Occupational safety at HHLA

Whether at our terminals and facilities or in our offices - occupational safety affects many areas of our daily work. Our commitment to the continuous improvement of occupational safety is reflected both in the use of state-of-the-art technologies and in a wide range of measures.

Safety at work at HHLA PLT Italy

Tommaso Piras is responsible for occupational safety at the HHLA terminal in Trieste (Italy). He explains how safety programmes are successfully designed and implemented in the company.

Mr. Piras, occupational safety affects many areas of daily work. What do you focus on at HHLA PLT Italy?

One milestone is the planned implementation of our new safety management system by November 2023. This will allow us to optimise our processes, prevent problems proactively and identify potential risks for operators. In this way, we can help the company avoid problems and reduce costs.

What is particularly important for the further promotion of safety at the workplace?

In addition to the traditional means of encouraging occupational safety, we envision a structured communication campaign that will improve the safety level in the long term. People in the company must be aware of the required measures, pass them on and apply them. Our campaign will make it clear why we encourage certain conduct, what we want to achieve, and how we will do it.

What are the next steps?

Our long-term vision is to see safety as key. We will make it as important as the business! A crucial step in this direction is to develop a management system that is tailored to our activities and needs.

And the short-term measures?

These are quite varied: we want to further improve the audits that we carry out with managers of other business areas. These audits show employees that the company cares about safety issues while at the same time increasing our commitment to operations, pooling expertise, and making the role model function concrete. We will also introduce toolbox meetings at the beginning of every work shift. These are short meetings led by the shift manager. Meeting participants will discuss aspects of safety and the environment in order to increase awareness and attention. This might include information about accidents that took place or were prevented. We can learn from this for the future.

Support from the air

HHLA’s operational emergency management programme has been enhanced by a flying early warning system. Since 2022, drones have been used to check for possible leakage of dangerous goods in containers and for the assessment of handling areas as well as safety-relevant sections of the facilities. In addition, aerial footage from drones provides support during accidents and also helps with training, situation assessment, and routine material inspections.

More information about HHLA Sky

A safe start to careers is good practice at HHLA’s multi-function terminal in Muuga near Tallin (Estonia).

Robust safety culture at HHLA TK Estonia

New employees at HHLA TK Estonia receive extensive, two-stage safety training. The first step consists of general safety instructions. The second step for all operational activities is training directly on-site with specific occupational safety instructions. HHLA also provides all new emp- loyees with mentors as guides and contacts in their day-to-day work. Regular training, information and health checks also contribute to a safe and healthy working environment.

Sustainability strategy Balanced Logistics

It is our aspiration to combine ecological, social and economic interests in order to make our company future-proof. We underline this with our "Balanced Logistics" sustainability strategy.