Rotating driver’s workstations at trailer manufacturer Schmitz Cargobull

Schmitz Cargobull AG produces in Gotha annually about 5,000 vehicles, 3,500 of which are tipper trailers, which are united with the respectively suited chassis to a total solution for articulated lorries. 539 employees currently work at the site. They are assisted by roughly 50 Linde industrial trucks – more precisely by 21 diesel and eleven electric stackers, four tractors and eleven further warehouse equipment items, including low and high platform trucks.

“A particularity of our transport tasks consists of the fact that the forklift trucks partly drive over the entire site with a whole trough of up to 3.5 tons on the fork”, Silvio Jas, fleet manager at Schmitz Cargobull in Gotha explains and adds: “Because of the large, bulky loads, the drivers have to drive in reverse, as the view of the track at the front is obstructed. That involves constantly turning the upper body, in order to be able to look backwards, which is a great strain on the driver’s spinal columns. In addition, the field of vision backwards in the direction of travel is limited even if the upper body is turned and this creates a danger area. The accident risk is accordingly high both for himself and for the people in his vicinity. In order to solve this problem, we introduced the rotating driver’s workstation from the Linde safety programme together with our regional Linde authorised dealer, Lindig Fördertechnik”.

In order to test the solution thoroughly, two Linde H50 and Linde H60 were each equipped with a rotating driver’s workstation in a first project phase. “Our workers are pleased about this back-friendly option that only Linde offers up to now”, Jas explains. The introduction of the rotating driver’s workstation is supported by the professional association Trade and Goods Distribution (BGHW). For first measurements had revealed that the safety solution in the case of often driving in reverse reduced the driver’s physical stress in comparison to regular forklift truck workstation by up to 60%. A study of the BGHW at approximately ten companies, including Schmitz Cargobull is now to supply precise data and provide a valid result.