Accidents at work: an insight into logistics operations

The logistics industry ensures the delivery and storage of goods and materials around the world, covering both the distribution and the warehousing sectors of every industry. The injury rate of the logistics industry is notable and above the average compared to other industries. The high accident rate of the logistics industry is partly due to the significant weight and size of some of the items handled and the vehicles and equipment required to handle them. Also, logistics entails workers moving between different work areas or sites during the day, each of which have many different safety measures, procedures, and approaches to risk management. This paper introduces a structured analysis of occupational accidents that occurred during logistics operations. The investigation includes more than 900 fatal and serious accidents that occurred in Italy between 2002 and 2016, involving workers from the logistics industry. The findings show that the contact of the injured worker with moving objects or vehicles, the variation of movement of the vehicle or transport system, and the falling of objects from above were the most common types of accidents that occurred in logistics. Industrial trucks were the most frequent risk factors that triggered the investigated events. Material handling was the activity that the injured workers were usually performing when the accidents occurred. The leading apparent causes of accidents were the voluntary adoption of an improper procedure, e.g. the bypass of a risk control measure, and the misplacement of the worker. The lack of training appears to be the leading root cause of the investigated events.