Unloading shipping containers by hand: how to plan the crew and the job

Container unloading is some of the most physical work we supply people for. It is also the work where a ten-minute conversation before the booking makes the biggest difference to how the day goes, for your dock and for the people inside the box.

This is how we think about planning a hand unload at a customer's warehouse or distribution centre: what makes it hard, what the regulators expect, and what we need to know to send the right crew.

Why hand-unloading is hard on people

A container is a long steel box with one way in. The work inside it combines most of the things regulators list as causes of musculoskeletal injury. WorkSafe Victoria's guidance on packing and unpacking containers lists, among others:

• repeated lifting, particularly above shoulder height or below mid-thigh height
• lifting heavy items
• carrying items over long distances or uneven surfaces
• awkward postures, repeated or held for long periods
• high or sudden forces.

A loose-loaded container delivers all of these in one shift. The top rows are above the shoulders, the bottom rows are at the floor, and the walk from the stack to the pallet gets longer with every row you clear.

SafeWork NSW adds two other common causes of injury around containers: being hit by unrestrained items or falling loads, and collisions between people and plant. Freight moves in transit. What was stacked neatly at origin can be leaning on the doors when it arrives.

Loose-loaded and palletised are different jobs

Palletised or slip-sheeted freight comes out with a forklift or pallet truck. The labour is mostly at the dock: checking, re-wrapping, labelling, putting away. WorkSafe Victoria's guidance favours this set-up: product supplied on pallets, slip-sheets or stillages can be packed and unpacked with powered mechanical aids instead of by hand.

Loose-loaded freight is stacked by hand floor to roof to use every bit of space. It fits more into the box and is far more work to receive, because every carton has to be handled by a person.

The honest trade-off is that any saving on freight is partly paid back in labour, time on the dock and physical load on people at the destination. That can still be the right commercial call. It should be a decision someone made, not a surprise.

If you have any influence over how your supplier packs, use it. Both regulators encourage working with suppliers on how loads are packed, so they can be unpacked safely. WorkSafe Victoria also suggests getting information about the packing order from the supplier, so the freight can come out without double handling.

What the regulators expect before anyone lifts a carton

The approach is broadly the same across the guidance: remove the manual handling where you reasonably can, and where you can't, reduce the risk by changing the work, the load or the equipment. Training and instruction come last.

For a hand unload, that usually means:

• A height-adjustable extendable conveyor running into the container, so cartons are placed rather than carried. WorkSafe Victoria includes these among its controls.
• Working between knee and shoulder height wherever possible. SafeWork NSW suggests pallet jacks, pallet rollers, trolleys or adjustable conveyors to achieve it.
• Height-adjustable pallet lifters or turntables at the stacking end, which WorkSafe Victoria also lists, so the person building the pallet is not bending to the floor for the first layers.
• A plan before the doors open. SafeWork NSW's wording is to always establish a plan for safe unpacking before doing anything else, and to have the right equipment on hand.
• No one inside if the load has shifted or looks unsafe, and never people and mobile plant inside the container at the same time. Both points come from SafeWork NSW.
• Avoiding working alone inside a container, and stopping to reassess and re-plan if conditions change part-way through, again from SafeWork NSW.

There is one more hazard worth knowing about. Safe Work Australia publishes information sheets on hazardous chemical exposure when unpacking containers, including methyl bromide, which is used as a fumigant. We have not summarised them here. If your freight may have been fumigated, read those sheets and get advice for your site before the doors are opened.

As a labour hire provider, we share safety duties for our people with you as the host. We have written about how that split works in who is responsible for what. On an unload, it means we aim to ask about your equipment and your procedure, and you should feel free to ask us about our people's training.

Heat inside the box

A steel container sitting in the sun gets hot, there is little air movement at the far end, and the work is heavy. That combination is the reason unloading needs its own plan from late spring through summer.

Safe Work Australia's guidance on working in heat says a business must ensure the health and safety of its workers so far as is reasonably practicable. One of the controls it gives is to schedule physically demanding activities during cooler parts of the day. For containers, that is often the most practical lever a site has.

The ideas below are our suggestions, not a list of regulator requirements. What we ask sites to consider:

• Start early. Book the hand unloads for first thing and leave palletised work for the afternoon.
• Where the container sits. Under an awning or on a shaded dock is a different job from the open yard.
• Air movement. Open the doors ahead of the start and put a fan at the door if you have one.
• Water and breaks. Cool water at the dock, not across the site, and breaks taken out of the container.
• Rotation. Swap the person at the face with the person at the pallet, so nobody spends the whole unload at the hot end.

We also aim to brief our crews to speak up early if someone is not coping. An unload that finishes a little later is a better result than a person going home unwell.

What we need to know to size the crew

We won't publish a formula, because there isn't an honest one. The same size container can be a short job or a long one depending on what is inside. What lets us size a crew properly is information:

1. How it is packed. Loose, palletised, slip-sheeted or mixed.
2. What the cartons are like. Approximate weight and size, and whether they are uniform or mixed.
3. How many product lines. A single line stacks straight onto pallets. A mixed container needs sorting, and that needs floor space and extra hands.
4. What happens after the carton comes out. Stacking to a pattern, wrapping, labelling, counting, quality checks.
5. Your equipment. Conveyor, pallet jacks, a forklift and operator to take full pallets away.
6. The dock. Dock height or ground level, shade, and how far the pallets travel.
7. The schedule. Arrival windows, how many containers in the week, and any detention deadline that is driving the timing.

Photos of a previous container from the same supplier, taken with the doors open, are worth more than any description.

With that, we can suggest how many people, what mix of experience, and whether the job needs a lead hand. Without it, we are guessing.

If things change on the day

Containers arrive late, arrive together, or arrive packed differently from the paperwork. Tell us as early as you can. The earlier we know, the more options we have, whether that is extending the crew already on site or organising more people. If you are planning for the busy end of the year, our peak season workforce plan covers booking ahead in more detail.

Talk to us before the container lands

If you have containers coming and want to plan the labour properly, have a look at how our container unloading crews work, or get in touch with the details above. We aim to reply within two business hours.

This article is general information, not legal or safety advice for your site. Check your state regulator's guidance and do your own risk assessment.