Hire and Rental News - April/May 2015

ACCESS IN ACTION • APRIL/MAY 2015

ACCESS in ACTION

APRIL/MAY 2015

VOL16 NO 4

7200 (Audit period Sept 2014)

CAB Member since March 2010

ELEVATING WORK PLATFORM ASSOCIATION LTD

ABN 70 093 630 847

EWPA

PO Box 1304, Mona Vale NSW 1660

Tel: 02 9998 2222 Fax: 02 9998 2299

Email:

info@ewpa.com.au

Web:

www.ewpa.com.au

NATIONAL EXECUTIVE

President: Rick Mustillo

Tel: 02 9817 7610 Fax: 02 9817 7630

Past President: Tim Nuttall

Tel: 03 9547 7700 Fax: 03 9547 7766

Executive Director: Phil Newby

Tel: 0417 212 627

Operations Director: James Oxenham

Tel: 0410 704 979

NSW President: John Glover

Tel: 02 9735 7600 Fax: 02 9735 7699

VIC President: Tim Hille

Tel: 03 9555 1116 Fax: 03 9555 3332

QLD President: Richard Gannon

Tel: 07 3277 7255 Fax: 07 3277 8611

SA President: Ben Pritchard

Tel: 08 8262 1000 Fax: 08 8262 1697

WA President: Will Reilly

Tel: 08 9456 4400 Fax: 08 9456 4411

TRAINING DIRECTOR

Phil Middleton

Tel: 02 9622 6060 Fax: 02 9622 5660

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Peter Wenn

Tel: 03 9568 7211 Fax: 03 9568 7255

COMMITTEE

Martin Foster

Tel: 08 8268 8444 Fax: 08 8268 9444

Bob Mules

Tel: 02 8718 6300 Fax: 02 8718 6377

Peter Davis

Tel: 02 8796 5055 Fax: 02 8796 5052

Doug Rawlings

Tel: 08 9350 5700 Fax: 08 9350 5503

Keith Clarke

Tel: 03 9792 1000 Fax: 03 9792 1011

TELESCOPIC HANDLER ASSOCIATION OF

AUSTRALIA (TSHA)

President:

Stuart Walker

Tel: 02 9517 3174

Fax: 02 9517 3274

Opinions published in the Hire and Rental Industry

Association magazine – Hire and Rental News – do

not necessarily reflect the opinions of the association

or the Editor. The HRIA accepts no responsibility

for the accuracy of any information contained in

this magazine and readers should rely upon their

own enquiries in making decisions related to their

own interest.

The contents of this publication are subject to

form without written consent from the Editor.

What do members want? Protection, meetings and safety

president's

message

Even though unemployment

has also been tipped to rise

and growth has only been

tipped at 0.5% for the past few

quarters, it seems the general

population is continuing to

live its life – spending still on

eating out and retail, against

all rationale. This has buoyed

the rental sector, among

others, which has been good

for business in general. The

latest BIS Shrapnel Forecasts

bode well for a steady increase

in construction in 2015/16

The issues around secondary

guarding seem to be

gathering steam. Recently

Worksafe Victoria held a

meeting in Melbourne which

was attended by EWPA

representatives, tier one

construction companies,

OEM’s, various unions and

a number of Victorian and

interstate regulators. It was

a forum in which there was

some very robust discussion

and a number of the issues

were highlighted. It was

agreed by all parties the

mission of the gathering

was to eliminate deaths by

crushing in aerial platforms.

It became evident there is no

silver bullet and a multi level

approach by all parties is going

to be needed. It was also noted

job safety assessments need to

be a priority and all members

must be aware Safe Work

Method Statements (SWMS)

are not a generic assessment.

They must be specific to the

site and an all-encompassing

assessment conducted prior to

EWP operation.

Having just read an interesting

report entitled “Mobile

Elevating Work Platform

(MEWP) incident analysis”

published by the UK’s Health

and Safety Executive (HSE)

in 2013 it indicated of 290

incidents 47 involved trapping

or crushing, with 83 incidents

from falls and 82 incidents

where an EWP has turned

over. So while we focus on

the prevention of crushing we

shouldn’t forget we are all daily

involved with high risk plant

and should not forget we also

need to continue to promote

the safe use of harnesses and

safe selection of EWPs as well

as perform site assessments

prior to starting any job at

height. Safety is paramount

when working at height.

The Melbourne meeting

followed what was a very

successful NSW state meeting

at Force Access’ refurbishment

facility in Homebush. After a

brief meeting the majority of

the OEMs had their version

of secondary guarding on

show. From comments we’ve

received from members it was

greatly appreciated.

The EWPA website now

features a guide written by our

technical expert, Peter Wenn,

explaining the various types of

secondary guarding options,

and the advantages and

disadvantageous for each type.

You can also find links to IPAF

information sheets.

If you have attended a

meeting you will note there

is a question about incidents

involving EWPs. This is an

important discussion and it is

not a finger pointing exercise.

In order to prevent accidents

from happening as an industry

we need to understand their

causes and until we do we will

not be able to come up with

solutions. To facilitate incident

reporting in each state, the

EWPA has implemented a new

program where members can

report incidents.

We recently sent out a quick

survey to NSW members to see

how they feel about meetings.

A quick look at the results

confirmed what I had thought;

members prefer breakfast

meetings, approximately four

times per year which include

some sort of speaker, product

or site visit. We will take this

onboard and endeavor to make

the meetings as interesting

and informative as possible.

After quite a lot of work the

Telehandler Annual Inspector

Program is being released

through the Telescopic Handler

Association (TSHA). This

program has been developed

as a method to convey a 'Proof

of Competency' for members

and their employees who

service Telehandlers. To obtain

an inspector photo ID card the

applicant will be required to

meet certain criteria. We are

initially rolling this card out to

the TSHA and once confident

our system is working correctly

we will be rolling this out to

cover the inspection of EWPs .

The EWPA Yellow Card

program has been revised and

is out for review. The plan is

to launch the new program in

May 2015. The Association is

in the process of planning half

day courses around Australia

prior to the roll out and trainers

will be presented with the new

program before it goes live.

A new feature of the new

Yellow Cards is a QR code

printed on the back. The

code will take the user to the

EWPA’s database where they

can verify the training online.

Rick Mustillo

EWPA National President

After a slow start the first quarter has been a busy one by all

accounts. The new year began with a soft economy, a weakened

dollar and a host of challenges facing the big corporate sectors.