KHL Group - Rental

Contribution to Safe Working at Height - Rental Company

A-Plant
A-Plant takes a ‘safety first’ attitude to its business – as it says “being 100% safe when working at height is a non-negotiable imperative”. The company has a policy of exceeding current health and safety requirements and aims to integrate health and safety into its “DNA”.

Training is a major element of its safety-related activities – it provided access training for 3700 customer employees during 2008, and during the year invested £1 million in training programmes for staff and customers. It established a National Customer Training Centres in Nottingham last May.

Communications is another key safety tool for A-Plant. It produces a free Site Safety Pack for staff and customers; dedicates 30% of its annual marketing budget to safety related activities, including an Extranet site providing customers with live reporting and safety materials free to download.

Lavendon Access Services
Lavendon Access Services, as well as being one of the largest operator training organisations in the UK, has taken a very proactive stance towards safety, both for its employees and its customers. The company has played a full role in helping to develop various access training programmes – including MEWPs for Managers, training for Competent Assessed Persons and Load/Unload training – and most recently has launched its own Safety Starts with You campaign.

The campaign has included the appointment of a health and safety representative at every depot, monthly safety presentations delivered by branch managers, and a focus on machine safety, with its supplier Genie Industries helping with assistance in machine familiarity courses and more. The same commitment to safety is being shown to customers. As part of the campaign, Lavendon has conducted a health and safety seminar for its main customers.

SGB Group
SGB Group says it has been benchmarking its safety performance for ten years and has seen consistent improvements in its record. For example, its accident frequency rate last year was 0.12, which was down from 1.1 in 1999 and considerably lower than last year’s industry average of 1.6.

In 2008, however, the company introduced three initiatives to take safety to a new level. First of all, it focused on the end-users of its mast climbing work platforms and on measures to minimise the risk of carelessness and unfamiliarity with the equipment. Mast climbers are often used by a variety of trades on a single site, and the temptation is often there to modify the platforms for particular uses. SGB devised a safety tag system for all tie assemblies and load bearing anchors to ensure that users understand not to tamper with the equipment.

The second initiative was to continue to lower its accident rate through its Safety Behaviors Programme. Now in its third phase, this programme in 2008 centred on a new film, ‘In the Real World’, that counters the widespread assumption that accidents are bound to happen. Copies of the film were sent to all 2500 UK staff.

Finally, in 2008 the company published a major update to its SGB Safety Manual, including improved risk assessment guidelines. All management teams were given individual training on the new Manual.