the items in the truck were unstrapped so he began unloading the inventory. While doing so, he reversed the forklift and ran over the driver.

Now, the vast majority of insurance claims we are seeing at my company, Pennsylvania Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Company, are related to forklift operations in retail and wholesale facilities. Forklifts carry large heavy bundles of lumber and/or other building materials around employees, customers, and third-party delivery drivers.

A number of other factors are contributing to loading and unloading risk exposure for lumber and building material dealers whether operating a commercial auto or forklift, including:

Though it can be challenging during these busy times for facility owners and operators to turn their focus toward loading and unloading safety, it's imperative that they do.

Lumber and building material dealers interested in ensuring their team is practicing safe loading and unloading protocols, should consider implementing the following best practices:

Truck Drivers, when loading and unloading, should be advised to:

Forklift Operators, when loading and unloading, should be advised to:

Loading and unloading is critical to business for lumber and material dealers. Sticking to protocol can be particularly challenging in busy times when labor is tight, but proper risk management is key to safe operations and to avoid costly claims and litigation.

To learn more about best practices related to loading and unloading for lumber and building material dealers, consult your insurance agent or broker. Pennsylvania Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Company is the country's oldest mutual insurer in the wood niche with 127 years of experience. For more information and loss control guidance, visit PLM's Loss Control Center at: https://www.plmins.com/loss-control/.

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