Section ENVIRONMENT
TOPIC

KNAUF

Action for safety rules for loading and transportation of goods in Greece

We are committed to ensure health, safety and welfare to our employees and any person affected by our activities.

We pledge to make every effort to:

  • observe what the law describes for Health and Safety at work
  • comply with the policy of the Knauf group on Health and Safety
  • satisfy the high demands of employees, partners and our customers, continuously improving our working environment

Our goal is to provide a safe working environment with facilities and equipment, but also the continuous education of our employees and all stakeholders in order to manage in the best possible way. We will continue to provide our staff training/ education/ guidance they need to carry out all work safely and the necessary protective equipment, where the risks cannot realistically be eliminated.

In particular safety in loading and transportation of goods is the responsibility of all parties in the product distribution chain. Keeping that in mind, Knauf has developed a guide for the safe loading and transportation of all goods. The safe loading rules apply to all shipments of goods from our factories in Amfilochia and Thessaloniki.

For education and knowledge transfer on an issue that concerns everyone, we held multiple seminars for safe loading and transporting goods to all involved parties in the loading, Knauf employees, transport companies, customer and suppliers. During the seminars all the methods and conditions for safe loading and transport of goods were analyzed according to the Greek, European legislation and international standards. Also, loading live demonstration were performed for highlighting critical practices.

The guide is an ideal safety tool for everyone involved in the transport of building products and is a model example in Greek literature.

  • Knauf employees,
  • wholesaler employees,
  • employees of transportation companies,
  • truck drivers.

2015 up today.

In the process of loading and transporting goods there is a high risk of joint liability between the logistics and the production company in case of an accident that may extend all the way up to the delivery destination. As a producer, in order to ensure that we loaded the goods on a proper manner we created a manual for the safe loading and transportation of the building materials that Knauf is producing in Greece and Cyprus. 

In order to create the manual a workgroup of several experts (internal and external) has been formed consisting of industry executives, law and transportation with high expertise on relative subjects. The manual copes with a reference to the existing legislation frame, an analysis of the requirements of the vehicle such as stability headboard and stowage, a presentation of the laws of physics framework regarding the forces that are developed during the movement of the vehicle, as well as an extensive analysis of all securing types, methods and means that are needed to ensure the secure loading of our products onto the vehicle. At the end, there is a detailed list with guidelines and rules for loading, handling and transporting goods.

Upon the manual creation, the next step was to train all Knauf employees involved in loading and handling of our products in order to ensure the proper implementation of these guidelines in praxis. For that reason we conducted for all the above a full day seminar, on March 21st 2015, at our plant in Amfilochia, with the help of a senior consultant with extensive knowledge and expertise on safe loading and transportation practices. During the seminar the manual content was fully analyzed and explained to the participants and at the end a demonstration of a safe loading has been implemented on site.  On August 25th, a full day seminar was also conducted in Cyprus.

We did not rely on the internal training but we insisted on informing in this aspect all our stakeholders. So as a next step, we shared this expertise and knowledge with all the rest participants in the goods transportation chain such as wholesalers, logistics companies, and lorry drives etc. A special full day seminar and several webinars for the responsible employees for loading, transporting and unloading of our main customers have been implemented throughout the last year. 

The manual has been presented as a best practice between all Knauf Group companies and has already been adopted from several other countries. It is available in Greek and English language upon request.

For creating the manual we collaborated with external consultants that were experts in the field of transportation and loading of goods, experts in the national and European law as well as senior executives of suppliers, dealers and transportation companies.

Yes.

Greece and Cyprus.  Εxport of Greek know how to the rest Knauf companies.

  • Participation in training seminar of 25 Knauf employees and 36 executives.
  • Investment for the vast quality improvement of the tools and means used in transportation and loading of building products from all involved parties.

Maintain zero number of accidents during loading and transporting building products in Greece and Cyprus.