Forecourt Risk Assessment

Why is a risk assessment so important?

• Your petroleum license requires it
• The Management of Health & Safety Regulations require it
• The expense of an accident could be high
• The cost of a pollution incident could be expensive
• An incident would disrupt your business and could drive your customers away
• Accidents increase your insurance costs

Could you do it in-house?

Yes you could, although:

• Your staff may be so familiar with the site that they do not notice some of the hazards – an outside pair of eyes can take a fresh look
• Our staff compare individual risks to industry standards and hence are in a better position to assess the severity of the risk. Your staff may know only a limited number of petrol stations
• Improvements may need costing to see if they are reasonably practicable. Our experience of the costs of improvement works enables us to assess quickly what is reasonably practicable. Your staff may not be so familiar with current prices for such work.
• It should involve some assessment of operating staff’s safety awareness. A detached view can be more objective

How can we help?

• Our experience in all parts of forecourts, including the fuel, drainage and traffic aspects, enables us to assess the full range of risks on your service station
• We will provide a comprehensive risk assessment to HS(G) 146, of all your petrol station activities, including recommendations for action, so that you can improve safety where practicable
• Our risk assessments are concise and easy to read, while still containing the information that you require
• Being familiar with current detailed costs, we are able to produce estimates for such improvements, to enable you to decide on the viability of such works
• By assessing the competence of those forecourt staff on duty, we can advise you if further training should be considered

HS(G) 146 lays down guidelines for conducting forecourt risk assessments, and we follow these guidelines to produce detailed reports, pointing out possible hazards and the risk of them occurring. We also detail various recommendations to improve safety at minimum cost. Sometimes it only requires a change in operating procedures, and safety can be improved at almost no cost. Our experience of all aspects of design and construction enable us to assess what is feasible and what is not ‘reasonably practicable’. Our risk assessments have been highly commended.