According to AS4048:23, pallet racking needs to be professionally inspected at least one a year. For a busy business, this may sound inconvenient, but regular pallet racking inspections are extremely important. If your business is overdue for an inspection, you need to book one in as soon as possible.
What Happens At A Pallet Racking Inspection?
A pallet racking inspection is actually quite simple and routine.
In the course of running a busy warehouse, pallet racking can suffer from damage, general ware and tare, and be overloaded by mistake. This damage can add up making it dangerous. A pallet racking inspection aims to recognise this damage early and get it fixed before it becomes more of a problem.
With this in mind, a pallet racking inspection simply involves checking all the pallet racking in a warehouse. The inspector looks for obvious damage as well as signs of warping due to overloading. Once any repairs are made, the pallet racking is then certified for another 12 months. In some rare cases, the inspector may also require that the pallet racking is unloaded until it’s repaired; this is only in cases where the racking is damaged enough to cause an immediate safety risk.
Why Is All This Important?
The obvious reason that pallet racking inspections are important is because of safety. Damaged pallet racking is inherently dangerous. Dangers include pallets falling off the racking and even the racking collapsing. Accidents like this can severely injure or even kill warehouse workers. This s the important reason for regular pallet racking inspections.
Beyond safety considerations, regular pallet racking inspections also just make good business sense. Even if no one is hurt do to pallet racking collapse, stock will inevitably be damaged and the warehouse will need to be cleaned up. This costs time and money for the business, and can even mean the warehouse needs to be shut down for a period of time, completely stopping the business.
All of this just to avoid an inspection that doesn’t take much time and is minimally disruptive to a business. When you weigh it all up, a racking inspection is actually a help to a business!
Going even further, if the racking isn’t inspected and there’s an injury or death in the warehouse because the business wasn’t adhering to the Australian Standard, business owners can be found responsible. This could lead to fines and even imprisonment. It’s simply not worth the risk.
So Book A Pallet Racking Inspection
If you don’t know when your last pallet racking inspection was, you’re business is probably overdue for one. We inspect and repair all brands of pallet racking, not just Colby brand pallet racking. Get in touch with us right away to book an inspection.
