Hire education

The representatives

Douglas McLuckie, director for EHS and performance standards - A Plant
David Scott, communications manager - Speedy Hire
Martin Williams, EHS manager - Hewden

1) What assistance can your firm offer contractors on safety and health issues? How would you differentiate yourselves from competitors?

DM: We have an excellent site safety pack that we provide free to all our customers as part of our Setting the Safety Standard initiative, which we launched about a year ago. We also work with the HSE to promote its campaigns, such as the recent Shattered Lives, and provide tool box talks. I think what differentiates us from our competitors is our people. I have a team of 20 who audit all of the 205 A Plant sites for environment, health and safety risks.

DS: We have an industry-leading health and safety policy and an award-winning awareness initiative called Safety From the Ground Up, which takes key health and safety issues down to site level. We were also the first national hire organisation to be awarded the prestigious Safe-HIRE Award by the Hire Association of Europe.

MW: Hewden deals with lots of different sorts of contractors, offering advice, assistance, risk assessments, safe working procedures and health and safety information on issues such as noise, hand arm vibration and working at height, depending on a customer’s needs. We have a lot of individual experts in the company, some based at one of our 108 depots. Some companies’ sales people become jacks of all trades, but we have people concentrating on specific areas.

2) What particular areas is your company focusing on at the moment?

As an industry we are very good at providing training, but not very good at educating.

Douglas McLuckie, A Plant

DM: We are going for the international environmental management standard ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001, the occupational health and safety management standard, by September 2009 to cover all our operations. We are asked about CSR issues virtually daily by the PLCs. I am quite convinced that it won’t be long before the major contractors are specifying that we need risk management systems in place.

DS: We’ve just launched our latest awareness campaign, part of the company’s Safety From the Ground Up initiative, working to combat the increasing number of back injuries caused by manual handling. We’ve also recently updated all of our free toolbox talks and continue to roll them out to hundreds of sites across the country.

MW: One of the big things is quick hitches. It’s been well-publicised that there were two fatalities last year. We contacted all the manufacturers and designed our own internal training course, introducing our drivers and fitters to all the different types there are, how to inspect, how to correctly work them and maintain them. We now offer the training course externally. Clients such as British Waterways and the Environment Agency have taken it up.

3) How have customers’ requirements changed with respect to health and safety training and information?

DM: They realise that people will not accept any injuries going forward. The focus was always there with regard to health and safety but I don’t think it moved all the way to board level. Now it does. In turn they are expecting proof of stringent performance monitoring of heath and safety issues from us.

DS: Increasingly, employers have both a legal and social responsibilities for staff welfare. It’s therefore not surprising that we’ve seen more of a demand for health and safety training and awareness-raising information.

MW: Demand for information, support and help has not changed much. What they do demand is that we are constantly innovative and at the cutting edge, trying to lead the field. There is so much competition in the plant hire market that health and safety is a big USP. The contractor wants to bring as little risk as possible onto site.

There is so much competition in the plant hire market that health and safety is a big USP.

Martin Williams, Hewden

4) What are the biggest areas of concern currently?

DM: Hand arm vibration. At every meeting it is at the top of the agenda. Customers need to know what systems we can provide to monitor use of equipment that’s known to provide high levels of vibration. They also want to know how we are influencing the supply chain. As a rental industry we have to provide the best equipment possible at the best available price.

DS: Following the success of our awareness campaigns in working at height and hand arm vibration, we campaigned heavily last year on the dangers of dust, and we are about to launch a new initiative focusing on manual handling.

MW: Customers are very specific about risk assessments and safe working practices, whatever we are doing, whether carrying out a lift or doing maintenance. One of my bugbears is that contractors themselves still use a lot of generic risk assessments, they don’t cover risks that they are exposed to on site on that day. They expect us to do site-specific risk assessments and yet give us generic ones.

5) In which areas do you find the biggest problems with misuse or lack of knowledge of equipment?

DM: Quick hitches. There is information out there but, often in small companies, that information does not disseminate to the guy on the equipment. We need to explain the mechanics of why we do it this way, rather than say ‘this is how we work a quick hitch’. As an industry we are very good at providing training, but not very good at educating.

DS: Often the problem isn’t misuse, but overuse. It all comes down to raising user awareness and making improvements to working practice at site level. We provide our customers with proof of safety inspection, either through a checklist as part of the contract or through an inspection number on the equipment, and we provide a safety information leaflet with equipment where possible.

 80% of operatives did not see dust inhalation as a serious problem, yet it affects an estimated 156,000 industry workers every year.

David Scott, Speedy Hire

MW: Recently we’ve had incompetent operators using our equipment. Several telehandlers have been overturned by customers due to the operators not being familiar with the equipment. We had one case when the operator turned the telehandler over and then ran away.

6) What innovations have you introduced to help your customers improve on safety and health?

DM: We are always looking to provide the most advanced technology to tackle problems like hand arm vibration and dust suppression. For example, Stihl saws and jack hammers are now available with dust suppression. The challenge is persuading customers that a small additional charge for the dust suppression kit today could avert a potential claim later.

DS: Our catalogue includes safety symbols which offer clear guidance to customers on vibration ratings and decibel ratings – an industry first. We also indicate exactly what type of personal protective equipment is required for each piece of kit. We supply low vibration, super-silenced and zone-one approved equipment. We’ve recently added the Towerlock – a locking device to make scaffolding towers safer and help reduce falls from height – and the Enviroboot, which fits to heavy-duty electric breakers to reduce the amount of harmful dust released into the air.

MW: Driver training. No other drivers meet that same level of competence. Every one of our drivers goes on a two-day course, which includes a day of practical training on loading and unloading. Then we know that people who are loading and unloading are trained, competent professional drivers and not agency drivers who have never driven a piece of plant equipment before. Any agency drivers we use must go through the same two-day training as our own operatives.

7) If you could change one thing about the way contractors operate on site, what would it be?

DM: Education. Site inductions are very authoritarian. The process has to be more democratic rather than autocratic. Human nature dictates that we don’t respond very well to being told what to do. People need to understand that this authoritarian way of health and safety management needs to change. We need to put rules in place but need to be able to accept feedback and contributions.

DS: If we’re serious about improving health and safety records, we have to change the mentality of workers at site level through education and training. Our research on dust, for example, showed that 80% of operatives did not see dust inhalation as a serious problem, yet it affects an estimated 156,000 industry workers each year.

MW: I would like people to take an extra five seconds to think before they do the job. So often you come across situations where an extra few seconds’ thought or a look over the shoulder would have prevented a serious injury. That five seconds would prevent a lot of injuries, if not most of them. If people could just think of the consequences, then perhaps they would do things differently.