The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cites pallet rack collapses among the top 10 causes of warehouse accidents and estimates their cost at $36 billion annually in the United States.
This figure includes the cost of repairing or replacing damaged racks, inventory, and equipment as well as lost productivity, business interruption, legal claims, and reputational damage. Despite their rarity and underpublicized nature, these events are happening more frequently than most would believe.
Warehousing and distribution logistics markets are experiencing explosive and unprecedented growth. While recognizable titans of industry such as Amazon and Walmart lead the charge, there are a host of others that are filling the gaps of more specialized goods and regional markets to meet the ever-growing demand, with more coming online every day. This is just the tip of the iceberg in the evolving landscape of warehousing.
E-commerce is a primary driver behind this growth. Online order delivery times continue to shrink, bringing exponentially increased pressure inside the warehouse to move product faster than ever before. The challenges inherent in meeting this rising demand, along with production considerations and operational deadlines, create an environment where safety can be overlooked. Oversight regarding the structures that store these goods can be costly—and, in the event of a pallet rack collapse, deadly.
The hurried operational pace coupled with high turnover of well-trained employees means that damage to these structures is also increasing in both regularity and severity. The very moment a pallet rack sustains critical damage, a catastrophic collapse is a real possibility, with the damaged rack potentially being the first domino in a disaster that threatens the entire facility and the lives of workers in it. “Pallet rack collapse” videos are readily available online and offer a unique view into both the magnitude of damage and the speed with which it occurs. Once such a collapse is triggered, it cannot be stopped. It is over in seconds and, within that short timeline, goods are decimated; structures are destroyed; and, most importantly, rescue efforts have become uncommonly treacherous. The aftermath of such an event is at a scale and complexity that are hard to imagine, and the loss of life that often results from these crises is heart-wrenching and difficult to think about. Yet, the time has come that we simply must think about it in a productive and proactive way.
A pallet rack collapse event is unlike most other scenarios for which first responders routinely prepare. While structural collapse, hazmat threat, live utility, and rescue/recovery are all routinely part of first responder training, rarely are all of these components in the same scene at the same moment. Pallet rack collapse response demands that all of those emergency preparedness disciplines are employed, often simultaneously, and it takes weaving these skills together for true pallet rack collapse preparedness. The perils are real, the containment of the scene is formidable, and the decisions that need to be made are incredibly challenging. Thankfully, the first responder community is already well-versed in many of these areas and can thoughtfully navigate through these moments, hours, and days with skill and experience. Unfortunately, however, they are too often doing this from a “blindsided” posture, with no advance strategy, no preparedness, and no planning that could have otherwise helped them operate from a position of operational protocol.
Research with first responder audiences has made it uncomfortably clear that little to nothing is currently being done to prepare and properly equip them for the potential hazards they will face should they be called on to respond to a pallet rack collapse. No training. No standards. No protocols. No specialized equipment. Nothing. This