Earthmoving equipment such as caterpillars, excavators, and bulldozers help to make heavy construction jobs like digging trenches and moving the earth rather easy to do. However, these heavy construction equipment are also quite dangerous to operate.

Besides ensuring that only people with expert hands are allowed to operate your earthmovers, here are a few additional guidelines to help you enhance the safety of your earthmoving operations.

Don't compromise the quality of maintenance service required for the equipment

Poor maintenance and the subsequent failure of earthmoving equipment is a common cause of accidents at the construction sites. This is because even the best trained and experienced equipment operators can find it hard to take control of equipment that is out of working order. Subsequently, this may drive people around the construction site into a panic mode, exposing them to the risk of serious physical harm.

Therefore, making sure that all your earthmoving equipment are maintained and thoroughly inspected and tested in line with the existing statutory and operating requirements will go long way in minimising accidents resulting from negligent behaviour.

Develop your own safety systems

There are general industry-specific systems of safety that you have to apply when going about your construction jobs. But, have you developed specific systems of safety to complement and ensure that the general ones work efficiently? If not, an internal safe system of work needs to be established before starting any earth moving job. This system must be closely monitored so that all employees involved in the earth moving operation follow it properly.

The internal safety system should be revised and updated by the project supervisor, equipment engineer, safety control officer, and any other relevant, competent personnel. All earthmoving equipment operators should be provided with newly-crafted safety instructions prior to the earth moving operation. This way, these operators will be well-prepared for any unanticipated safety threat that may arise at the construction area.

Assess the safety conditions of the work site in advance

Identifying and describing earthmoving sites prior to the commencement of any works will help you plan the operation well. By making a pre-visit of the construction site early, you can assess if there are some safety adjustments that will need to be made.

If the equipment is supposed to be used in confined spaces such as the basement area of a building, for instance, you should do a permit-to-work check to determine the overall quality of air.

Additionally, weather condition considerations should be made at all times so that an abrupt change of weather does not compromise operational safety. For more tips on safely operating excavating equipment, you may want to contact a local earthmoving hire company like Maudsley Excavations.