Situation: EHS Manager receives a photo of a box truck with a palletized crate of equipment that is attempting to be delivered to the data center. The delivery driver wants to use 2×4 pieces of wood to create a ramp, to unload the materials. EHS Manager instructed the site to reject delivery.

Challenge: Equipment for the data center was ordered by procurement with no awareness of the site capabilities to handle delivery. The facility did not have a loading dock or equipment to unload the pallet. The delivery company truck was not equipped with a lift gate or ramp. There was a language barrier between the delivery driver and the data center site employees.

Core issue:  Lack of pre-planning, communication and coordination between procurement, delivery company and the data center site.

Result or near-miss: The delivery driver tried to make a ramp out of 2×4 pieces of wood, resulting in a near-miss accident.

Next time: Staff on site should be notified of delivery details and procurement staff should be aware of site-specific capabilities and challenges for unloading. There should be some pre-planning to ensure the site can safely accept the delivery.

About the Data Center Safety Council

Established by founding members Edgecore Digital Infrastructure, Oracle, Salesforce, STACK Infrastructure, Vantage Data Centers, Yondr, and new member Digital Realty, the Data Center Safety Council was created to establish a unified approach towards ensuring safety and wellbeing of personnel in data center operations. The vision is to create a forum where health and safety professionals work collaboratively as an industry group to improve data center worker safety wholistically. Together, member companies will address common issues and seek long-term solutions with vendors and suppliers for the benefit and safety of data center workers.