IPAF Summit on top form

The access industry took another leap forward on Thursday last week (3 April), thanks to a day of outstanding presentations at the IPAF Summit.

The annual conference took place at the Beaumont Estate hotel in Windsor, Near London, UK, and hosted around 450 industry professionals.

As Tim Whiteman, IPAF CEO, pointed out in his opening remarks, all the talks were aimed at progressing the industry and making it safer.

During the morning breakout session for aerial work platforms Mark Keily and Peter Douglas from Nationwide Platforms provided a frank assessment of the risks found on site and with machines and what their company has done to reduce those risks.

Mr Douglas said despite EN280 and ANSI regulations there is still a long way to go. “There are still areas that are not right with our machines. How can we design these machines with more safety in mind? We have to work on the assumption that everything can be improved when it comes to safety.”

Nationwide Platforms has worked across its fleet of platforms and vehicles, for example, providing edge protection, better grip on truck beds, vehicle walkway systems and improved lighting. On its platforms there have also been many improvements, including upgrading access to MEWPs, edges and handrails and creating lower decks on big scissors and repositioning fuelling points.

Giles Councell, IPAF Director of Operations, ran through the benefits of Smart PAL Cards. They are machine-readable and can be used to ensure that only trained operators use MEWPs on site. It can be used as part of an electronic logbook of operator experience and can be linked to machine tracking systems.

Michel Petitjean, secretary general of the European Rental Association, then reported on a project to help manufacturers understand what the owners of their equipment need from it. It posed a number of questions, including, what are the most common types of damage to equipment and what are the most common accidents? A workshop was then set up to analyse the results, leading to reports on an ongoing bases that manufacturers can refer to. They cover spare parts, simplification of instruction manuals and close attention to standardisation across the industry.

Antonio Barbosa, IPAF’s representative in Brazil, provided some useful statistics about the country. He said there are now 90 rental companies in Brazil, 37 of which are IPAF members, and that is set to increase to 140 companies in the next five years. He explained that the existing safety regulation for general construction NR18 was being reviewed to provide a much more comprehensive standard.

The second breakout session, based on master climbers, included a talk by Kevin O’Shea, director of safety and training at Hydro Mobile about safety. Bobby Reece, Mastclimbers LLC, and Romina Vanzi, IPAF MCWP department manager, examined why operator training is just as important as installer training. There was then a regulations overview by Kevin O’Shea and Romina Vanzi.

Plenary session

The afternoon plenary session saw Dave Smith, chair of the UK Contractors Group (UKCG) and COO of Wates Construction, share his tips on managing fleets and keeping them up to scratch and overseeing operators. He said, “Plan it right to get it right.” He pointed out that as equipment becomes more technologically advanced and easier to use, complacency could set in, so we have to be even more rigorous about safety.

Later in the afternoon David Miller, deputy chief inspector of air accidents at the UK’s Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB), made the same point, saying that the latest technology has required pilots to receive less training in some cases. His talk explained the processes behind air accident investigation.

Bill Plummer, executive vice-president and CFO with US-based United Rentals, spoke with Fred Bratman, the company’s head of investor relations, about how it demonstrates its potential to investors. Mr Plummer said honesty was key to success, as well as identifying where growth potential in the company lies and clearly demonstrating it to investors and bankers.

Mr Plummer added that the company was planning international expansion, with Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific being of particular interest. He has been charged with identifying those potential markets and making the move when it seems there will be a good rate of return.

Matt Fearon, president of Terex AWP, spoke about working at the greatest heights and said the company’s 180 foot SX-180 and JLG’s recently launched 1850SJ were the beginnings of a new boom category. They would go to work in areas like oil refineries, power plants, steel structures, stadiums, bridge access high rise buildings and dockside cranes. He said there was now a safe choice, rather than using a bucket hung from a crane to access such areas of great height, which is one of the methods used in the past.

Audrey Courant, project manager with Ducker Research Europe, revealed the size of the worldwide rental fleet based on IPAF’s Rental Market Reports. She said it now stands at 1,020,000, up 6% on 2012, mainly as a result of growth in Asia and Latin America. Apart from Europe and North America, Ms Courant also focused on China, estimating that the MEWP rental market had grown 20% over the last year, a trend that is set to continue.

Chris Wraith wrapped up the IPAF Summit by analysing the future of the IPAF accident reporting programme and how best to compare the access industry’s accident rates against others. He concluded that the Fatal Injury Rate, measured by dividing the number of MEWPS on hire by the number of worker fatalities, then multiplying that figure by 100,000 would provide a meaningful figure.

IPAF president Steve Couling concluded the day by thanking all those that had taken part.