XPO | Safestack Is Sending Employees To The Hospital

There is another thread in this forum titled "We Made the List." It speaks to list of twelve companies nicknamed "the dirty dozen" and it talks about companies that a certain organization has identified 12 companies as those having the most dangerous working conditions. In this thread, the conversation has gravitated toward the condition of our SafeStack trailers, particularly the beams we use to load freight on. In this thread, the men are talking about the poor condition of the load beams and how they are no longer safe due to poor maintenance. Originally, this was intended to be a system that drivers could maintain, but due to the unreasonable time constraints foisted upon us by our new owners XPO, the beam system throughout the network has fallen into a state of dangerous disrepair. I've looked at the root cause investigations over the months and have seen several instances where an dockworker or driver had a beam fall on his head, causing an unnecessary and preventable injury, this is unacceptable and the beam systems are in need of major repair or overhaul. Training a new driver/DW to not stand directly under a beam when raising or lowering is no longer sufficient training to prevent injury, the system needs to be fixed on a network level by a team other than drivers and dockworkers. The purpose of this thread is for the men to tell their stories about the hazards of our poorly maintained beam system and urge the company to hire people at key locations within the network to start making repairs to the beam system. The damaged beams are not only a hazard for XPO employees but for our customer as well in locations where we spot trailers. The company wants to complain about damaged freight, that's fine. But complaining damaged freight without addressing what I believe to be the root cause gets us nowhere, the beams either must be replaced or stripped out and we go back to loading freight old school with dunnage, bracing, and straps. If the company truly cares about safety as it has indicated with the endless training modules we're forced to put the employees through, then I urge the company to consider hiring people for the specific task of beam repair and maintenance. Yes, this would be substantial investment in manpower and material, but consider the alternative, continued injuries inside the Safestack trailers and the adverse exposure to a potential lawsuit if the beams happen to fall on the head of an employee of one our customers. XPO, you claim you want to be the best LTL in the business, then man up and do your part to make it so. XPO....fix these SafeStack beams.

I have heard about and seen first hand people getting hurt by falling safestack beams. I agree across the board repairs are needed, any track work to be done by shop locations.
Last year, XNW had a dockworker assigned specifically to replacing beams. He had a cart with new parts, and rebuilt them on the spot before the FAC got rolling. I don’t know how long this dockworker did this repair work, but needless to say, he isn’t doing it anymore.
When I worked my outbound dock a few years ago, I was responsible for keeping a supply of new or rebuilt safestack beams so drivers could replace them. As we all know, it’s not difficult and if you have a new beam and the beam stop comes out, it takes just a few minutes. I take the beam closest to the door and use that if I can get the beam stop out. I know where the tool is and I use it. I think part of the problem is laziness when loading a trailer. I can be guilty of this too. I also took care of keeping a good stock of placards which is another thing that most places are lacking.
So Scotch, what do you think it’s gonna take? I have no answer.

A driver at my terminal got hit on the head and the back of his neck in December. He now has a tear in his spinal cord and a severe back injury. Have

It’s clear at this point beam maintenance is not part of a trailer pm . I think misuse definitely leads to some of the problem and that needs to be addressed but let’s face it the parts are aluminum and get daily use . They have been in service for many years now and parts need replacing.
The beams did not fall a couple years ago like they are now so that suggests wear as a factor. Everyone could stop abusing them today going forward but that does not address no action buy the company to fix it.
In a bunch of trailers almost all the beams are dropping. Even with the tools and supplies a driver does not have the hours it would take to fix a single trailer.
This is clearly a management problem and the resolution is on them.

The magician said:

A driver at my terminal got hit on the head and the back of his neck in December. He now has a tear in his spinal cord and a severe back injury. Have

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That sucks. I can tell you it was a concern way back before our vote a senior executive made it clear back then that they were aware of the problem but it was the drivers responsibility to fix all of them. That was 2 yrs ago .

We should be issued hard hats until there fixed

Had a coworker get hit on the head (stitches)
I hurt my back lifting a beam. It moved 2 inches then bound up. My injury was more of a freak thing, to be honest. But it happened, I think, because the beam was slightly bent and didn't quite slide right.

We see too many trailers with straps used to tie a beam as high as possible (because they fall on bumps and when forklifts enter) come through, or even with beams missing, which leads to other issues down the road like damages.

Tao said:

Had a coworker get hit on the head (stitches)
I hurt my back lifting a beam. It moved 2 inches then bound up. My injury was more of a freak thing, to be honest. But it happened, I think, because the beam was slightly bent and didn't quite slide right.

We see too many trailers with straps used to tie a beam as high as possible (because they fall on bumps and when forklifts enter) come through, or even with beams missing, which leads to other issues down the road like damages.

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It’s a big problem I have heard of 2 shoulder injuries and 1 head injury so far this year that I know of. The guy with the head injury was knocked out cold and suffered a concussion. Many refusals by customers to enter trailers.

Not to mention what messing with them beams will do to your hearing later on.

How much freight would move if drivers focused on beam maintenance?

icuicp said:

How much freight would move if drivers focused on beam maintenance?

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It’s not doable at this point there to far gone. I suspect the tracks and beams are both worn from my observation . More beams that slip than actual beast beams that I have seen bent.

I guess we all could say that if people were trained and use common sense when loading a trailer, like not stacking steel on top of light bulbs, we would not have to deal with safe stack.

We’ve had guys get hit in the head too and go to the hospital and missed weeks of work because of it. The only way they “fix” it is by putting a strap under the broken bar. So sad

I'm unhappy that we've only 12 hits on this thread. The unsafe stack beams are not only causing great harm to us and in some cases, our customers, but they also hindering our ability to properly load freight. This needs to be company wide conversation. If I get a minute this week, I'll pull up recent root cause investigations into beams falling on people and share the results. I know they are out there because I've read them, that means the company is aware this is happening.

ScotchNeat said:

I'm unhappy that we've only 12 hits on this thread. The unsafe stack beams are not only causing great harm to us and in some cases, our customers, but they also hindering our ability to properly load freight. This needs to be company wide conversation. If I get a minute this week, I'll pull up recent root cause investigations into beams falling on people and share the results. I know they are out there because I've read them, that means the company is aware this is happening.

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Their well aware. It will cost money to repair and their in a higher gear on cost cutting mode since the Amazon loss

ScotchNeat said:

I'm unhappy that we've only 12 hits on this thread. The unsafe stack beams are not only causing great harm to us and in some cases, our customers, but they also hindering our ability to properly load freight. This needs to be company wide conversation. If I get a minute this week, I'll pull up recent root cause investigations into beams falling on people and share the results. I know they are out there because I've read them, that means the company is aware this is happening.

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I think you are getting so few hits because most who come on TruckingBoards.com , an are familiar with SafeStack ( and XPO ) know what the choice is between safety and maintenance , and saving and making money. Saving and making money will win out EVERYTIME!

Well, I’ve never seen anyone hit with a safestack beam. I’m curious if people are standing under them while dropping them? Like most, I’ve racked probably a thousand on the fac. Seen them jitterbug down when coming into the trailer with a lift, but have never had one or even come close to el-kabonging myself. Curious what the situations are.

icuicp said:

How much freight would move if drivers focused on beam maintenance?

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Are you in maintenance or a driver? I hired in to drive. Maintenance workers get paid more per hour. Way I see it xpo owes y’all more per hour to cover your maintenance duties

upnorth said:

Well, I’ve never seen anyone hit with a safestack beam. I’m curious if people are standing under them while dropping them? Like most, I’ve racked probably a thousand on the fac. Seen them jitterbug down when coming into the trailer with a lift, but have never had one or even come close to el-kabonging myself. Curious what the situations are.

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I have had them drop over me but avoided being hit. The guy that’s was knocked out had just pushed up a beam moved forward slightly to push the next one up and the beam he just pushed up fell and hit him on the back of the head.
Most city drivers at our barn have had close calls or been hit while unloading freight with a pallet jack.
I guess you have been lucky.

sucker666 said:

I have had them drop over me but avoided being hit. The guy that’s was knocked out had just pushed up a beam moved forward slightly to push the next one up and the beam he just pushed up fell and hit him on the back of the head.
Most city drivers at our barn have had close calls or been hit while unloading freight with a pallet jack.
I guess you have been lucky.

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So the beam he just pushed up came all the way down? Wow. That trailer should be put out of service.