Designing safe 

mobile equipment 

access areas

Click on the highlighted areas to 

learn more.
Ensure ladders meet or 

exceed standards

• Maintain even rung spacing from

the ground level to the cab.

• Be sure that rungs are flat and deep

enough to place the foot

comfortably.

• Avoid using circular bars or rods as

rungs when possible.

• Choose rungs with small openings

on the tread so contaminants

cannot accumulate.

• Add non-slip coatings or grooves on

the rungs to increase grip.

• Ensure handholds run the entire

length of the ladder.

Did you know?

• Flexible-railed bottom rungs on

mobile equipment can be especially

hazardous.

• Getting off mobile equipment is

more dangerous than getting on.
Provide an access 

platform with stairs

• Construct and use access platforms 

with stairs and guardrails that allow 

operators to enter and exit the cab 

directly.

• Eliminate the use of vertical ladders 

for access to mobile equipment 

when possible. 

Did you know?

• Most ingress and egress injuries on 

front-end loaders occur on 

equipment with vertical ladders.
Provide adequate and 

appropriate lighting 

• Ensure the lighting is uniform 

across the parking area. 

• Space lights so adjacent beams 

overlap in order to avoid dark 

pockets. 

• Regularly check light levels in 

parking areas using a lux/light 

meter to ensure they are between 

2-4 foot-candles or 22-43 lux.

• Paint the stairs, ladder, and 

platform in a color that has a high 

contrast to the contaminant to 

make it easier to detect the 

contaminant. 

Did you know?

• Insufficient lighting around mobile 

equipment can make it hard to 

detect hazardous ground or ladder 

conditions.
Provide a designated 

parking area for mobile 

equipment 

• Keep parking areas free from 

hazardous ground conditions like 

ruts, rocks, hoses, and ice.

• Provide designated walkways with 

clearly marked crosswalks to 

parking areas. 

Did you know?

• Injuries when accessing equipment 

are often due to ruts, grooves, 

rocks, hoses, pipes, pallets, crib 

blocks, and slippery surfaces like 

ice, snow, or mud in the parking 

area.
Provide cleaning stations 

with housekeeping 

supplies in parking areas 

• Provide housekeeping supplies at a 

designated and marked location in 

the parking area to allow workers 

to remove contaminants from the 

equipment.

• Typical housekeeping supplies 

include:

o Shovels

o Brooms

o Brushes

o Ice scrapers 

o Salt or sand

o Paper towels

o Window cleaner
Provide boot cleaning 

stations close to the 

mobile equipment

• Provide boot brushes and boot 

cleaning stations on the ground 

near mobile equipment to help 

workers remove any contaminants 

from boots prior to getting on 

equipment. 

• Provide boot cleaning stations at 

entrances to buildings and sheds.

Did you know?

• Muddy boots and hurrying are 

some of the contributing factors to 

slips when getting onto or off of 

front-end loaders.
Conduct a pre-shift and 

scheduled inspection

• Include ladders, stairs, handholds, 

and platforms in inspections.

• During pre-shift inspections, look 

for loose, damaged, or broken 

components and contaminants.

• During regularly scheduled 

inspections, look for potential 

failures like cracks and loose, 

damaged, or broken components 

like rungs and doors that allow 

excessive or unexpected 

movement.

• Use a checklist to help ensure no 

items are overlooked.
Ensure the mine has a 

policy for safe operating 

procedures

• Discourage jumping off of equipment

• Always use three points of contact

o Provide backpacks, shoulder straps,

or a pulley system to carry tools,

equipment, lunch bags, and water

bottles onto and off equipment.

• Always use fall protection when

working at heights

o Provide adequate, labelled tie-off

points and encourage the use of a

personal fall arrest system.

o Encourage fall protection use

especially when performing

maintenance, window cleaning, and

other work at heights around mobile

equipment.

• Encourage the use of the “buddy

system” when loading large items

o Have one person at ground level and

one person on the equipment to

transport large items onto and off

the equipment.

• Periodically remind people who access

mobile equipment of best practices and

risks associated with ingress and egress