The HSE’s annual statistics for the transportation and storage sector are figures we come back to regularly – both in our content and when working with clients on site surveys. They are worth taking seriously because they are comprehensive, independently verified, and updated every year, which means they let you track trends rather than react to isolated data points.
We cite these figures often, and we wanted to share our interpretation of what the most recent set means for the people running warehouse and logistics operations in the UK.
Below, we break down the figures that matter most to warehousing and logistics operations, set out what the law actually requires, and explain what practical controls look like when they work.
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The HSE's annual statistics for the transportation and storage sector - which includes warehousing - were published in November 2025, covering data up to March 2025.
At sector level, the headline figures are significant. There were 15 fatal injuries to workers in transport and logistics in 2024/25. The fatal injury rate stands at 0.87 per 100,000 workers - around 2.2 times the all-industry average. Around 40,000 workers sustained non-fatal injuries, averaged over the three years to 2024/25. And within that, the warehousing sub-sector specifically recorded a non-fatal injury rate of 2,610 per 100,000 workers - above both the overall sector average and the national average across all industries.
Taken together, those figures account for roughly 2.3 million working days lost per year, with an estimated economic cost to the sector of £1.4 billion in 2023/24.
These are not peripheral statistics. They describe an industry that already knows it carries elevated risk - and which, in many cases, hasn't yet put the physical controls in place to reflect that.
When you look at how fatal injuries in transportation and storage actually happen, one figure stands out.
According to RIDDOR data averaged over the five years to 2024/25, 27% of fatal injuries in the sector were caused by being struck by a moving vehicle. That compares with 16% across all industries combined. It is, in other words, a disproportionate risk - and one the data suggests has remained broadly consistent year on year.
The pattern isn't difficult to explain. Warehouses and distribution centres bring FLTs, heavy goods vehicles, and pedestrians into the same space, often on shared routes with blind corners, variable visibility, and the kind of throughput pressure that can encourage shortcuts. The hazard is structural as much as it is behavioural.
Non-fatal injury data adds further context. Across the sector, 13% of non-fatal injuries involved being struck by a moving object - a category capturing incidents where loads, vehicles, and people share insufficient separation. The single largest category of non-fatal injury remains slips, trips, and falls at 32%, which speaks to a different but related challenge: floor-level control of pedestrian movement.
Read together, this isn't a freak accident problem. It's a layout and control problem.
The legal framework is clear, even if it isn't always followed in practice.
Regulation 17 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 requires employers to organise traffic routes so that pedestrians and vehicles can move safely - and separately, where practicable. That means more than marking the floor and hoping people stay behind the line.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require suitable and sufficient risk assessments and controls proportionate to the identified risk. Where vehicle-pedestrian interaction is a significant hazard - and the statistics suggest it is in most warehousing operations - that risk assessment should be driving physical controls, not just procedural ones.
PUWER 1998 requires that work equipment is operated safely and that risks from its use are adequately controlled. FLTs are work equipment. The space they move through is part of their operational risk profile.
PAS 13:2017, the British standard for protecting pedestrians in the workplace, provides practical guidance on achieving segregation in practice - including the use of physical barriers, safe-zone demarcation, and appropriate access controls.
If your current controls rely primarily on signage, floor paint, and driver training, the law - and the statistics - suggest those controls may not be proportionate to the risk you're carrying.
Physical segregation is the most reliable form of control because it removes the dependency on human behaviour being right every time.
At a practical level, this means clearly defined routes where pedestrians and vehicles cannot occupy the same space simultaneously. The systems that achieve this most effectively tend to combine several elements.
Polymer safety barriers provide a physical boundary that absorbs low-speed vehicle impact without the structural failure risk associated with steel alternatives. In warehousing environments where layouts evolve as operations scale, modular systems allow reconfiguration without significant disruption or floor damage.
LED projected floor markings offer dynamic, visible demarcation that doesn't fade or wear with FLT traffic the way painted lines do. They're particularly effective in areas where natural light is poor, or where the floor surface makes adhesive markings impractical.
SafeWay pedestrian gates control access points at the interfaces between pedestrian and vehicle zones - loading areas, dispatch bays, and aisle entry points where the risk of collision is highest.
Together, these elements create what a prepared site looks like: a system of controls, not a collection of individual products. Explore Clarity's full range of pedestrian safety systems.
One consistent feature in warehouse safety failures is that controls were adequate when they were installed - and then the operation changed.
Throughput increases. New vehicle routes are added informally. Temporary storage becomes permanent. And the safety layout assessed two or three years ago no longer reflects how the site actually operates today.
The HSE statistics show that the injury rate in the warehousing sub-sector is persistently higher than both the sector average and the national average. That isn't an argument for resignation. It's a prompt to review your site against current operations, not historical ones.
If your last risk assessment predates a significant operational change, or if your pedestrian segregation relies primarily on floor markings and signage rather than physical controls, that gap is worth closing before an inspector - or an incident - closes it for you.
The 2024/25 HSE figures are worth reading carefully. Not because they're surprising - the risks in warehousing are well understood - but because they confirm that the injury rate in the sector remains persistently above the national average, and that vehicle contact remains a disproportionate cause of fatal injury.
Understanding the data is the first step. Putting controls in place that reflect the risk is the second. Physical segregation between pedestrians and moving vehicles isn't a premium option for operations that can afford it. For a sector where the fatal injury rate runs at more than twice the national average, it's the baseline expectation.
For further guidance on warehouse safety regulations, compliance standards, and practical safety planning, visit the Clarity Learning Centre.