CBA News

ON-SITE ACCIDENTS DOWN; MINOR INCREASE IN TRAFFIC INCIDENTS

The Logistics Index, CBA’s latest annual report on the performance of its road haulage, warehouse, and tank farm companies, shows its members recorded six transport incidents whilst making nearly one and a quarter million journeys to deliver more than three million tonnes of chemicals.

The CBA Logistics Index, now in its fourteenth year, is based on 19 returns from haulage, warehousing, and tank farm companies that together employ 2,466 people.

Measuring the health, safety, security, and environmental performance of its logistics members, offers a series of annual performance indicators comparable to those covering CBA’s distributor members that have been published since 1993 and provides an end-to-end snapshot of the UK chemical supply chain.

Peter Newport, CBA Chief Executive and Chair of its Responsible Care Committee, said, “It’s pleasing to note a further reduction in the number of on-site accidents, but it is worrying that more than half the total were manual handling accidents or the result of a slip, trip or fall. Though six transport incidents were recorded in 2019, a minor year-on-year rise, none involved the release of chemicals.”

Reportable Accidents
CBA publishes data for accidents resulting in incapacities of more than three days. This is a higher standard than required by RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations). Maintaining this higher standard preserves the integrity of the time series CBA has established over the last 14 years. Historically, RIDDOR required incapacities over three days to be reported. In 2012, the Health and Safety Executive changed this threshold to incapacities of more than seven days duration.

Using this criterion, in 2019, CBA logistics companies reported 23 accidents (2018 – 25). Of these, 16 resulted in incapacities of more than seven days and were reportable under the current RIDDOR criterion (2018 – 17).

In 2019, more than half of accidents (52%) resulted from a manual handling process, slip, trip or fall. No accidents involved an exposure to a harmful substance (2018 – 0) and there were no notifiable diseases or fatalities reported in 2019.

Lost Time Accidents
In 2019, the Lost Time Accident (LTA) rate, applying the stricter three-day absence criterion, increased to 0.49 (2018 – 0.44). This year-on-year comparison is misleading – see Note to Editors (1).

Transport Incidents
In 2019, CBA logistics companies made nearly one and a quarter million journeys to distribute over three million tonnes of chemicals. There were 1.92 incidents for every million tonnes distributed in 2019 (2018 – 0.96).

In 2019, six transport incidents were reported (2018 – 4), all of which were road traffic incidents that did not lead to a chemical release.

CBA’s data goes beyond the thresholds set by the Department for Transport and RIDDOR legislation and include all transport incidents requiring the attendance of the emergency services – including minor traffic accidents, mechanical breakdowns or a puncture repair. CBA reports all such incidents regardless of fault.

Enforcement
CBA Logistics Services companies reported a total of 15 enforcement actions during 2019 covering both their individual sites and transport (2018 – 16).

Individual Sites – No convictions or HSE Prohibition Notices were recorded against CBA Logistics companies in 2019, although one company received an HSE Improvement Notice.

Transport – Fourteen transport Prohibition Notices were received in 2019. Two were in respect of infringements of a minor nature that did not delay the vehicle’s journey and could be rectified later; twelve required the infringement to be rectified immediately.

Further information from: Peter Newport,
Chief Executive Officer

Michael Cooper,
Responsible Care Co-ordinator

01270 258200
www.chemical.org.uk