Warehouse safety

About The Warehouse Group The Warehouse Group is one of New Zealand's largest and most iconic retailers. Founded by Sir Stephen Tindall in 1982, it operates three beloved Kiwi brands: The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery, and Noel Leeming. The Group serves customers nationwide across hundreds of stores, supported by a large and complex distribution network. Its North Island Distribution Centre is one of the biggest DCs in New Zealand, handling everything from general merchand

If you work in logistics, you already know the score. Forklifts moving at pace, trucks reversing into loading bays, pedestrians crossing zones they shouldn't, fatigue creeping in on a long shift. The risk is everywhere, and it's constant. Health and safety in logistics isn't just a compliance box to tick, it's genuinely hard work. And despite the best intentions, traditional approaches often fall short when the environment is this fast-moving. That's starting to change, thank

There's a lot of content out there about what computer vision AI can do for workplace safety. Less gets written about what it actually feels like to use it. What does a Monday morning look like when your site is running real-time AI monitoring? What happens when an alert fires at 2am? How does the data flow from camera to dashboard to coaching conversation? If you're considering computer vision AI for your operation and want to understand how it fits into daily workflows (n

If you have ever walked around a blind corner in a warehouse and felt your stomach drop as a forklift appeared out of nowhere, you already understand the problem. That near miss — the one that left you shaken but unharmed — is not a one-off. It is happening across your site, multiple times a day, and almost nobody is reporting it. Blind corners and intersections are the most predictable danger zones in any warehouse, distribution centre, or manufacturing facility. They are th

Commercial aviation has roughly doubled in safety every decade since the late 1960s. An MIT study found that the risk of a fatality from commercial air travel fell from 1 per 350,000 passenger boardings in 1968-1977 to 1 per 13.7 million in 2018-2022. IATA data shows accident rates declining from 3.72 per million flight sectors in 2005 to 1.32 in 2025. The FAA reports that US commercial aviation fatalities decreased by 95% over two decades. Now compare that trajectory to ware

The hazards that travel with the truck The delivery environment is different from the warehouse in ways that make safety harder to manage. The driver works alone, at multiple sites, in conditions they can't fully control. Loading and unloading at customer sites Loading and unloading is one of the most hazardous activities in the trucking industry. OSHA notes that many fatalities occur when workers are crushed by forklifts that have overturned or fallen from loading docks dur

See how Epicurean Dairy used inviol on existing CCTV to reduce risk 48%.

Walk into any warehouse or distribution centre and ask who owns safety. The answer is almost always the EHS team. Ask who owns throughput, layout decisions, delivery schedules, and traffic flow. That's operations. Now ask who owns the intersection where a forklift nearly hit a pedestrian this morning. Suddenly, it's less clear. In most organisations, safety and operations are managed as separate functions with separate reporting lines, separate KPIs, separate budgets, and sep

Every warehouse safety manager I've met has good instincts. They can walk a floor and sense when something feels off. They know which aisles get congested at shift changeover, which operators tend to cut corners, and which zones make them nervous on a Friday afternoon. That instinct is built from years of experience, and it's genuinely valuable. But it has limits. And when you start supplementing gut feel with continuous data, the way you manage safety changes in ways you don

What is a forklift exclusion zone? A forklift exclusion zone is a defined area where either pedestrians or forklifts are restricted from entering during specific conditions. The purpose is to create physical or operational separation between the two, eliminating the possibility of a vehicle-pedestrian interaction in the highest-risk areas. OSHA requires that permanent aisles and passageways be clearly marked and free from obstructions ( 29 CFR 1910.176(a) ), and recommends s

If you operate forklifts in the United States, you're subject to one of the most frequently cited OSHA standards in existence. 29 CFR 1910.178 , the Powered Industrial Trucks standard, covers everything from operator training and certification to vehicle maintenance, workplace design, and safe operating procedures. In fiscal year 2024, powered industrial trucks ranked sixth on OSHA's top 10 most cited standards , with 2,248 violations recorded. That's not because the standard

Cold storage facilities are some of the most demanding workplaces in the supply chain. They combine every risk you'd find in a standard warehouse (forklifts, loading docks, manual handling, racking) with a set of environmental hazards that make everything harder and more dangerous. Freezing temperatures. Icy floors. Reduced dexterity. Limited visibility from fog and condensation. Bulky PPE that restricts movement and makes communication harder. For the workers who keep our f

The hazards that matter most Not all forklift risks are equal. Understanding which hazards drive the most serious outcomes helps you focus your efforts where they'll have the greatest impact. Pedestrian-forklift interactions This is the most dangerous scenario in any warehouse. 36% of all forklift-related fatalities involve pedestrians , and pedestrians struck by forklifts are the number one cause of forklift work fatalities according to BLS data cited in OSHA directives. Th

Warehouses keep the modern economy moving. They're where raw materials become products, where online orders get packed and shipped, and where supply chains come together. But they're also places where people get hurt. More often than most industries, and more seriously than many people realise. In the United States, the transportation and warehousing sector recorded 232,000 injuries in 2024 , with an injury rate of 4.5 per 100 workers (well above the national average of 2.7).

Every year, roughly 395 million workers around the world are injured on the job. In the United States alone, businesses absorb more than $50 billion annually in costs tied to the most serious workplace injuries. Behind every one of those numbers is a person — someone who went to work expecting to come home safely. For decades, EHS (Environment, Health, and Safety) teams have worked hard to prevent these outcomes. They've built safety systems, run audits, delivered toolbox tal