ice risk aasessments for delivery

[steviemac]

Can anyone who is aware of injury to RM employees on delivery between Thurs - Sat circulate details in order to justify not going out on delivery and encourage DOM's to personally risk assess area and in doing so makes them accountable.

[Thunderthighs]

Last year, one of our guys broke his arm on the ice, so they put me on it...just back from AOD/Light duties.
Logic...Is there any???

[pondhopper]

I was on my delivery today, about an hour into my delivery, and I was riding slowly and carefully down the road to the houses there, about 30 of them, and as I got to a small roundabout in the road, I thought to myself "sod this, I'm getting off and walking", just as I was about to get off... the rear of the bike stepped out to the left and I went over on my right hip and I was sliding along the road with the bike ontop of me.
I was a bit banged, no cuts or bruises etc, checked my leg out.. moved it slowly and wriggled my toes etc, to see if anything was broken. Seemed ok and I got up and walked to the houses and by the time I got to about the 5th one my hip was starting to ache.
A customer came up to me and asked if I was ok, as he saw what happened. Told him I was ok at the moment and would deliver the mail to the houses there and then was going to call the office to cut off and go back.
A few minutes later the parcel postie was driving down the same stretch of road, and he slowed down at the roundabout and slid straight on nearly hitting it! He saw I was hobbling and asked if I was ok and did I want a lift back to the office and as the office is about 3miles from that point I told him.. "Does the Pope wear a pointy hat!" I think I lost him on that one, so I said yes. I delivered the letters to the houses there as they gave me good tips this year and last year as well, picked up another bottle of wine too, and got into the van and went back to the office. Told them what happened... and got the reply.. "Did you phone in?" Told them "No, as it only just happened in the past 10mins!" I was asked if I was ok and then more or less in the same breathe.. "What about the mail?" ffs!!
I gave them the details of the bag drops and a driver was sent to collect them when I was in the walk-in centre.
I was given an assesment in the walk-in centre by two nurses, after waiting for about 90mins and also some manipulation of my leg and hip to check it out. The suggested I rest up for a few days and that it would take about 2 weeks for me to recover fully as the injuries were 'ligamental and soft tissue type', so they said, and there were no broken bones, but as they have no X-ray machine, they couldn't say for definate, but they said that going on their experience with hip injuries and from what they assessed I was ok and nothing was broken/fractured but if the pain gets worse over the course of the next day or so to go to A&E at the local hospital.

Phoned work to inform them, they sent out the driver who picked up my bags and he took me back to the office. He told me that the road outside the house, where the first bag was that he picked up, was like an ice rink, and also that he was having trouble dropping packets off on his delivery as the roads were really bad, hence him being back at the office.

I spoke with the manager and the DOM, and told them what the situation was. Manager and DOM, to be fair were good about it, and told me to come in to work in the morning if I was ok and they would fill out the accident book then. I asked about light duties, as the nurses said at the centre not to be on my feet and to take the weight of the hip and rest up as much as possible. Being this near to xmas, I need the money (who doesn't!?) and I'm a bit pissed off as I will no doubt now lose out on my tips on my delivery! I've not even got all of the tips I got last year

Its raining now, and the roads are slippy as heck so if it freezes up between now and the morning, and it seems very likely that it will, will they let people out of the offices at all? It would seem that most of the roads will no doubt be like icerinks!
I for one, if I go in tomorrow morning, will be inside on light duties from now until the New Year at least.

Anyway the point of this posting is this:
How do you assess an ice risk? Each delivery will be different with regards to roads and footpaths, as they will differ from area to area and also differ on each walk, and surely the local councils should have been out gritting the roads and paths at the very least.

[steviemac]

We do feel guilty not making an effort to deliver in adverse weather but if the month was Oct would we be taking such risks? Is a days tips of £60 for example worth the pain and discomfort of an injury for the next few months?
How do you balance your well -being against the needs of the business and customer expectation? Best we can do is compromise on the pouch weights and break them down into half their normal size, get a driver to meet you hand to hand, if it looks dangerous move onto next reasonable and safe delivery point, 6 houses later if needs be.
Any other thoughts ?

[brothermagrew]

I spoke with the manager and the DOM, and told them what the situation was. Manager and DOM, to be fair were good about it, and told me to come in to work in the morning if I was ok and they would fill out the accident book then.

Pondhopper first sorry to read about your predicament, secondly you should realise that there are no accident books to fill out, so Manager and DOM spinning you a windy. All accidents in Royal Mail are now done electronically online via the Royal Mail ERICA system. Electronic Reporting of Incidents for Collating and Analysis. When the new ERICA system came online all local accident books were to be returned.

[pondhopper]

I spoke with the manager and the DOM, and told them what the situation was. Manager and DOM, to be fair were good about it, and told me to come in to work in the morning if I was ok and they would fill out the accident book then.

Pondhopper first sorry to read about your predicament, secondly you should realise that there are no accident books to fill out, so Manager and DOM spinning you a windy. All accidents in Royal Mail are now done electronically online via the Royal Mail ERICA system. Electronic Reporting of Incidents for Collating and Analysis. When the new ERICA system came online all local accident books were to be returned.

Thanks for this information, brothermagrew. I've been resting up most of the day today, feet up as it were. So when I actually do get up and 'walk' around then I'm a bit slow as my hip can ache a bit when I walk, so I tend to put my weight on my left leg more than my right when walking.. if you want to call it walking that is.

What do I do if/when I go in to work then?
Do I see them (the manager and/or DOM) to answer any questions they have about the accident, assuming that they use this online system then? Also do you think I should I talk to my Union rep about my accident first and then see the Manager about filling out an accident form via this ERICA system that you speak of?

[brothermagrew]

I spoke with the manager and the DOM, and told them what the situation was. Manager and DOM, to be fair were good about it, and told me to come in to work in the morning if I was ok and they would fill out the accident book then.

Pondhopper first sorry to read about your predicament, secondly you should realise that there are no accident books to fill out, so Manager and DOM spinning you a windy. All accidents in Royal Mail are now done electronically online via the Royal Mail ERICA system. Electronic Reporting of Incidents for Collating and Analysis. When the new ERICA system came online all local accident books were to be returned.

Thanks for this information, brothermagrew. I've been resting up most of the day today, feet up as it were. So when I actually do get up and 'walk' around then I'm a bit slow as my hip can ache a bit when I walk, so I tend to put my weight on my left leg more than my right when walking.. if you want to call it walking that is.

What do I do if/when I go in to work then?
Do I see them (the manager and/or DOM) to answer any questions they have about the accident, assuming that they use this online system then? Also do you think I should I talk to my Union rep about my accident first and then see the Manager about filling out an accident form via this ERICA system that you speak of?

All accidents are supposed to be reported within a 24hr/48hr time span. If you are however, absent from work for more than a three day period then it will also have to be reported to RIDDOR and you can read about RIDDOR by doing a google search. There is no harm in you talking to your union rep first but if you have a workplace health and safety rep he or she is the person that you should be speaking to. And yes you will have to have a discussion with your Manager giving full relevant details pertaining to the accident so that it can be logged via the RM online ERICA system. Hope you make a full recovery soon.

[pondhopper]

Just to let you know, brothermagrew I filled ERICA in.... ooh err!

I saw my line manager yesterday morning (21st Dec) and got the accident 'form' filled out, finally after about four or five attempts as the system kept 'crashing' and wouldn't accept the information that was entered, with regards to my injury, as there was not anything sufficient in the dropdown list to cover it. Apart from the main one... (Hip Injury) there was nothing in the secondary list to cover it...! Finally got it all done after about 45mins and then signed off on the printout I was given to keep along with my line manager who signed off on his copy. Went on to doing light duties in the office, sorting letters and flats in the frames (IPS stuff). DOM and my line manager more than happy for me to do this as I was clearing up a small backlog of mail, along with some 'managers' who came in from other offices. No idea where they were from, didn't ask, didn't care. Had to keep telling them where to put the mail in the frames. Missorts galore no doubt for posties today, as I couldn't keep track of what these people did and do my sorting as well.
One of these managers even asked me if we had gloves like she showed me, white cotton with small blue rubber nodules on the one she had in her hand. I looked at her and told her use your hands like we do, we don't use gloves to sort letters on the frames.

Edited to add this comment
There is a continuation to this 'saga'. I have posted it under a new thread. You will see why when you read it.

If I have posted it in the wrong forum (unsure as to what one to post it in, would a Mod please kindly move it to the correct one for me. Not sure if it should be in here or in the main section of the 'Union Room', so
I posted it in the H&S forum as it is a different matter, of sorts but pertains to this incident.

[norbert]

Get it reported to the Social as a Industrial Injury as well as back up . A friend of a friend could also a have a little word with the HSE / Council Environmental Health . It makes it harder for RM to close ranks and try and make sh** shine .