Construction Traffic Marshals

The most dangerous routine activity on a construction site is a vehicle reversing. It happens dozens of times a day, it is entirely normal, and it is where people are most often struck. A traffic marshal exists to make sure that the moment a vehicle and a person could occupy the same ground, somebody is controlling it.

Andor Group supplies trained construction traffic marshals across the south of England and nationwide, working on site entrances, internal haul routes, delivery and offloading areas, and the interface between the site and the public highway.

What a traffic marshal is responsible for

Directing vehicle movements on site

Marshals guide vehicles in, position them for offloading and direct them out, keeping them on designated routes and away from pedestrian areas. Where a reverse is unavoidable, the marshal controls it: in position, in sight of the driver, with agreed signals, and with the area behind the vehicle physically checked first.

Managing the interface with the public

On constrained urban sites the gate often opens directly onto a footway. Marshals hold pedestrians while a vehicle crosses, and hold the vehicle while people pass, which is the point at which the site’s risk extends to people who have nothing to do with it. This is also the interaction most visible to neighbours and the local authority.

Segregating plant from people

Traffic management plans separate vehicles and pedestrians on paper. On a live site, routes get blocked, a delivery lands in the wrong place and people take the short cut. Marshals enforce the separation as it is actually working that day, and report where the plan no longer matches the site.

Controlling deliveries at the point of arrival

Marshals hold vehicles that arrive without a booked slot rather than letting them into a congested site, and direct them to the correct offloading point. On sites with a gate operation this works alongside a gateman handling the access records and booking.

Where marshals fit with traffic management

A marshal enforces a plan; they are not a substitute for having one. On sites with significant vehicle movements, restricted access or work affecting the highway, the marshals should sit within a wider traffic management arrangement covering routes, signage, pedestrian provision and delivery scheduling.

Where they most obviously pay for themselves is on sites where the entrance is tight, deliveries are frequent, or the public passes close to the gate. Those are the conditions in which a plan alone reliably fails.

Training and licensing

Marshals are trained for vehicle marshalling and banksman duties, including signalling, reversing control, exclusion zones and working near plant, together with site-specific induction and the PPE your site requires.

Where the role is combined with security duties such as access control, the officer performing it holds a valid SIA licence for that role. Andor Group holds ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001, certified for security guarding services, together with SafeContractor accreditation and SSIP approval under the Deem to Satisfy process, and is a Constructionline Gold member, having also completed Constructionline’s Social Value assessment. We work to BS 7499 for static site guarding and mobile patrol services, BS 10800 for the provision of security services, BS 7984 for keyholding and response services, and BS 7858 for security screening, with BPSS clearance where a contract requires it. Employer’s liability, public liability and professional indemnity insurance are each held at £10 million. Certificate numbers, scopes and expiry dates for every accreditation are set out on our accreditations page, and copies are available on request.

Reporting

Attendance, shift records and any incidents or near misses are logged through HitDesk and available to you directly. Near-miss reporting matters more here than in most security roles: a pattern of near misses at a particular gate or route is the warning that arrives before an injury does, and it is only useful if someone is recording it.

What we need to mobilise

To place marshals effectively we need the traffic management plan if one exists, the site layout showing access points and haul routes, the delivery schedule and booking arrangements, the hours of vehicle movement, where the site meets public footways or the highway, and any restrictions imposed by planning conditions or the local authority.

Constrained urban sites

Most of the difficulty concentrates on sites where there is no room to get things wrong. A gate opening straight onto a busy footway, no internal turning space, deliveries that have to reverse in from a live carriageway, and a neighbour or local authority watching closely.

On those sites the marshal is doing three things at once: protecting the public on the footway, controlling a manoeuvre the driver cannot complete unaided, and keeping the site’s relationship with its neighbours intact. It is also where the consequences of an unmarshalled movement are most severe, because the people at risk are not inducted, are not wearing high-visibility clothing and are not expecting a vehicle.

Practically, this means positioning marshals where they can be seen by the driver and by pedestrians at the same time, agreeing signals before the movement starts, and stopping the movement rather than improvising when something changes. It also means being willing to hold a delivery, which is the decision marshals most often need backing on from the site team.

Common questions

What is the difference between a traffic marshal and a banksman?

The terms overlap in everyday site use. Banksman usually refers specifically to controlling a reversing or manoeuvring vehicle; traffic marshal covers the broader role of directing movements, managing the public interface and enforcing segregation. Our marshals are trained for both.

Do traffic marshals need an SIA licence?

Marshalling itself is not a licensable activity. Where the same person also performs security duties such as access control or guarding, an SIA licence is required for that element, and ours hold one.

How many marshals does a site need?

It depends on the number of access points, the frequency of deliveries and whether the site meets a public footway. A single tight entrance with regular deliveries usually needs one; a site with separate entry and exit, or an internal haul route crossing a pedestrian route, needs more.

Can a marshal also cover the gate?

On quieter sites, yes, and it is often the sensible arrangement. Where deliveries are frequent the two roles conflict, because the marshal cannot leave a vehicle movement to check an induction record.

Can you cover short-term or one-off requirements?

Yes. Large pours, crane lifts, steel deliveries and similar operations often need marshalling for a day or two rather than a permanent arrangement, and we cover those.

Do you supply the signage and equipment?

Marshals come equipped for the role including high-visibility PPE and signalling equipment. Site signage, barriers and physical traffic management provision are normally supplied as part of the traffic management arrangement, which we can quote separately.

Discuss cover for your site

Send us the site layout and the delivery pattern and we will tell you what marshalling the site actually needs. See the full range of construction site security services, or get in touch on 020 4602 3974 or at sales@andorgroup.com.