When Are Trained Banksmen Essential For Vehicular Safety?

One of the most important roles for safe vehicular operation typically spends very little time in the vehicles themselves.

The role of the banksmen is vital, which is why training courses are available to ensure they can do their utmost to keep busy construction and industrial sites safe, but to understand why, it is important to know their role and the problem that they are assigned to fix.

Generally, the biggest concern is for multi-directional sites where there are a lot of people and vehicles moving in a particular space and the potential for vehicles to reverse.

Reversing is a complex manoeuvre, one of the most difficult that many operators will undertake in normal circumstances because of the differences in controls, the effects of counterbalance and often significantly compromised visibility.

The more complicated the site, the more vehicles around, the greater risks and obstacles a vehicle is expected to traverse and the greater the impact of environmental hazards such as dust, fog and rain, the more important a banksman is.

Their primary role is to be highly visible, remain in an easily seen but unobtrusive position to deliver clear signals or instructions via radio to move, turn or stop, and to guide pedestrians and other vehicle users safely out of the way of the vehicle as quickly as possible.

They are also vital when operating in unfamiliar environments, such as in the forestry sector, when managing the inherently variable undergrowth of a wooded area.

They are not always necessary; some work sites are designed to operate in one direction, which reduces the visibility disruption and thus the need for a banksman, whilst in other cases a risk assessment may find that other interventions would be more beneficial.

In some industries, vehicles are so large that a banksman may not be appropriate or even allowed due to the difficulty in seeing them, but they are more commonly required than not.