Two safety rules that every building site manager should implement

There are a number of safety rules that building site managers should try to implement. Read on for a detailed explanation of two of these rules.

Riggers should not be permitted to chat with co-workers whilst carrying out rigging activities

Riggers play a vital role in ensuring that crane operators can safely and easily transport large bundles of building materials across relatively long distances on a construction site. It is their responsibility to affix these bundles of materials to a crane's hook, using their rigging equipment, in such a way that the bundles will remain stable and attached to the crane for the duration of the transportation process.

Building site managers should implement a rule that forbids their riggers from chatting idly with the other labourers whilst they are attaching loads to a crane. The reason for this is as follows: whilst it is perfectly safe for labourers to talk amongst themselves whilst carrying out certain types of work, like digging trenches or helping to create a building's foundation, it is not safe for riggers to talk whilst they do their job.

This is because rigging work requires a degree of concentration that cannot be achieved if the person doing it is, for example, simultaneously talking to a co-worker about their favourite television show or what they plan to have for lunch. Chatting about these random matters whilst they are deciding what type of lifting sling to use or which rigging knot to go for is very likely to result in them making a mistake (such as using the wrong type of knot for or not using the right technique to tie a particular kind of knot) that will cause the bundle that they fastened to the crane to fall whilst this machinery is in motion.

Those who operate excavators on the site should never allow co-workers to travel in the equipment's bucket

Most excavators are not designed to accommodate more than one person at a time. However, it is not uncommon for those who operate this heavy construction equipment on building sites to allow their co-workers to travel in the bucket of this machinery, if these co-workers need to quickly reach a specific area of the site or if the site is very muddy and hard to walk across.

Site managers who have noticed their excavator operators giving their co-workers 'lifts' like this should implement a rule that forbids them from doing this in the future. The reason for this is as follows; even if the operator travels slowly, with the bucket in which their co-worker is sitting positioned close to the ground, this co-worker could still end up very seriously injured. If for example, the bucket interior is damp or muddy, they could slide out of it onto the ground whilst the machinery is moving and get hurt in the process.