Site Rules for Visiting Lorry Drivers

Why are site rules for lorry drivers needed?

Dozens of vehicles may move around a production facility's site every day: lorries bringing raw materials, trucks collecting products, courier vans, scrap and waste vehicles. The drivers of these vehicles usually know the facility less well than your own employees do, yet they move among forklifts, pedestrians and other vehicles reversing. The purpose of site rules for lorry drivers is to determine in advance where this person will stand, where they may not go and what they will do in an emergency, from the moment they enter the gate until they leave.

The legal framework rests on two articles:

Law No. 6331 Art. 16/2-b: The employer provides the necessary information to the employers of workers who come to its workplace from other workplaces to work, so that these workers receive information on the risks and measures at the workplace.
Art. 23: Where more than one employer shares the same work area, the employers cooperate, carry out risk prevention activities in coordination and inform each other.

In other words, the haulage company is responsible for training its own driver; you are responsible for communicating your site's rules to the driver and their company.

Visiting driver safety depends on several people, from the security guard at the gate to the dock supervisor, applying the same rules in the same way. So every rule should have an owner: the security unit can be made responsible for gate registration and the briefing card, the dock supervisor for the waiting area and driver rules in the loading area, and the logistics manager together with the OHS specialist for writing the rules and reviewing them regularly. A rule without an owner is forgotten on the first busy day. We described the general framework for distinguishing visitors, interns and suppliers in our article on OHS briefings for interns and visitors; this article focuses only on the arrangements to set up on site for drivers.

Induction briefing at the gate: a five-minute routine

A driver briefing is not a long training session; it should be short enough to repeat at the gate on every entry. A flow that can be applied at the security lodge is as follows:

Registration: The number plate, the driver's name, company, telephone and time of entry are recorded. This record is the only way to count the people on site during an evacuation; the exit time must also be entered.
Briefing card: A card showing the site map and the rules is handed over or read at the lodge. The card should be illustrated and prepared in different languages for foreign drivers who visit frequently.
PPE check: A driver who will get out of the vehicle should have a high-visibility vest and the safety footwear the site requires. If not, a loan vest is issued at the gate.
Directions: The driver is told which dock or waiting bay to go to and which route to follow.
Confirmation: The driver confirms that they have understood the rules by signature or digital record. For regular drivers, this confirmation is renewed at set intervals.

Add these rules to your contract or order terms with haulage companies and send them to the company in writing. This also documents the obligation under Art. 16/2-b to "provide information to their employers".

Site entry rules: vehicle movement and behaviour

The rules the driver must follow after passing through the gate are part of your site's traffic arrangements. The table below summarises basic rules that can be applied on most production and warehouse sites, and the reasons for them:

Rule	Why is it needed?	How is it applied?
On-site speed limit	The area is shared with pedestrians and forklifts	Signs at the gate and along the route, speed bumps if necessary
Designated route	Blind spots and pedestrian crossings are in known places	Floor lines, direction arrows, site map
Banksman for reversing	The rear of a lorry or truck cannot be seen	Manoeuvring on the dock staff's signal, no pedestrians in the area
Staying in the vehicle or the waiting area	A driver wandering the site walks into forklift traffic	Outside the waiting area, walking only on pedestrian walkways
No idling	Exhaust fumes and noise, especially at enclosed docks	Engine off, waiting in a parking bay if necessary
Smoking and naked flame rule	Combustible materials, LPG, packaging stock	A single marked smoking point

Around the ports and free zone in Gemlik, and in large OIZs, vehicle density rises at certain times of the day. If vehicles are queuing at the gate, it is safer in terms of both traffic and occupational safety for lorries to wait in a designated bay inside the site rather than at the roadside. For region-specific planning, see our Gemlik OSGB page.

Driver waiting area: where does the driver stand during loading?

What dock accidents have in common is the driver stepping into the area where the forklift is working during loading "to check something". The most effective way to reduce this risk is to physically define where the driver will stay throughout loading.

A good driver waiting area has the following characteristics:

It is separated from forklift traffic. It is separated by barriers, railings or at least floor markings; forklifts do not pass through it.
The dock can be seen. The driver can watch their load being loaded through a window or from a safe point; the need to watch stops being an excuse to enter the area.
It meets basic needs. Seating, drinking water, access to toilets via a pedestrian walkway, and shade or heating depending on the weather.
It has a communication point. Who will tell the driver when loading is finished and how, and where they will collect the documents, are written up in the area.

The waiting area is also part of road safety. Art. 98 of the Road Traffic Regulation provides for a 45-minute break after 4.5 hours of continuous driving and daily rest periods. A driver who spends the loading time sitting and resting in a proper area rather than in the cab drives more safely after leaving your site.

Restricting access to the forklift zone

There are situations where the driver needs to be in the loading area: opening the tarpaulin, opening and closing the trailer doors, counting or securing the load. These tasks cannot be prohibited, but they cannot be done while the forklift is working. Set up the rule as follows:

Default rule: During loading, the driver stays in the waiting area; they do not enter the loading area or the trailer.
Authorised entry: If the driver has a task to do, they tell the dock supervisor. The supervisor makes eye contact with the forklift operator, the forklift stops, the forks are lowered to the ground, and only then does the driver enter the area.
Return: When the driver has finished and returned to the waiting area, a signal is given to the operator and loading continues.
Forklift use prohibited: The driver may not use the facility's forklift "to speed things up". Forklift use requires certification, training and the employer's authorisation; keys are not given to a contractor's driver who does not meet these conditions.
Loading complete decision: The dock supervisor decides when the vehicle may move; the driver does not move the vehicle without this approval.

For measures at the dock such as wheel chocks, vehicle restraint locks and signal systems, see our article on loading dock safety; for a site plan separating pedestrians and forklifts, forklift and pedestrian traffic plans in warehouses; and for the driver's risk of falling from the trailer bed while securing loads, load securing on lorries and trucks.

Common mistakes

Rules being posted only at the security lodge. If the driver does not see the rule at the lodge, does not read it or does not know the language, the rule effectively does not exist.
The waiting area being in the forklift turning area. An area painted on the floor that the forklift drives through on every manoeuvre is not a waiting area.
No exit record being kept. At the moment of evacuation, nobody knows how many drivers are on site.
Dock staff not being given authority. If it is not clear who will tell the driver "do not enter the area", the rule is not applied.
Exempting regular drivers. A driver who comes every day is not briefed on the assumption that they know the rules; yet the site layout may have changed.

When setting up these arrangements, also update the training and job-specific risks of your own dock staff; on logistics and warehouse sites, driver rules and forklift rules work together. For facilities in Bursa and the surrounding provinces, we prepare the site traffic plan, the driver briefing card and dock rules together with the risk assessment as part of our OHS specialist service. You can add an annual review of the rules to the OHS calendar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do we have to give OHS training to lorry drivers arriving at the facility?

The driver is not your employee; their basic training is the responsibility of their own employer. Your obligation is to communicate the risks and rules on your site to the driver and their company. If the driver personally carries out a task such as loading on your site, make this briefing more detailed according to the risks of the task.

Is a driver waiting area mandatory?

There is no requirement in legislation under the name "driver waiting area". However, the driver's exposure to forklift traffic during loading is a risk, and in the risk assessment the most effective way to eliminate this risk is a dedicated, protected waiting area.

Can the driver watch loading from inside the trailer?

Not while the forklift is working inside the trailer. If the driver needs to enter the trailer, the forklift is stopped, the task is done, and loading continues once the driver has left.

How do we explain the rules to foreign drivers?

An illustrated, multilingual briefing card, a site map and demonstrating the hand signals used on site are the most practical approach. When explaining important rules verbally, confirm that the driver has understood with a short question.