Racking inspection: who checks pallet racking, how often, and what to record

01

Is racking inspection a legal requirement?

Yes, in the sense that the law requires racking to be kept safe and inspected, although no regulation names racking or sets a weekly or annual frequency. The duty comes from the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER), which apply in Great Britain. Regulation 2 of PUWER defines work equipment as "any machinery, appliance, apparatus, tool or installation for use at work (whether exclusively or not)", and a storage installation used at work falls within that.

Two regulations then do the work:

• Regulation 5 of PUWER requires every employer to ensure that work equipment "is maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair".
• Regulation 6 of PUWER requires equipment whose safety depends on how it is installed to be inspected after installation and before first use, and after assembly at a new site or location. Equipment "exposed to conditions causing deterioration which is liable to result in dangerous situations" must be inspected at suitable intervals, and each time exceptional circumstances liable to jeopardise its safety have occurred. The result of every inspection must be recorded and kept until the next one is recorded.

Racking systems in a busy warehouse are that kind of equipment: they are struck by lift trucks, overloaded and altered. A hard impact from a reach truck can be an exceptional circumstance in the regulation's sense, which is one reason damage is inspected when it happens, not only on the next scheduled date. Northern Ireland has the same duties in the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999, whose regulation 6 also covers inspection.

The frequencies come from guidance. The Health and Safety Executive's Warehousing and storage: A guide to health and safety (HSG76, second edition, 2007) sets out the three levels of racking inspection below, and its Approved Code of Practice Safe use of work equipment (L22, fourth edition, 2014) explains PUWER. The standard BS EN 15635:2008, Steel static storage systems: Application and maintenance of storage equipment, covers the inspection of storage equipment in use and how damage is measured and classified. Neither HSG76 nor BS EN 15635 is law in itself. Following HSE guidance is not compulsory, but if you follow it you will normally be doing enough to comply with the law.

02

A racking inspection checklist

HSG76's example load notice asks for regular inspections to check three things: correct application and use, loads within allowable safe limits, and accidental damage or dislodgement of structural components. A weekly racking inspection checklist turns those into what to look at, walking each aisle of the warehouse from the ground:

• Uprights: dents, bends, kinks, splits or twisting, especially on the lower levels and the corner uprights at the ends of runs, which HSG76 says are especially at risk from lift trucks.
• Bracing: horizontal and diagonal bracing members bent, buckled or missing.
• Beams: bent, dropped or visibly deflected beams, and any beam damaged by forks.
• Beam connector locks: present and engaged at both ends of every beam. HSG76 says they should always secure the connectors, to stop a beam being lifted out accidentally, for example by a lift truck.
• Base plates and floor fixings: plates in place, fixings present and tight, no cracked or damaged floor at the base of an upright.
• Run spacers and wall ties: in place between back-to-back runs and wherever the design ties racking to the building.
• Load notices: a clear notice securely fixed to the racking, stating the maximum load and any load configuration, and loads that stay within it.
• Loads and pallets: pallets in sound condition, lowered onto the beams rather than slid across them, as HSG76 says, and no load heavier than the notice allows.
• Protection: column guards and end-of-run protection in place and not themselves crushed, in a conspicuous colour.
• Alterations: beams moved, components removed or anything welded without the manufacturer's agreement. HSG76 says moving the first or second beam from the bottom always needs a check on the rated carrying capacity, and the load notice may need to change.
• Use: no climbing on the racking, which HSG76 prohibits unless the racking is designed for access, and aisles clear enough for trucks to work without striking it.

Add anything your installation needs, such as mesh decks, drive-in rails or mobile bases. HSG76 says normal rack inspections are made from ground level unless there are signs of a problem higher up. Catching the early signs of damage, while it is still minor, is the point of the weekly walk.

03

The three levels of racking inspection, and who does each

HSG76 describes a hierarchy of inspections, all run by a nominated person responsible for racking safety (PRRS). The PRRS decides how often inspections take place, taking account of how the warehouse operates, its dimensions, the equipment used and the people involved, all of which could damage the structure. The Storage Equipment Manufacturers' Association (SEMA), whose guide to pallet racking inspections follows the same pattern, describes the PRRS as the person who takes day-to-day responsibility for the safe operation of the storage system, rack inspection and maintenance records.

1. Immediate reporting. As soon as any employee sees a safety problem or damage, they should report it to the PRRS straight away. HSG76 says you should have a system for reporting damage and defects, and that employees should be trained and instructed in the safe use of the racking.
2. Visual inspections. The PRRS should make sure inspections are made at weekly or other regular intervals based on risk assessment, and that a formal written record is kept. This is the routine in-house check, usually by the PRRS or a trained colleague walking the aisles with the checklist above.
3. Expert inspections. A technically competent person should inspect at intervals of not more than 12 months and send a written report to the PRRS, with observations and proposals for any action needed. HSG76 says that person might be a trained specialist within the organisation, a specialist from the rack supplier, or an independent qualified rack inspector.

HSG76 notes that SEMA runs rack safety awareness training to address visual inspection, and a more formal course that qualifies expert racking inspectors under the SEMA Approved Racking Inspector scheme, SARI. SEMA says a SEMA approved racking inspector carries out the expert inspection at least once a year, and its guide to pallet racking inspections describes it as yearly or twice-yearly, depending on the risk assessment. A SARI is one way to show competence; the law asks for a competent person, not a particular scheme.

Automated and high-bay systems, whose upper levels cannot be seen from the ground, need their own arrangement: HSG76 suggests immediate written reporting by the engineer responsible day to day, and an expert inspection every 12 months of at least 20% of the installation on a rolling basis, so the whole of it is inspected at least every five years.

The HSE's page on inspection of work equipment says the frequency should be set by risk assessment, taking account of the manufacturer's recommendations, industry advice and your own experience. Narrow aisles, high throughput or a history of strikes may call for more than weekly.

04

Red, amber and green: grading racking damage

Racking is made from relatively lightweight steel, and HSG76 is blunt about it: any damage reduces its load carrying capacity, and the greater the damage, the less its strength. Damage found at any level of inspection is graded with a traffic light system, set out in HSG76's table of damaged racking and used in SARI inspection reports:

• Green, surveillance only. Damage within the limit that needs no reduction in carrying capacity and no immediate repair. The component is recorded as fit for further service, but clearly identified so it is re-examined at future inspections. Anything beyond the green level counts as damage.
• Amber, hazardous damage, action as soon as possible. Damage severe enough to need remedial work, but not so severe that the rack must be offloaded at once. Once a damaged component has been unloaded, it should not be reloaded until it is repaired. HSG76 suggests dated adhesive labels to mark racks that must not be reloaded. Amber damage not repaired within four weeks of being identified should be re-designated red.
• Red, very serious damage, immediate action. The area must be offloaded straight away and isolated until it is repaired, usually by replacing the damaged component. HSG76's example is a bay offloaded in the presence of the inspector and roped off.

BS EN 15635 sets out how damage to uprights and bracing is measured, and SEMA publishes a Guide to the Conduct of Racking and Shelving Inspections. Grading is for the expert or a trained inspector; whoever simply notices damage should report it, not grade it.

The weak point is the gap between finding damage and fixing it. An offloaded amber bay that is not labelled gets reloaded on the next shift, and a four-week clock nobody is counting turns amber into red. Every finding needs an owner, a date and a check that the isolation holds until the repair is done.

05

Records, repairs and preventing damage

PUWER regulation 6 requires the result of each inspection to be recorded and kept until the next inspection is recorded. HSG76 goes further: a formal written record of the weekly visual inspections, a written report from the expert, and a record of inspections, damage and repairs, which it says could be kept in a logbook. The HSE's guidance says records may be kept electronically, as long as they are held securely and can be produced when an enforcing authority asks.

A racking record that can be produced when an enforcing authority asks for it shows:

1. Each inspection: the date, the aisles covered, who inspected and the result, including "no damage found".
2. Each damage report: exactly where (aisle, bay, level), when, by whom, and a photograph.
3. The grading: green, amber or red, and who graded it.
4. The action: offloaded, isolated and labelled, or monitored; the repair, when it was done and who cleared the bay for reloading.
5. The expert's report: kept with the in-house records, each action tracked to completion.

Records also show patterns. The same corner upright struck every month says something about the aisle, the truck or the training, not just the upright. HSG76 says racking likely to be struck by lift trucks should be protected, with renewable column guards at the lower levels and protection in a conspicuous colour on corner uprights, but warns that retrofitting protection can reduce truck clearances and, in some cases, increase damage.

HSG76 also says to use competent installers and follow the manufacturer's instructions; to fix racking to the floor where lift trucks or other mechanical handling equipment operate; to establish the weight of a palletised load before storing it in the racking; and to train truck operators, whose skill has a great bearing on how much damage is caused. The general workplace health and safety inspection checks that the system as a whole is being run as planned.

06

Where the record fails, and where SiteClara fits

The expert inspection rarely goes wrong: it is booked, someone qualified walks the racking, and a report arrives. What fails is the weekly level and the reporting in between. The weekly inspection becomes one tick for the whole warehouse, with no sign of which aisles were walked. A driver who clips an upright on a night shift tells whoever is nearby, or nobody. An amber bay is offloaded and forgotten.

SiteClara helps with those routine parts. A printed QR poster, with an optional NFC tag behind it, goes at the end of each aisle or run. Staff scan or tap on their own phone, with no app to install, and see the checks due there, such as the weekly inspection of that aisle, and mark each done, with a photo when one is asked for, or explain what stopped them. The record shows which aisles were walked, by whom and when. Anyone who sees damage can report it from the same poster, with a photo of the upright or beam, and it goes onto the team's list of jobs until someone closes it.

The supervisor sees what is due, done and missed, and gives the reason a check was missed. Each day they review it and approve a report that goes to nominated managers or client contacts at 8am the next morning, showing what was reported, what was completed, what is still open, and how the scheduled checks went.

07

Questions people ask

Is it a legal requirement to have racking inspected?

Yes. Racking used at work is work equipment, and regulation 6 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 requires equipment exposed to conditions causing deterioration to be inspected at suitable intervals and each time exceptional circumstances liable to jeopardise its safety have occurred, with the result recorded and kept until the next inspection. No regulation names racking or fixes a weekly or annual frequency; those come from HSE guidance.

Does pallet racking need to be inspected?

Yes. The Health and Safety Executive's Warehousing and storage: A guide to health and safety (HSG76) says that any damage to racking reduces its load carrying capacity, and that for a racking installation to stay serviceable and safe, the storage equipment should be inspected on a regular basis. It asks for damage to be reported at once, regular visual inspections and an expert inspection by a technically competent person.

How often should racking be inspected?

Warehousing and storage: A guide to health and safety (HSG76) says visual inspections at weekly or other regular intervals based on risk assessment, with a formal written record, and an expert inspection by a technically competent person at intervals of not more than 12 months. Any employee who sees damage should report it to the person responsible for racking safety straight away, whatever the schedule.

08

Further reading, and a list to take away

The Health and Safety Executive publishes Warehousing and storage: A guide to health and safety (HSG76) free to download, and the PUWER Approved Code of Practice Safe use of work equipment (L22). The Storage Equipment Manufacturers' Association publishes its Code of Practice for the Use of Static Pallet Racking, its guide to racking and shelving inspections and a directory of approved racking inspectors. In Northern Ireland, HSENI enforces the equivalent regulations.

Before your next racking inspection, check that:

• a person responsible for racking safety is named, and everyone knows who it is;
• every employee knows how to report racking damage straight away, and does;
• the weekly or other visual inspection frequency is set by risk assessment and written down;
• an expert inspection by a technically competent person is booked at least every 12 months;
• damage is graded red, amber or green, red bays offloaded and isolated at once, and amber repaired within four weeks;
• isolated bays are labelled so nobody reloads them before the repair;
• load notices are fixed to the racking and loads stay within them;
• beam connector locks, floor fixings and column guards are in place;
• no one alters the racking without the manufacturer's agreement;
• every inspection, damage report and repair is recorded and kept at least until the next inspection.