Everything you need to Succeed From the most trusted name in Self Serve Equipment BOOMS, WANDS, BRUSHES IQ SELF WASH PUMPING SYSTEM BAY SIGNAGE BAY ACCESSORIES VACUUM SYSTEMS HIGH SECURITY METERS VIDEO SECURITY SYSTEMS D&S Carwash Equipment www.dscarwash.com 800.844.3442 56 • WINTER 2021
Watch Your Back! Pit Tip From Lamar Skarda (PAST SWCA PRESIDENT, 2000-2001) This originally appeared in the Spring 2015 edition of Self Serve Car Wash News and was contributed during the SCWA Convention and EXPO In 1991, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) developed a revised equation to assess lifting conditions.The 1991 equation uses six factors that have been determined to influence lifting difficulty the most.The 1991 equation maintains the biomechanical criteria for establishing the maximum lower back compression force of 770 lbs.The load constant had been reduced from 90 pounds to 51 pounds because of the need to increase the minimum horizontal distance from 6 inches to 10 inches (which is believed to be the minimum attainable horizontal distance as measured from the spine during lifting). Application of the NIOSH lifting tasks assumes the following: • Lifting task is two-handed, smooth, in front of the body, hands are at the same height or level, moderate-width loads (i.e., they do not substantially exceed the body width of the lifter), and the load is evenly distributed between both hands. • Manual handling activities other than lifting are minimal and do not require significant energy expenditure, especially when repetitive lifting tasks are performed (i.e., holding, pushing, pulling, carrying, walking or climbing). • Temperatures (66-79°F) or humidity (35-50%) outside of the ranges may increase the risk of injury. • One-handed lifts, lifting while seated or kneeling, lifting in a constrained or restricted workspace, lifting unstable loads, wheelbarrows and shovels are not tasks designed to be covered by the lifting equation. • The shoe sole to floor surface coupling should provide for firm footing. Also, according to OSHA, the factors associated with back disorders include: • Reaching while lifting. • Poor posture--how one sits or stands. • Stressful living and working activities-- staying in one position for too long. • Bad body mechanics--how one lifts, pushes, pulls, or carries objects. • Poor physical condition-losing the strength and endurance to perform physical tasks without strain. • Poor design of job or workstation. • Repetitive lifting of awkward items, equipment. • Lifting and lowering assumes the same level of risk for low back injuries. • Using the Guidelines in situations that do not conform to these ideal assumptions will typically underestimate the hazard of the lifting task under investigation. According to OSHA, here are some tips on how to avoid back injuries: • Turn the whole body by moving the feet instead of twisting the torso. • Use long-handled tools to minimize torso bending. • Use the "right" shovel for the job. • Use round-bladed shovels for sand and dry earth. • Use square-bladed shovels for coarse-grained materials such as gravel or rocky soil from piles. • Use shovels with a rolled step for digging in hard earth, so that the pressure applied to the bottom of feet is spread over a wider area. • Use smaller shovel heads (trenching shovel) to minimize the weight of material lifted. • Break digging tasks into segments no longer than 15 minutes mixed with non-digging tasks, depending on environmental conditions and required digging effort. • Alternate shoveling between left and right sides of the body. • Reduce the throwing distance by placing wheelbarrows close to the digging area. Optimal throw distance is approximately 3 feet and should not exceed 4 feet. Some of the causes of Back Disorders • Use proper personal protective equipment (PPE), including protective gloves and safety shoes with steel shanks. • Twisting while lifting. • Bending while lifting. • Maintaining bent postures. • Heavy lifting. • Fatigue. • Poor footing such as slippery floors, or constrained posture. • Lifting with forceful movement. • Vibration, such as with lift truck drivers, delivery drivers, etc. Signs and Symptoms: include pain when attempting to assume normal posture, decreased mobility, and pain when standing or rising from a seated position. It’s not an idea original to me, but what I’ve done in most of my bays is attempt to keep the mud out of the pit. 1. I take the grate off, put a flat quarter-inch diamond plate on top of it, and on one side of it put about a 2” piece of pipe that sticks up even with the top of your concrete. 2. Then I put a slit down one side of it and about 95% of the mud stays on top of the pit – stays up in the bay. 3. Then you have your guy come in, I guess during hunting season, you [them] come in 2-3 times a day and clean it up. 4. It’ll usually be dried up so you can throw it in the dumpster. If you do it all the time, you don’t end up with one of those 10,000-pound dumpsters that turns the truck over and he can actually dump the stuff and haul it off on a regular basis. If you have a really muddy time, then maybe you need to get twice-a-week service …About two years ago I started paying them a little more money and once a week they dig one pit and they go from one pit to the next pit. They dig the pit today, leave it laying on top, it dries out and the next day they put that one out of service. The next day they come in, throw it in the dumpster and the next week they do another one. So, you minimize the amount of weight you get in the dumpster and you get it hauled off on a regular basis. Obviously, that doesn’t work on the final pit, you’ve got to have something else there, but if you keep your bay pits pretty clean, you don’t have that much carry-over into that final pit which I put a solid plate on top of and I can get it pumped once a year. And even if I spend $2,000 a year to get that one pumped, I’m in pretty good shape by just doing the everyday maintenance once a week. That means at a six-bay car wash you’re going to be able to dig five of them by hand. That means every five weeks, that pit that they dug five weeks ago, they’re digging it again. It’s done by my regular clean-up guy … If you don’t have a regular clean-up guy, in my opinion, you’re going to have problems. I don’t get to my car washes first thing every morning, but my clean-up guys do and that’s who I pay to dig them out. I got one who digs it all the way to the bottom. The others dig about the first 18” off, but within about 5 weeks they’re digging about another 18” off, so it works fine. WINTER 2021 • 57
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