How To Prepare Your Business For An Earthquake
There is a range of different seismic areas in New Zealand. Particular regions experience more earthquakes than others. Businesses including warehouses and storage facilities need to be aware of how safe their pallet racking solutions are as part of their safety management requirements. Based on the region you live in your pallet racking and cantilever racking will require certain structural and engineering requirements fitted to meet your exact needs (i.e., loading, height etc.)
The construction standards in New Zealand are divided into four risk zones when it comes to earthquakes. Buildings in the high-risk zones are required to be built to stricter safety requirements compared to buildings that are in lower-risk zones. The same applies to pallet racking or cantilever racking. Each configuration requires an individual design.
Why You Should Prepare Your Business For An Earthquake
If your warehouse stocks equipment, chemicals, palletised goods or merchandise it’s important to be prepared for an earthquake to minimise the risk your staff and customers and material damage to stock and machinery.
Racking And Shelving Preparation
In order to make sure your racking and shelving are secure, bolt your storage shelves to the floor. WorkSafe New Zealand recommends that businesses should have an engineer come to their workplace to review their racking and shelving system to verify and certify that they are compliant.
Make it a part of your business routine that your racking and shelving are inspected regularly. Any concerns or damage should be repaired as soon as possible by a qualified professional.
Safety Training For All Staff
There have been enough earthquakes in New Zealand where employers know it is crucial to be prepared. Training your staff in preparation for an earthquake needs to be done as a workplace priority before an earthquake happens. Determine a safe area where your team can go in the event of an earthquake. A safe area could include a loading area where there is nothing that can fall and cause damage. During your earthquake drill, it’s important to make sure that your team knows how to move to the designated safe area efficiently as soon as the earthquake is felt.
Contact The Shelving Depot Team
Shelving Depot has been New Zealand’s premium supplier of retail shelving and racking for a number of years. Join with us to build your own tailored racking and shelving solution engineered to ensure you are safe and compliant.
Call us on 0800 SHELVING (0800 743 584) or 09 275 0071, alternatively, email us at [email protected]
