Forest Operations > Operational Hazards > Working at night/in the dark

Working at night/in the dark

Working at night or early hours of the morning in the dark is common for machine operators, truck drivers and other forest workers.

Many logging operations operate on a day, afternoon or night shift basis so at some stage you may be required to work at night or early hours of the morning in the dark.

For forest activities conducted during the hours of darkness, or where lighting is poor, the immediate work area needs to have suitable lighting.

In most cases it will be the lights on the machine you are operating (see Fig 19).

Those at the workplace but not actually working should have a designated ‘safe place’ that is protected and visible to other machine operators (e.g. truck drivers waiting to be loaded, people on meal breaks).

Most activities at night should be limited to machine work as a person on foot is at greater risk.

There are some tasks that are not permitted at night; regardless of provision of artificial light (e.g. manual tree felling is not permitted after day light hours).

Fatigue is also more likely to impact at night time, or when working in the dark as noted in the section on fatigue.

Fig 19 If you are on the night shift, make sure all machine lights work.

Self Help Activity 9, Working Alone

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Self Help Activity 10, Working at night

Download the activity by clicking the icon above. When completed please submit via the LMS or directly to your trainer.