Protect your material handling solutions from extreme heat, rain, tornadoes, and more.
While summer brings warm temperatures and sunny skies, it’s also a season of unpredictable and extreme weather. Between floods, rainstorms, tornadoes, extreme heat, and more, it is important to have a plan for how your facility will protect its material handling solutions and cargo. In this post, we have compiled the top five tips to prepare for extreme summer weather:
1. Conduct risk assessments early
2. Create disaster plans
3. Avoid direct sun in extreme temperatures
4. Weigh down and strap plastic pallets and crates
5. Continually improve
To keep your investment and employees safe, read more about these tips for preparing your material handling solutions for extreme summer weather.
Conduct risk assessments early
Benjamin Franklin once said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Over 280+ years later, this statement still holds. Assessing risk now is our first helpful tip for preventing damage to your material handling solutions and cargo as you prepare for extreme summer weather. For instance, consider where your packaging materials are stored at your facility. Are they indoors or outdoors? What risks do you face if there are high winds, flooding, or another catastrophic weather event? Considering all these and more questions before the summer season hits can help you avoid costly damages later.
Create disaster plans
After you understand the potential risks to your packaging inventory, the next tip for preparing for extreme summer weather is to have a disaster plan in place. Include protocol for circumstances when there’s warning of severe weather, as well as for times when there isn’t. When tornado or flood warnings are issued, for instance, create a step-by-step strategy for protecting your inventory and cargo. Who will be responsible? What will they do? If no warning is issued, such as in cases of earthquakes or unexpected storms, be sure to include a plan for quickly assessing and mitigating damages.
Keep material handling solutions out of the sun
While our material handling solutions are weather-resistant and can stand up to virtually any conditions, excessive exposure to direct sunlight and extreme heat could compromise the performance and longevity. As such, aim to store plastic pallets and crates in the shade during extraordinarily extreme temperatures. A temporary shelter or storage area can provide just the reprieve your inventory needs to maintain its strength and durability.
Learn more ways to extend the life of plastic pallets.
Weigh down and strap pallets
If you store your plastic pallets outdoors, consider weighing and strapping them down when not in use. Aside from theft protection, this tip to prepare for extreme summer weather helps protect your material handling solutions from violent tossing against windows, cars, and other structures during severe wind gusts. It can also help prevent injuries to on-site employees, customers, and passersby.
Continually improve
When it comes to preparing for extreme summer weather, a focus on continual improvement is our final tip for protecting your material handling solutions. Learn from your experiences season-to-season and look for ways to pivot as you go. Because facilities in the Southwest have different summer concerns than those in the Midwest or Northeast, it’s best to modify your disaster plans and strategies to account for whichever extreme conditions are common in your area.
Protecting your material handling solutions is just one of the ways to prepare for extreme summer weather. Following OSHA’s Guide for Employers can also help keep your outdoor team safe from heat-related illness. For questions about our reusable material handling solutions, contact our sales team online, or call 800.356.8150 today.