Racking & Storage Equipment Inspector
Annual expert inspection of racking and load carriers for damage, classifying findings green/amber/red per DIN EN 15635. Appointed as a competent person under the Industrial Safety Ordinance.
DIN EN 15635 · BetrSichV · DGUV
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What does a Racking & Storage Equipment Inspector do?
A Racking and Storage Equipment Inspector is a competent person (befähigte Person) who assesses pallet racking, shelving and load carriers for damage, overload and drift away from the original design. The technical reference is DIN EN 15635, the standard covering the application and maintenance of steel static storage systems. The legal duty falls on the employer, which is how the Betriebssicherheitsverordnung (BetrSichV, the German industrial safety ordinance) addresses the operator: under § 3 (6) BetrSichV the employer determines the type and scope of inspections and the intervals for recurring ones, and under § 14 (2) BetrSichV has the equipment checked by a competent person as defined in § 2 (6) BetrSichV. The relevant DGUV rules on warehouse and conveyor equipment apply alongside.
DIN EN 15635 separates two levels of control. The check for obvious defects before each use is a duty § 4 (5) sentence 3 BetrSichV places on the employer; in daily operation warehouse staff carry it out and report damage straight away. The competent person performs the periodic expert inspection, for which the standard sets a maximum interval of twelve months. That inspection is a systematic walk of the installation, assessing uprights, beams, bracing, baseplates, anchors and connectors. Every finding is graded on a traffic-light scale: green for components inside tolerance, amber for damage that needs action, red for critical damage calling for immediate offloading and isolation of the affected bay.
The most common finding is not a fractured component but an installation that no longer matches its design. Beam levels get repositioned, heavier load carriers arrive, bays get extended, all without anyone updating the load notice. The inspector therefore compares the configuration found on site against the original design and checks that the posted bay and beam loads still hold. A second question is whether reports from the floor ever arrive: an installation without damage reports is rarely undamaged, more often the reporting route is unstaffed.
The output is a written inspection report listing prioritised remedial actions against deadlines. It only counts once those actions are followed through: red findings until release after re-inspection, amber findings until repair. The operator additionally nominates a PRSES (Person Responsible for Storage Equipment Safety) under DIN EN 15635, who receives damage reports between inspections and coordinates repairs. Part of the inspector's job is to confirm that this nomination exists and that the reporting route works in practice.
Core duties of a Racking Inspector
- Carry out the expert racking inspection at intervals not exceeding twelve months per DIN EN 15635.
- Assess uprights, beams, bracing, baseplates, anchors and connectors for damage and deformation.
- Classify every finding green, amber or red and apply the standard's tolerance limits.
- Order immediate offloading and isolation of any bay classified red.
- Issue a written inspection report with prioritised remedial actions and deadlines.
- Verify load-capacity notices and rack configuration against the original design.
- Confirm routine visual checks and damage reporting to the PRSES are working.
- Track repairs and re-inspect replaced or repaired components before release.
- Support the employer's recording duty under § 14 (7) BetrSichV.
- Advise on damage prevention, guard rails and rack protection measures.
Appointment as a competent person
The employer appoints the Racking Inspector as a competent person under § 2 (6) BetrSichV. Competence requires a suitable technical education, practical experience with storage equipment, and current knowledge of DIN EN 15635 and the applicable DGUV rules. The inspector may be an internal employee or an external service provider; either way the appointment should be documented and the scope of work defined.
The duty to inspect arises from the employer's obligation to determine inspection types, scope and intervals through a risk assessment under § 3 (6) BetrSichV, and to have work equipment checked by competent persons under § 14 (2) BetrSichV. DIN EN 15635 sets the maximum interval for the expert inspection at twelve months, but a shorter interval may be required where damage rates, fork-lift traffic or environmental conditions are high. The check for obvious defects before each use under § 4 (5) sentence 3 BetrSichV, usually organised in a warehouse as a weekly or monthly visual check by warehouse staff, supplements the annual expert inspection but does not replace it.
Appointment is triggered whenever an operator runs static storage equipment that is loaded mechanically. New installations, layout changes, after a rack collision, or a change of operator all require a fresh or repeat inspection. The employer also nominates a PRSES under DIN EN 15635 to receive damage reports and coordinate repairs between inspections.
- Operating pallet racking or shelving loaded by fork-lift or stacker.
- The twelve-month maximum interval under DIN EN 15635 elapsing.
- A rack collision or visible damage to uprights or beams.
- Reconfiguration, relocation or extension of a racking installation.
- Commissioning of new storage equipment.
- Change of operator or responsible person for the warehouse.
Where Racking Inspectors are required
- Logistics and distribution centres
- Wholesale and retail warehousing
- Manufacturing and production stores
- E-commerce fulfilment
- Cold storage and food logistics
- Automotive parts warehouses
- Pharmaceutical and chemical storage
- Building-materials yards
How CIVAC supports the Racking Inspector role
The expert racking inspection under DIN EN 15635 sits in CIVAC as a scheduled task per installation or site, with a reminder before the deadline. A role template carries the check points and the field for the green, amber or red classification. Every amber or red finding becomes a task of its own with a date and stays open until repair and re-inspection are documented, so the report does not end as a list nobody picked up.
Inspection reports, load notices and damage reports from the shop floor are collected per site in the documentation area; the append-only audit trail records who classified a finding, who released it and when. The role file holds the appointment under Sec. 2 (6) BetrSichV, the evidence of knowledge of the standard, and the stand-in arrangement for holiday and sickness. Training runs per person with proof. Data is held in the EU. The licence costs 49 euros per role per month, and the appointment can be placed externally.
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