7 Tips for Choosing the Right Safety Barriers for Your Needs

The transport, postal, and warehousing industries suffered the most workplace injuries in the past decade. It’s estimated that 26% of all the workplace-related fatalities come from these industries. Safety in the workplace is one of the most important things needed to ensure that the business stays OH&S compliant.

The best way to prevent a lot of workplace accidents is to install safety barriers. Placing them in strategic locations helps avoid the odd slip, trip, or fall. Giving the time and money to invest in these basic measures can go a long way to making your workplace better for your workers.

How do you choose the right safety barriers? Here are some tips.

Location is Everything

When you’re placing barriers outside, it’s best to install solid safety barriers. These can withstand extreme weather conditions and it takes decades before they need repair or replacement.

If you’re planning to use barriers near sharp turns, it’s better to use soft flexible barriers. This type of barrier can absorb more impact compared to solid barriers. This makes it less likely for people to suffer from severe injuries during a crash.

Check the Durability

If your workplace uses a lot of heavy equipment and vehicles, using barriers can reduce damage to your vehicles and property. The lack of protection can result in high-cost damages and set your business back a long way. It takes a split second of carelessness to cause accidents and there’s no limit to the possible scenarios that can result in this.

The right safety barrier in this case will be one that has high durability and can absorb collision impact. Traditional steel barriers might not work as great as you’d like them to. So you need to choose your barriers carefully.

Balance Price with Protection

If you want to make the most out of your investment, you need to choose a safety barrier that offers a good amount of protection without breaking your wallet. More often than not, soft flexible barriers offer a cheap alternative to its solid counterparts. They’re a good investment because they’re easier and cheaper to replace after accidents.

Another great reason to invest in soft flexible barriers is that they suffer minimal damage after a collision. Its solid counterparts get replaced after the accident. For soft and flexible types, the only parts that need changing might be the posts or the wires.

Choose More Noticeable Barriers

Safety barriers should be imposing and hard-to-miss. Larger, more rigid barriers are more noticeable, especially when they’re painted bright yellow. Choosing this kind of safety barrier can help increase your staff’s awareness of their physical surroundings.

They become more vigilant and make it a habit to check around for potential dangers.

The right safety barrier should be a handy means of guaranteeing employee safety awareness.

Check if the Barriers are Easy to Install

Depending on the type of workplace you have, easy-to-install barriers become a necessity. If your location is prone to accidents, you need to consider using solid safety barriers. They’re easy to install and replace since you don’t need to secure them with wires and posts due to their weight.

In comparison, soft safety barriers are difficult to install because of their flimsy nature. You need to prop them up and keep them stable with solid metal frames while installing each section around the perimeter.

Function Over Style

Barriers with great designs might look tempting but make sure to stop and check their features first. Functionality comes before style. Also, make it a point to check if it passes all the safety precautions you have for the workplace.

Does it install nice and easily? Is it noticeable? Does it work as intended and how durable is it?

If the barrier passes these questions, you should go for it regardless of how it looks.

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What are the Common Locations that Benefit from Safety Barriers?

A lot of businesses should use more barriers on their premises. It’s a great way to control or prevent people or equipment from accessing certain areas of your workplace. Here are some types of business that can benefit.

Warehouses and Distribution Facilities

If you own this type of business, you need to keep the production floor safe for all your employees and visitors.

Placing barriers around the picking areas give an extra layer of protection against structural damage caused by vehicular accidents. This prevents you from losing business due to possible injuries and downtime.

Airports

The airport tarmac has a lot of industrial barriers. They use it to control the flow of both pedestrians and vehicles while loading or unloading aircraft.

Placing double rail traffic barriers ensures that tug trucks don’t damage light stands and other structures when moving.

Car Parks

Multi-level car parks need high-level barriers that absorb impact from vehicle collisions. These should also stop vehicles from going over the edge.

Aside from vehicle barriers, car parks must have pedestrian barriers that give people a safe walk space when stepping out of their vehicles.

Manufacturing Facilities

These facilities have a lot of machinery that pose a lot of potential hazards to employees and visitors. Barriers should help prevent staff and visitors from wandering into areas that have heavy operational machinery.

Some of those might have moving parts that could seriously injure unsuspecting people.

Get Reliable Safety Barriers Today!

Choosing the right kind of safety barrier needs a lot of patience. Your choice of barriers can be a matter of life and death in your workplace. It determines whether your employees and visitors can have a safe experience in your facility.

If you’re looking for a good safety barrier, we have the solution for you. We offer a wide variety of both hard and soft barriers, all of which OH&S-compliant and come with a 5-year warranty. We have enough choices that can suit your business needs and make your workplace safer.

Do you have any questions? Do you need to know more about our barriers? Contact us today and we’ll be happy to help you out.