Improving Safety with Material Handling Solutions for Your Retail Paint Bus

A retail paint business is similar to many other retail businesses with one difference. Employees often handle paint products in large, heavy pails, which can be inefficient and exhausting without the right tools. Carrying heavy products by hand can also cause physical strain over time, resulting in injury. There are good solutions, however, for avoiding or minimizing the risks to employees, and for making the work more efficient. Sometimes the solution is as simple as providing hand trucks to employees when they move paint.

Don’t Neglect the PPE

Providing the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) for employees is always crucial. The PPE that employees of paint retailers need depends on whether they are manufacturing or distributing paint. Employees in manufacturing generally need more PPE than those in distribution, which might include eye protection, hearing protection, properly rated face masks, gloves, and others. Employees in retail stores will need different types of PPE depending on their tasks. Paint mixers may need protection from fumes and spills, while point of sale staff who move cans and pails may only need protection for their hands and feet. For employees lifting by hand, consider a back support belt.

Practice Safety When Moving and Lifting

All employees need to be trained to lift safely, both for their own sake and for the sake of the people around them. It’s not just “lift with your legs,” although that is certainly good advice. Safe lifting means using proper ergonomics and tools, keeping common routes free of hazards and obstacles, and team lifting when necessary. One of the best ways to reduce the risks associated with lifting and moving heavy items, like paint pails, is to employ appropriate material handling equipment.

Solutions for Moving Paint

Providing employees with the right tools to lift and move paint is one of the most effective ways to reduce risk and increase their efficiency. For instance, the right hand truck or hand cart makes it easy to move multiple pails at a time. Employees can use a hand truck with a curved back to reduce the number of trips they have to take, and work more safely. There are also equipment solutions for moving heavier loads. For instance, the material handling company Magline features a pail lifter attachment for their LiftPlus line of hand lift trucks. For large paint pails, using a hand lift truck, or stacker, with a specialized attachment can definitely assist employees.

Safely Stacking Paint

Many of the same principles that apply to lifting and moving paint also apply to stacking paint. For example, safe lifting techniques are still necessary, and using the appropriate equipment is likewise a must. When stacking, there’s an additional necessity to ensure that the stacked paint is stable and doesn’t constitute a falling risk. Stacking is an excellent use for the LiftPlus, as it gives employees access to a powered lifting tool, capable of lifting up to 350 pounds up to 72 inches high, without the need of a forklift.

About Magline

Magliner dollies and hand trucks have been an essential staple of any industry relying on material handling for over 70 years. Magliner hand trucks have been so thoroughly established as a material handling cornerstone that the brand “Magliner” has come to stand-in for any hand truck of any brand. Unfortunately for other hand trucks, however, there’s just no substitute for a real Magliner. The Magliner standard of dependability, ease of use, quality, and reliability is unmatched. Along with the traditional hand truck, Magliner equipment includes a heavy duty hand truck selection, an electric hard truck line, a stair climbing cart collection, a lift hand truck collection, and a whole lot more. If you need something moved, lifted, or delivered, you’ll find Magliner equipment that’s perfect for the task.

Check out the material handling equipment that your business needs at Magliner.com

Original Source: https://bit.ly/3bP6Gun