Competence and ongoing training are essential when you direct heavy vehicles and plant. This module covers:

• Training in your site’s safe system of work.
• How new banksmen should be introduced and supervised.
• How competence is assessed and kept up to date.
• The uses and limits of cameras, mirrors, sensors and reversing alarms.
• Training for radio communication.
• Your personal protective equipment, or PPE: high-visibility clothing, head protection and weather protection.

Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, employers must assess vehicle and plant risks and control them. Banksmen must be trained in the controls used where they work. A banksman induction should cover:

• The site layout, pedestrian routes, one-way systems, and hazards such as overhead power lines.
• Site rules on speed limits, loading and parking areas.
• Who is in charge, and who to go to.
• The vehicles and plant used on site, and their visibility aids.

Your training should also cover:

• The hazard areas around each vehicle, where the driver has no view or a restricted view.
• That vehicle movements must stop immediately if you and the driver can no longer see each other.
• The hand signals adopted on site, and used by everyone in the same way.
• Any verbal commands used over radios.
• How to report near misses, hazards and incidents, including accidents that must be reported to the Health and Safety Authority.

Anyone new to the role, or new to a site, must be familiarised with the site and the machines before taking control of any operation. They should receive formal instruction, then work alongside a competent, experienced banksman until their competence has been assessed and recorded.

While learning, the trainee stays in a safe position and does not give signals, unless this has been agreed as a controlled part of their training. Drivers must be told that the trainee is only observing. Supervisors must check that this supervision really happens.

Employers must make sure every banksman stays trained and competent. This includes:

• Checking that people are fit for the role, with good enough eyesight, wearing glasses if needed, and able to move around the site safely.
• Training banksmen and drivers together in the site procedures.
• Keeping a record of training, with refresher training at intervals set by the risk assessment.
• Retraining when the site layout, the vehicles or the work changes.
• Checking that experienced banksmen from elsewhere use the site’s standard signals.

Many vehicles and plant now have extra visibility aids, such as wide-angle mirrors and cameras, as well as reversing alarms and warning lights. Your practical training should cover the aids fitted to the vehicles you guide.

These aids are useful, but they are supplementary. They never replace a safe system of work, the physical controls on site, or a banksman where the risk assessment says one is needed.

Blind spots remain, whatever aids are fitted. Reversing alarms can be drowned out by site noise, or can fail.

Accident investigations show that relying too much on monitors and alarms can actually increase the risk, because drivers, operators and even banksmen stop paying full attention. Treat every aid as a help, never as a guarantee, and keep watching the vehicle and the people around it.

Cameras fitted to the outside of a vehicle reduce its hazard area, the zone the driver cannot see. Several cameras together can give the driver a view all around the vehicle.

Drivers must be trained to keep switching between the monitor, the mirrors and direct views, rather than staring at the screen. Lenses must be kept clean of mud, dust and rain.

A camera does not remove the need for a banksman, if the risk assessment says one is required.

Proximity sensors warn the driver when the vehicle gets close to an object or person. The warning must suit the setting: a beep in the cab is useless if the driver wears ear defenders on a noisy site.

Reversing alarms warn people nearby. Ordinary beeping alarms are hard to locate, and broadband alarms, which make a hissing sound, are often preferred because people can tell where they come from.

Sensors and alarms must be checked every day before use, and maintained.

Large vehicles need extra mirrors to reduce blind spots. Convex mirrors give a wider view, but they make objects look further away than they are, and they cannot see through the body of the vehicle, or directly behind or below the cab.

You must understand the mirrors on each vehicle you guide, so that you stand where the driver can see you.

Fixed mirrors at blind corners and junctions are part of the site’s safety controls. Keep them clean and correctly aligned.

Where verbal signals over radios are part of the safe system of work, your training must cover:

• How to use the radio, including the channel and battery checks.
• How to confirm that each message has been received, for example by repeating it back.
• The exact words used by all drivers and banksmen on site.
• The barriers and exclusion zones that keep other people out of the operating area.

Under the General Application Regulations 2007, PPE is the last line of defence. Hazards must first be removed or reduced by other means. But in banksman work, some risk always remains, so PPE is needed.

The basic PPE for a banksman is high-visibility clothing, a safety helmet and safety boots. The risk assessment may require more, such as gloves or hearing protection.

If you need PPE for your work, your employer must provide it free of charge, and it must suit the job.

• It must fit you properly, and be comfortable to wear.
• You should be shown how to use, clean, maintain and store it.
• It must be maintained, and replaced when needed.
• You must wear it as instructed, and look after it.
• You must report any loss, defect or damage to your employer immediately.

Loading and unloading place people close to moving vehicles, equipment and unstable goods. Establish who may enter the loading area, where they should wait and who controls access. Keep pedestrians away from the space between a vehicle and dock, beneath lifting equipment, and from the load’s travel path. If a worker needs to approach to connect or release a load, the movement must stop and the equipment must be placed in the safe condition set by the method.

Do not assume that a driver’s cab is a safe refuge or that a person can move clear in time. Use barriers and clear instructions to prevent access by visitors or workers from other teams. When loading is complete, confirm that the load is secured and the area is clear before the vehicle leaves.

For a banksman, high-visibility clothing is the most important PPE, because the whole role depends on the driver seeing you. The standard, EN ISO 20471, has three classes:

• Class 1 gives the lowest level of visibility, such as hi-vis trousers on their own.
• Class 2 is an intermediate level, such as a standard hi-vis vest.
• Class 3 gives the highest level of visibility, such as a jacket with sleeves, or coveralls.

Banksmen normally need class 2 or class 3, often with hi-vis trousers.

Your employer chooses the class you need, based on the risk assessment. Hi-vis clothing is also available with waterproof and thermal protection for long outdoor shifts.

The fluorescent material and reflective strips only work when they are clean and in good condition. Wash the garment as the manufacturer instructs. If it is faded, dirty, torn or the strips are damaged, report it and get it replaced.

Head injuries from falling objects, or from striking your head on vehicles, scaffolding or loads, can kill. Where the risk assessment identifies these hazards, you must wear a safety helmet certified to EN 397.

• Fasten the chin strap, if there is one, especially near edges.
• Check the shell and harness for damage, and replace a damaged helmet at once.
• Replace it by the manufacturer’s date, because sunlight weakens the plastic over time.

A safety helmet only protects you if it is in good condition, so it needs regular care. Inspect the shell for cracks, and pay particular attention to the harness inside, which absorbs the force of an impact. If the shell has more than superficial scratches, its strength may be reduced, and the helmet should be replaced at once. Keep the helmet clean, and replace the sweatband regularly, because a dirty sweatband can cause skin irritation such as dermatitis.

Fasten the chin strap if one is provided, especially near edges: a helmet that falls from height becomes a dangerous object for the people below. Finally, respect the manufacturer's expiry date. Sunlight weakens the plastic even when the helmet has never been struck, and under heavy use many manufacturers limit a helmet's working life to three to five years.

Banksmen spend long shifts on their feet on uneven ground, near wheels, tracks and moving loads, so safety footwear matters. Boots should have protective toecaps, slip-resistant soles suitable for the ground conditions, and good ankle support. Where heavy objects could drop onto the top of the foot, the risk assessment may call for boots with additional protection for that area. Boots must be in good condition: worn soles or split uppers should be reported and replaced.

It is also important that drivers know exactly who is guiding them. Many sites make the banksman easy to identify, for example with a different coloured helmet, or with a tabard marked "Banksman" or "Vehicle Marshal". This helps the driver to follow only the person in control, and to ignore gestures from anyone else. Wear the identification your site provides, and if the driver is unsure who is in charge of the manoeuvre, stop and confirm before any movement continues.

Clothing that protects you from cold and wet weather counts as PPE where it is needed for the job.

Banksmen often work outdoors for long periods. Cold and rain slow your reactions and reduce your concentration, which increases the risk of an accident. Your employer must provide suitable waterproof and thermal clothing, such as garments meeting EN 343, and often built into class 3 hi-vis jackets. Gloves and helmet liners may also be needed.