Yes there was, I thought it sounded very familiar! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHXCb7-z0Lg&ab_channel=1NEWS 

Same company too...

The common sense thing to do is to have someone on the passenger side that gets out to attach the bin if out of reach. Or go back to rubbish bags where they have to manually touch the bags anyway.

mattwnz:

 

 

 

I suspect it will only get worse with more and more urban intensification.  Sort of reminds me of New York where on certain days their pedestrian pavements on the street  get piled full of garbage and smells, as the city didn't incorporate service areas like alleyways. I hope our councils are planning for this....

 

HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa

mattwnz:

 

Yes there was, I thought it sounded very familiar! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHXCb7-z0Lg&ab_channel=1NEWS 

 

Same company too...

 

Aha - so I’m by no means alone. And, given that they haven’t called me back as promised, thanks to Fair Go I now have a name at WM to ask for - Marsha Cadman! General Manager Customer & Sustainability, no less.

So as someone who manages a department reviewing designs from developers and internal capital work within Auckland, my view is that WM and also Councils are coming around to their responsibilities under the Work Safe 2015 Legislation as it pertains to PCBUs.  From my conversations with the waste companies, at a national level, the predominate cause of serious injuries in their workforce came from the 'runner' pushing bins in the right place for the loader arms or rear loading.  The Legislation makes it clear that it is the PCBU's responsibility to ensure that work places are safe from harm (e.g. carrying out waste collection) and as I understand it the removal of the runner has solved that issue as well as saved money (but unfortunately given us some big ass trucks to run on local streets in Auckland).  As a result, the issue is that using side loading 10.3m rear turning trucks has problems with parked cars and the driver is not permitted to leave the cab (sometimes they do and this would be deemed as a breach if found out) to move bins in to place.

Benoire:

 

So as someone who manages a department reviewing designs from developers and internal capital work within Auckland, my view is that WM and also Councils are coming around to their responsibilities under the Work Safe 2015 Legislation as it pertains to PCBUs.  From my conversations with the waste companies, at a national level, the predominate cause of serious injuries in their workforce came from the 'runner' pushing bins in the right place for the loader arms or rear loading.  The Legislation makes it clear that it is the PCBU's responsibility to ensure that work places are safe from harm (e.g. carrying out waste collection) and as I understand it the removal of the runner has solved that issue as well as saved money (but unfortunately given us some big ass trucks to run on local streets in Auckland).  As a result, the issue is that using side loading 10.3m rear turning trucks has problems with parked cars and the driver is not permitted to leave the cab (sometimes they do and this would be deemed as a breach if found out) to move bins in to place. 

Yes but how come the same company has its drivers in Wellington leaving the cab and manually loading the bins? Not exactly an abundance of flat and easy access streets here, so if they didn't do that not many bins would ever end up being emptied.

allan:

 

Yes but how come the same company has its drivers in Wellington leaving the cab and manually loading the bins? Not exactly an abundance of flat and easy access streets here, so if they didn't do that not many bins would ever end up being emptied.

 

Who knows, I can only comment on the Auckland situation.  The region has suffered many a serious injury and a few deaths related to rubbish trucks and so are under pressure to comply with the legislation and coroner report outcomes.

@Benoire So WM are consciously entering into contracts with, and charging, their residential customers for a service they know they will not be able to reliably perform.

Auckland Council contractors are performing the same service but they apparently do not have the same problems, do not use the H&S excuse and do not leave unemptied bins. We are six neighbours in our cul-de-sac and the other five use the Council service. They never have missed collections.

I’m calling BS on Waste Management.

eracode:

 

@Benoire So WM are consciously entering into contracts with, and charging, their residential customers for a service they know they will not be able to reliably perform.

 

Auckland Council contractors are performing the same service but they apparently do not have the same problems, do not use the H&S excuse and do not leave unemptied bins. We are six neighbours in our cul-de-sac and the other five use the Council service. They never have missed collections.

 

I’m calling BS on Waste Management.

 

As I said, I am aware that Auckland Council contracted services do this across the region quite often due to the inability to get to the bin, which I believe is the property owners responsibility to ensure it is accessible... check the small print of the contract it is probably in there as an out... now, I'm with Waste Management and if they can't access one day they will generally come back on the next round to get it, although its rare that the street is blocked with cars in my area.

I would not be surprised if the contract includes, or will include in its next revision, language saying that "it is the customer's responsibility to ensure that the bin is, on collection day, located in a position where it is clearly visible to the driver and readily accessible for collection by the vehicle" - the implication being it's your problem. Maybe the council should mark out metre-wide yellow boxes for the bins to go on the street.

As to whether AKL and WGN are comparable? They may have different people doing the health and safety reviews. It might be one of those (many, many) policies that technically is on the books but no-one complies with. Maybe a (group of) drivers is having a bit of a fight with management and is 'working to rule'.

I would expect dead-man switches on the trucks to be an absolute minimum, but the issue is that they are probably intended as a backup, for catching if people make a mistake. When using them as the main safety, you now need a new backup in case the deadman fails, so really you need the operator to be applying the handbrake every time and for the deadman to be sounding an alarm if they fail to.

I'm not sure what the specific hazard posed by the runners is - just movement of heavy objects? Pinching between cars and the arm grabbing the bin? Two workers per truck has significant H&S benefits in an emergency.

Benoire:

 

.... From my conversations with the waste companies, at a national level, the predominate cause of serious injuries in their workforce came from the 'runner' pushing bins in the right place for the loader arms or rear loading. 

 

Where is the hazard in the runner moving some bins ? Its a job, many job's cant be 100% safe .
Any more dangerous than me pushing it to the top of the drive.
any more hazardous than posties or courier drivers
H&S gone mad ? watch them change there H&S position as they start to loose all their customers

Im also in East Coast Bays.
Down my small street  ,the street is packed with cars parked on the road, despite all the houses having offstreet parking . Just too many
cars per household , or too many adults crammed into each house .
Luckily I can put my bin where cars cant park.

On the topic of these rubbish bins, the council want us to reduce waste (due to rubbish tip issues)
So then the council gave us all a huuuuge plastic bin . A bin 5x the size of the old rubbish bags .

Journeyman: Often I think that when corporations cite Health and Safety concerns they're not actually genuinely concerned with anybody's health or safety. It's just avoidance of ending up liable for something so they formulate stupid policies to overcompensate for scenarios that have very little likelihood of ever happening.

Yes.  But once a business has identified a risk of any sort, it takes some courage to deem that to be an acceptable risk, in the face of an almost certain Worksafe prosecution next time it happens.

1101:

 

On the topic of these rubbish bins, the council want us to reduce waste (due to rubbish tip issues)
So then the council gave us all a huuuuge plastic bin . A bin 5x the size of the old rubbish bags .

 

You know you don’t have to fill the bin, right? Or even put it out every week?

antonknee:

 

You know you don’t have to fill the bin, right? Or even put it out every week?

 

Maybe, but they can start to smell bad.

Also with WM in Devonport and did not get collected yetserday.

Our collection day has just changed from Thursday to Tuesday. We are on fortnightly private collection. When I rang WM they said yesterday was not 'our fortnight'. Fair enough, maybe I got it mixed up with change of collection day.

Will see what happens next week, but our street is a cul de sac with a primary school. So space on the street/kerb is impossible with all the parents parking their SUV's any and everywhere incl over our driveway as little Johnny might disolve if he gets an ounce of rain on him!!

Never had an issue before with the bin not being collected and I have often assumed they must get out of the truck to move the bin due to parked cars.