Racking inspection checklist

What HSE's guidance says

The reference for racking in Great Britain is HSE's Warehousing and storage: A guide to health and safety (HSG76). Its starting point is that racking is made from relatively lightweight materials, so there is a limit to the abuse it can take, and that any damage reduces its load-carrying capacity.

HSG76 says racking should be inspected on a regular basis, using several levels of inspection, and that one named individual should be in charge of it: the "person responsible for racking safety", or PRRS. The PRRS decides how often inspections happen, to suit how the warehouse operates.

The three levels are:

1. Immediate reporting. As soon as any employee sees damage or a safety problem, they report it to the PRRS. You should have a system in place for this.
2. Visual inspections. The PRRS makes sure inspections are carried out "at weekly or other regular intervals based on risk assessment", with a formal written record.
3. "Expert" inspections. A technically competent person inspects at intervals of not more than 12 months and gives the PRRS a written report with observations and proposals for any action needed.

The checklist on this page is for the second level.

Is a racking inspection a legal requirement?

The weekly and 12-monthly figures are HSE guidance. No regulation contains them. HSG76 says of itself that following it is not compulsory, but that if you do follow it you will normally be doing enough to comply with the law, and that inspectors may refer to it as illustrating good practice.

The legal duties sit in the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER). Work equipment includes any "installation for use at work", and HSE's guidance on work equipment uses storage racking as an example. Two regulations matter:

• Regulation 5 requires work equipment to be maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair.
• Regulation 6 requires work equipment that is exposed to conditions causing deterioration, where that could result in a dangerous situation, to be inspected at suitable intervals and after exceptional circumstances. The result must be recorded and kept until the next inspection is recorded.

Racking in an aisle worked by lift trucks is exposed to damage every day. So the law requires inspection at suitable intervals and a record, and HSE's guidance tells you what suitable looks like. Our PUWER inspection checklist covers the regulations in more detail.

Who inspects, and how often

HSG76 says a technically competent person might be a trained specialist within your own organisation, a specialist from the rack supplier, or an independent qualified rack inspector. It mentions two schemes run by SEMA, the Storage Equipment Manufacturers' Association: rack awareness training for the people doing visual inspections, and the SARI (SEMA approved rack inspector) qualification for expert inspectors. Neither is a legal requirement.

The person doing the weekly check needs to know the parts of the racking, what damage looks like and who to tell. They do not need to judge whether damage is within tolerance. That decision belongs to the PRRS, with expert advice where needed.

Weekly is HSE's default. A small store with hand-loaded shelving and no trucks might reasonably inspect less often. A busy warehouse with several trucks and agency drivers might walk the aisles daily. Whatever you choose, write down the reasoning, because the guidance ties the interval to risk assessment.

Inspections are normally done from ground level, unless something suggests a problem higher up that needs a closer look.

Green, amber and red: how damage is classified

HSG76 sets out a three-colour classification for damaged racking, and points to SEMA's guide to racking surveys for the detail.

Weekly racking inspection checklist

Walk every aisle, both sides, and look from floor level to the top. Each line is written so that "yes" means all is well. Note the bay and level for anything that is not.

Uprights and frames

• Uprights are straight, with no dents, bends, twists or tears in the steel
• Uprights stand vertical and no frame is leaning
• The uprights at the ends of each run and at corners are undamaged
• Column guards and end-of-run protection are in place and undamaged
• Nothing has been welded, cut or altered on the frames

Beams

• Beams are straight, with no dents, twists or permanent bend
• Every beam connector is fully engaged in the upright at both ends
• A beam connector lock is fitted at both ends of every beam
• The welds between beams and their connectors show no cracks
• No beam has been moved to a different height since the load notice was issued

Bracing

• All frame bracing members are present and straight
• Bracing bolts and fixings are all present and tight
• Run spacers between back-to-back runs are in place and undamaged

Baseplates and floor fixings

• Every upright has its baseplate, and none is bent or torn
• Floor fixings are present and tight
• The floor around each baseplate is sound, with no cracking or sinking

Load notices

• A load notice is fixed to the racking and can be read
• The notice matches the way the beams are currently set out
• No beam level or bay is loaded beyond the limit on the notice
• The weight of the heaviest pallets being stored is known

Pallets and loads

• Pallets in the racking are undamaged, with no broken boards or blocks
• Each pallet sits squarely on both beams
• Loads are stable on their pallets and do not overhang into the aisle
• No one-trip pallets are being stored in the racking
• Nothing is stored loose on beams where it could fall through

Aisles and surroundings

• Aisles are clear of pallets, stock and rubbish
• Lighting in every aisle is working
• Nobody is climbing the racking to reach stock
• Damage reported since the last check has been dealt with
• Any bay that has been taken out of use is still clearly labelled and empty

What to do when you find damage

HSG76 is direct: where damage affects the safety of the racking, the racking should be offloaded and controls put in place to stop it being used until the repair has been done.

1. Report it to the PRRS straight away. Do not wait until the end of the round.
2. If in doubt, offload and isolate. Take the load off the affected bay and label or rope it off so that nobody puts a pallet back.
3. Have it classified. The PRRS decides whether it is green, amber or red, with advice from a technically competent person if needed.
4. Repair properly. Repair usually means replacing the damaged component. HSG76 says racking should never be altered, for example by welding, and components should never be removed, without first consulting the manufacturer.
5. Record it. Keep a record of the damage and of the repair.
6. Look for the cause. Repeated damage in the same place points to an aisle that is too tight, missing column guards or a driver who needs more training. HSG76 notes that the skill of lift truck operators has a great bearing on how much damage is caused.

Truck condition matters as well, and the operator's own check at the start of the shift is covered in our forklift daily checklist.

What to record

HSG76 asks for a formal written record of visual inspections, a written report from each expert inspection, and a record of inspections, damage and repairs, which it says could be kept as a logbook. PUWER requires the result of an inspection to be kept until the next one is recorded. It is worth keeping them far longer, because a run of records is what shows the pattern.

For each weekly inspection, keep the date, who did it, the aisles covered, and for every fault the bay and level, what was seen, the category given and what was done. Number your bays if they are not numbered already. "Third bay along on the left" will not help whoever comes to fix it. Racking is also one section of a general workplace inspection.

Keeping it in SafetyPro360

The weekly checklist above can be set up in SafetyPro360 as a checklist of your own, with each line as a question. The person inspecting runs it on a phone as they walk the aisles. Each completed check is kept with its date, who did it and its score. SafetyPro360 does not schedule the inspection for you, and the yearly expert inspection is arranged separately.

Questions people ask