Falling from a flatbed truck can cause serious injuries. Many companies don’t have an effective flatbed safety strategy, or even carry proper fall protection equipment for drivers until after an injury has already occured. There are four major factors that increase your risk of a potential fall from a flatbed truck or trailer that you should know about.

Climbing onto and off of a truck or trailer is a fact of life for transportation workers. Often, you drive the truck hundreds or thousands of miles, only to help the receiving workers retrieve the goods. This can mean getting up and down off the trailer many times throughout a day, each time increasing your chances of an accident. Most flatbed trailers are designed to carry goods, but not to make it easy or safe for you to climb up and down. The following information details why using a trailer ladder is a safe and efficient method of accessing your truck.

Almost every profession has the potential to expose you to some level of risk for injury. Unfortunately, these injuries are often preventable. You never want to find yourself in a hospital or at home unable to work due to an injury that didn’t have to happen. If you are a flatbed truck driver, you should know about these safety tips to keep yourself safe and working efficiently.

Truck drivers tend to be in a hurry, and this is just the nature of the industry. There are many miles to cover and loads to be delivered with deadlines to meet. When you drive a vehicle as large as a tractor-trailer, you are responsible for the safety of those on the road and yourself. The following are ten truck driving safety tips that you can use a general guideline when you are on the road.

Securing cargo on a flatbed trailer is extremely important to ensure you don’t lose the merchandise and for safety reasons. It is important to understand the basics of strapping down cargo and how to distribute the weight of the load. Truck drivers should also know which tie-downs to use and how to safely access their flatbed trailers.

Truck drivers have the highest rate of fatality in the United States. According to the Department of Labor (“DOL”), deaths in the trucking industry increased in the early 2000s from 16.7 to 17.5 fatalities per 100,000 drivers. However, the DOL has also observed a steady decline since those high figures in illness and injuries. Injuries and illnesses dropped from 6.8 per 100 full-time employees to 6.1 during this time.