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New Procedure for Government Vehicles and Equipment

Due to several mishaps and near misses throughout the General Services Administration and Department of Energy Fleet across the country, the following safety procedure is being implemented immediately, with a revised version of SLAC Environment, Safety & Health manual chapter 13 "Vehicle and Traffic Safety."

Parking on Inclines

When parking, all vehicles must have their parking brakes set. Passenger vehicles and light duty trucks (for example, pickups) must also properly curb their wheels when parked on inclines. All carts (including electric and gas carts, neighborhood electric vehicles, and low speed vehicles), construction haulage, and delivery vehicles parked on inclines must have both their parking brake engaged and at least one wheel properly chocked.

Wheel Chocking

This procedure consists of placing a wheel chock on the downhill side of the tire (on tread face) of either the front or rear tire.

Curbing

This procedure consists of rotating the front edge of your wheel into a curb when facing down an incline (right), or the back edge of your wheel when facing up an incline (left).

The SLAC Fleet Services group is ordering wheel chocks for use on all SLAC/DOE-owned and GSA-leased vehicles and equipment. In addition to the wheel chocks, Fleet Services will be installing "chock holders" on all SLAC/DOE-owned and GSA-leased service vehicles and equipment during the next routine maintenance cycle. Custodians and operators are asked to please contact Fleet Services (x8795 or x3185) to arrange to be issued wheel chocks.

Periodic inspections are being performed by SLAC Safety, SLAC Security and DOE Safety for compliance.


—Ken Rubino , SLAC Today, August 5, 2008