Trucking can be a hazardous profession for drivers – and that’s before the driver has even set foot in the cab or put the vehicle in gear. For good reason -- fleets focus much of their attention on minimizing risks on the road, but there are also risks when a driver is on his or her feet as well, due to the risk of a fall.
In fact, slips, trips and falls may be the industry’s most overlooked and underappreciated threat to drivers’ health and wellbeing. Before developing an online course on fall protection, we looked at how big the issue was – and it’s big. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data for 2017 show that 27 percent of injuries in the truck transportation industry came from slips, trips and falls, versus just 17 percent from injuries sustained in a collision or other motor-vehicle related incidents.