Ensuring high standard of Racking Safety is paramount in a Warehousing environment to prevent potential catastrophic damage. Racking surveys should ideally be carried out by an external body to get an independent perspective on the condition of the racking.

Racking surveys are vital for businesses who have storage racking on site, and this could range anywhere from small quantities of racking to large distribution centres.

It is good practice for racking surveys to be carried out to the SEMA standards (Storage Equipment Manufacturers Association Standard) in order to have safe, workable, load bearing racking.

Racking surveys should be conducted in a systematic manner and this is best done by doing a layout drawing so that is clear which areas have been surveyed.

Racking surveys can be categorised into 4 key areas:
-An annual racking survey
-Making any changes or adjustments to the racking
-Following an accident for investigation purposes
-To verify that the equipment has been designed and built to a particular specification and standard

Signs of damage can include; damaged uprights which have been severely dented, damaged braces, missing locking pins and twisted shims. The damage can be categorised into Red, Amber and Green risk. Red risk is the most severe damage and if this was identified on survey, the racking should be repaired as soon as possible. Any amber racking damage should be repaired within a recommended 4 week period and any Green damage should be monitored and repaired where practicable, due to being within the limitations of the SEMA code.

Ensure Safety & Training can offer our clients a full racking survey working to SEMA standards. The HSE guidance document for racking safety; HSG76 is a great tool to use for the persons responsible for racking safety on site.

If you need anymore support or guidance, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.