Warehouse Safety Topics for December 2019
Warehouses are statistically one of the most dangerous places to work, and the added tasks of operating heavy machinery and transporting large objects do not make it safer. In 2018, there were more than 213,000 non-fatal occupational injuries in the transportation and warehousing industry in the private sector according to the 2018 U.S. Bureau of Labor report. This number is larger than the previous year (209,000), while the number of jobs in the transportation and warehousing industry keeps increasing. The larger number to report is the number of days spent away from work that still costs money to companies that have injured workers. In 2018 alone, warehouse workers had the most days away from work with over 68,000 days away from work related to injuries by warehouse laborers, freight, stock and material movers. Truck drivers were the second-highest, with over 49,000 days away from work, followed by maintenance workers with over 29,000 days away from work.