Warehouse safety is the set of practices that protect workers from the hazards of storing and moving goods, including forklifts, racking, loading docks, manual handling and heat.
Warehouse safety is the combination of equipment, procedures and training used to protect workers in warehouses and distribution centers. These workplaces combine heavy equipment, high storage, fast-paced manual work and constant vehicle traffic, which creates a wide range of hazards.
Warehousing has grown rapidly with e-commerce, and injury rates in the industry have often been higher than the private industry average. In July 2023, OSHA launched a National Emphasis Program on warehousing and distribution center operations, focusing inspections on powered industrial trucks, material handling and storage, walking-working surfaces, means of egress, fire protection, heat and ergonomic hazards.
Forklifts, pallet jacks and order pickers cause serious injuries through tip-overs, collisions with pedestrians and falls from loading docks. OSHA's standard at 29 CFR 1910.178 requires operator training and evaluation, with a performance evaluation at least every three years, and daily inspection of trucks before use.
Overloaded or damaged racks can collapse, and poorly stacked loads can fall. Racks should be installed to the manufacturer's design, marked with load capacities, anchored where required and inspected for damage such as bent uprights. The ANSI MH16.1 standard covers industrial steel storage racks.
Hazards include trailers pulling away early, trailer creep, gaps between the dock and trailer, and forklifts driving off the dock edge. Controls include vehicle restraints or wheel chocks, dock plates rated for the load, dock edge barriers and communication systems with drivers.
Repetitive lifting, twisting, reaching and carrying lead to musculoskeletal disorders, one of the most common types of warehouse injury. Fast pick rates can increase the risk.
A distribution center recorded several forklift and pedestrian near misses in one month, including one where a picker stepped out from between racks into the path of a reach truck. A review found that walkways were faded and that workers often cut through rack aisles to save time.
The center repainted walkways, installed barriers at rack ends, added blue spotlights on forklifts to warn pedestrians and set a 5 mph speed limit. Supervisors walked the floor each shift to reinforce the rules, and workers were invited to report near misses through a mobile app. Near misses dropped significantly over the following quarter.
Common injuries include sprains and strains from lifting, slips and falls, being struck by forklifts or falling objects and caught-in injuries from conveyors.
OSHA requires an evaluation of each operator's performance at least once every three years, and refresher training after an incident, a near miss, unsafe operation or a change in truck type or workplace conditions.
There is no single warehouse standard. Warehouses are covered by many general industry standards, and OSHA's National Emphasis Program targets the most common warehouse hazards.
Part of SafetyIQ's EHS glossary: plain-English definitions of workplace health and safety terms.
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