15.10.2012

Pallet access tower

We all know how the simple wooden pallet is often called into service as a makeshift platform on a forklift or telehandler…Last week a reader in Nottingham, England spotted an altogether more innovative method of using them to work at height.
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There are so many hazards here that it is almost a 'spot the issues' competition

It looks as though he has put two pallets together to create side frames and even manage to adjust the ‘legs’ to cope with the sloping ground. A fifth pallet then forms the platform. While planks and a broom handle have been called into service as bracing, no effort has been made to create a guardrail or toe-boards.

As if this was not ‘dodgy’ enough our man is using an extendable ladder to gain access to the tower at a dangerous angle in order to clear rubbish on the ground and has taken a cheap wooden step ladder up with him to gain an additional metre of height. It looks as though he is working on a shop front sign.
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A closer look

Why someone would go to all this effort to create what is a grossly inefficient form of access equipment, not to mention dangerous is a mystery. Particularly in a town where he has the ability to rent a wide range of equipment from a proper tower to a small aerial lift at very reasonable prices.

If he falls of his tower collapses this could prove to be an exceptionally expensive solution.

No question about it a definite Death Wish.