It is incredibly easy to fall into the pattern of taking your pallet racking for granted and not even bothering to check on its consistency and durability. It is this very negligent attitude that leads to full racking collapse and loss of business and stock.

True, these racks are designed to last for many years before requiring any kind of maintenance – but that certainty only stands for if no collisions occur that jeopardise the structural integrity of the structure.

Serious Nature

Rack failure can seriously injure and even kill one too many members of your workforce within seconds – giving no warning. The warning comes from identifying and reporting any faults that could lead to racking collapse early.

Damage to racking can be extremely simple to spot. In the cases of multiple structural components being broken, bent or twisted it can be impossible to ignore. However, some damage is not immediately identifiable, invisible to the naked eye and has a much longer timeframe to weaken other components because it has found been discovered early enough.

When the damage is not noticed, workers can be unknowingly caught in a catastrophe waiting to happen, where the simplest of bumps or scrapes can cause a chain reaction that brings everything down. There may even have been workers who had noticed something and failed to report it to anyone. This is why thorough inspections are required to be conducted regularly, and training is provided to workers so they know to report any size incident.

Appearance and Evidence

It would be easy to spot if a rack is skewed or twisted, but even easier to not report it to the relevant person. This is something that plagues many warehouses throughout the year.

New starters to the business may be more inclined to not report a minor collision for fear of ridicule or losing their job, choosing to ignore the potential consequences by not letting their manager know of the incident. Without being notified, it could be a while before another worker notices any crooked-looking sections or dips, or they could believe that it is an incident already under-report and being dealt with, choosing to carry on as normal.

Call Professionals

A small amount of impact can suddenly shift the entire pallet racking system and make it give way. Those consequences of negligence suddenly become a lot different in severity.

Should you feel it is time to evaluate and inspect your current pallet racking requirements, contact the team at Monarch Shelving today, the number one call for warehouse storage equipment.