Interim Administration Protection

Ron contacted a local physical therapist that owned a physical therapy clinic in Huntington, West Virginia, where Imperial bedding is located. Hugh Murray studied the operation and developed lifting standards, training expectations and techniques and conducted several training sessions on site for the shipping personnel of Imperial. Both Ron and Mr. Murray realized that these steps were not the final answer to the challenge of loading bedding items in a safe and healthy manner. Most lifting standards (NIOSH Standards for Manual Lifting, 1987) preclude male workers from lifting anything greater than 100 pounds in weight for activities that are somewhat repetitive. In the overnight delivery industry, package weight limits of 70 pounds are frequently the norm. Mattresses are heavy, bulky, slippery and difficult to control overhead by a worker. In addition, in order to cube out the trailer, these items must be stacked on top of one another, all the way to the ceiling of a trailer, often to a height of over nine feet. Training and job rotation could do just so much in reducing the risk of injury to the workers.

Some kind of technology needed to be found to do this job. Ron had been a mechanic and an electrician in his earlier years and liked to tinker with processes and equipment to discover a more clever way of doing something. Suddenly he realized that these skills were going to be crucial to finding a solution to this menace on the shipping dock. The next visit by the OSHA inspector could result in his not being allowed to load his trucks manually, or not being able to load to the ceiling, or some other drastic edict that would cripple his business and customer service, while driving his costs through the roof. He started searching for a solution while Mr. Murray was conducting the training sessions for his employees.

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