Managing Mobile Plant Operations
Working with or around mobile plant equipment is a high-risk activity with a need for effective management to ensure safety standards are set in place and maintained.
As the number of serious injuries reported to the HSE involving mobile plant equipment continues to increase, we must question whether it boils down to incorrect use, poor training, operator complacency or inadequate supervision of the operators on site.
As a manager on site, it is important to remember that managers and supervisors do not have to be the operator of equipment, but they must be equipped to proactively encourage best practice and recognise where complacency may have started to creep in. But how, if you are a manager and supervisor, can you better prepare yourself to manage mobile plant?
1. Understand the law
It is important to understand how regulation effects and applies to you. In particular Section 36 of The Health and Safety at Work etc Act- Offenses Due to Fault of Other Person. If an operator has an accident and it was found that the issue was overlooked by manager, the manager would face the consequences.
2. Check your knowledge and that of your supervisors
If you are not confident that poor operation could be recognised and remediated, further support from an expert in the field must be initiated; this could be a training provider, the equipment manufacturer or your SHEQs team.
3. Be visible
Make your rules, procedures and expectations easy to understand and follow – ensure that everyone knows what is required and expected of them for paramount site safety.
4. Question?
There are many questions that you should be asking to feel confident that your site is functioning to maximum safety and efficiency e.g. Is there a mobile plant standard and policy within the business? How do you segregate mobile plant from another site traffic?
5. Operator Training
Always ensure you have plans in place to cover the three types of training: basic, job-specific and familiarisation. It is important to update site-specific training to your policies and familiarise your operatives when equipment and processes change.
6. Be prepared to make changes
Quite often following an incident, it has been found that several near misses in similar circumstances have occurred previously but then have been overlooked. Never be concerned about challenging unsafe and poor behaviour onsite.
At Certora the service to our customers does not start and end at the delivery of training, our team are keen to ensure that our customers have the support they need, pre and post training.
For more information about how we can help implement management of mobile plant on your site, talk to our team today to book Managing Mobile Plant Operations – 01246 386900.