Sites with AMRs and AGVs
Visitor and contractor safety briefings on sites with mobile robots
Your own people were trained when the robots went in. The auditor, the customer on a tour and the contractor fixing the dock door were not, and they are about to walk the same floor. They need your rules for the areas where robots run before they go through the door, and afterwards you need to be able to show that they had them.
From £599 setup and £150 a month plus VAT, iPad and stand included. Last reviewed 1 October 2026.
The guidance
What HSE says about telling visitors and contractors
HSE’s workplace transport guidance was written about vehicles with drivers, and it does not use the words AMR, AGV or robot. These are the passages that reach visitors and contractors, in its own words.
HSE, Separating pedestrians and vehicles
A question for your risk assessment
How do you tell drivers and pedestrians about the routes and the layout?
The page says your risk assessment should include the answer, and gives three examples: staff who work on site, new staff, and visitors.
HSE, A guide to workplace transport safety (HSG136), paragraph 31
Information for contractors
The site operator “will need to give the contractor appropriate health and safety information” about, among other things, “the routes to be used”, “the vehicles and equipment on site” and “risks from the activities on site and the controls in place”.
HSG136, paragraphs 4 and 59
Whether it covers your robots
‘Workplace transport’ means any vehicle or piece of mobile equipment used in any work setting.
Paragraph 59 is headed “Automatic, driverless vehicles” and is about routes they share with pedestrians. Read it at source. How either applies to your machines is for your risk assessment.
Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, regulation 17(1)
The regulation behind it
Every workplace shall be organised in such a way that pedestrians and vehicles can circulate in a safe manner.
Whether a given mobile robot is a vehicle for this regulation is not something this page answers. For people you do not employ,section 3of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 andregulation 12of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 apply whatever the machine is.
Read at source on 1 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice: consult a competent person about your own site.
Your rules, not ours
Your risk assessment sets the rules
Which areas a visitor may enter, whether they are escorted, where they walk and what they wear are decisions for your own risk assessment and the competent person who made it. This page gives no advice on robot speeds, zones, routes or safeguarding, and neither does the kiosk. What follows is only about getting the rules you have already written in front of each person, and keeping the record.
Visitor and driver sign in for warehousesContractor management, the part at your door
At sign in
What the kiosk shows and records
- Your rules, on screen before entryThe rules your risk assessment sets for the areas where robots run go into your site’s wording, in your words, with your other site rules. Every visitor and contractor who uses the kiosk sees it, with Go Back and I Accept.
- No acceptance, no sign inThe kiosk refuses the sign in until the wording is accepted.
- Who accepted, and whenThe record keeps the person’s name, their company, who they came to see, the time, and the exact wording they accepted. When the wording changes, earlier records still show the wording each person saw.
- A change of rulesThe iPad loads the wording when the kiosk starts, so after a change the kiosk is reloaded and the screen read before the next visitor.
Being straight with you
What it does not do
- It is text and one button. No video, no map, no questions, and no test that the wording was understood.
- There is one wording per site, shown to everyone. An office visitor who will never see a robot accepts the same wording as a contractor who will work beside one.
- A courier using Delivery Drop-off is not signed in and sees no wording. Neither does a contractor on the Permit to Work module’s own Contractor route.
- It does not know where a robot is, track, register or count robots, or keep anyone out of an area. It opens no door and escorts nobody.
- It does not write your rules or assess your risks, and it does not make a site compliant. It produces a record.
We are not health and safety consultants, and a recorded acceptance is not proof that a briefing was understood.
Before you ask
Questions from sites running mobile robots
Does HSE guidance say visitors must be told about vehicle and pedestrian routes?
HSE’s page on separating pedestrians and vehicles says your risk assessment should answer how you tell drivers and pedestrians about the routes and the layout, and gives staff who work on site, new staff and visitors as its examples. HSG136 says a site operator will need to give a contractor appropriate health and safety information about, among other things, the routes to be used and the vehicles and equipment on site.
Does HSE’s workplace transport guidance cover mobile robots?
HSG136 defines workplace transport as any vehicle or piece of mobile equipment used in any work setting, and has a paragraph headed “Automatic, driverless vehicles”. It does not use the terms AMR, AGV or robot. How it applies to the machines on your site is a question for your risk assessment and a competent person.
What should our robot area rules say?
That is for your own risk assessment, and this page gives no advice on it. The kiosk shows the wording you give it and records who accepted it and when.
Can contractors see different wording from visitors?
No. There is one wording per site, shown to everyone who uses the kiosk to sign in.
What does it cost?
The kiosk platform is £150 a month plus VAT per site, with setup from £599, and the iPad and stand are included. Nothing is charged per visitor.
Next step
Tell us who walks your floor in a week
Fifteen minutes on the phone. Who visits, which contractors come in, and what you tell them today about the areas where robots run. We will tell you straight whether a kiosk helps.
Book a 15 minute callNo site visit needed and nothing to install. If it is not a fit we will say so on the call.
Would rather email? [email protected]