Professional driving vans in heat...

djkav

djkav

djkav

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Joined
28 Aug 2006
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Hi, I'm a professional driver and drive vans in 10-12h shifts.

The vans I drive are the armoured type with sealed windows. Also 90% of them don't have air con. While working in this heat 25c+, van cabs can easily exceed 100f.

Also, if you leave the secure confines of the van. Then you have to wear your helmet.

Is it reasonable to make a complaint to the HSE about an extremely uncomfortable working environment?

The heat is excessive and its difficult to stay hydrated.
 
AFAIK there is no 'upper limit' on work environment (at least there wasn't when I worked in a supermarket), but they did have to supply/allow access to drinks as and when needed. Can you take a bottle of water/juice/etc into the van with you?

FluffySheep
 
No upper heat working limit in the UK, if it was the last week I wouldn't have been allowed to leave the office.
Put on baggy clothes, and take a frozen drink with you.
 
Out of curiosity, why did you change from Celsius to Fahrenheit? No-one in the UK uses Fahrenheit because it's daft.
 
FerretBoy said:
Temperature of a fever for example I normally see in Fahrenheit.
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Mind = Blown :eek:

I honestly thought that it was completely unused here other than for exaggerating temperatures.

<edit>
Oh, I see. Fahrenheit is a useful scale for measuring body temperature because 37.5°c is 99.5°F which makes it easier to "spot" fever conditions at ~37.8°c which is 100°F. I always just remember 37.5-37.8°c Hehehe :p
 
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Abraxaz1 said:
the same kind of retards that don't install aircon in industrial buildings, the cost of installation + maintenance vs. the actual use, doesn't quantify there installation.
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Cooling a very small space is cheap and easy, and a very small cab that is sealed is going to have very poor ventilation where as many factories are huge and have plenty of ventilation and would be ludicrously expensive to seal up have aircon to cope with the heat output of 100's or 1000's of workers and the machines they are working on.

For many factories cooling them properly would be insanely difficult and stupidly expensive, the difference is that AC is a fairly standard addition to a car/van, its cheap, its cheap to cool such a small space and it only has to deal with a small amount of heat. There are many reasons to not cool a factory and basically no reasons to not cool a tiny van.
 
FerretBoy said:
Not entirely true, it's used for quoting bigger numbers ;) Temperature of a fever for example I normally see in Fahrenheit.
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So why not use Kelvins instead then :p. You sure about that as last time I used the NHSs website it was all in Celsius?

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
djkav said:
Hi, I'm a professional driver and drive vans in 10-12h shifts.

The vans I drive are the armoured type with sealed windows. Also 90% of them don't have air con. While working in this heat 25c+, van cabs can easily exceed 100f.

Also, if you leave the secure confines of the van. Then you have to wear your helmet.

Is it reasonable to make a complaint to the HSE about an extremely uncomfortable working environment?

The heat is excessive and its difficult to stay hydrated.
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no it isn't - drink water....

if they ban you from bringing bottles of water in your cab then speak to the HSE but I suspect you've got the opportunity to bring water

the aircon thing does suck a bit... tbh.. I don't think its a safety concern really, uncomfortable - sure.

I've done an operational tour as an infantry soldier in a rather hot country with frequent journeys in armoured vehicles... you're not going to convince me that an outside temperature of 25 degrees is unsafe or that having to merely wear a helmet in those conditions is. Its perfectly possible to do all that, carry/wear even more kit and do tasks that are significantly more physically demanding than carrying a box with outside temps of 40degrees upwards. If you're sensible with keeping yourself hydrated there shouldn't be many issues.

Perhaps lobby your management/join a union and persuade management to fit aircon... but really this is a comfort thing which, given this is the UK, isn't even going to be an issue for most of the year
 
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I guess you could claim it's so hot a dog would easily die in there and it's not really a good environment when you have to be on your guard all time
 
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