GroundsWeek is an annual celebration of the often overlooked groundskeeper, who plays a vital role in maintaining the green spaces that enhance our lives and support mental and physical well-being. The week is marked by activities and campaigns to promote the profession, share best practices, and appreciate the work groundskeeping professionals accomplish. An entire week dedicated to highlighting the skills of grounds staff, whilst inspiring everyone to appreciate the industry. Groundskeepers Roles and Responsibilities It requires specialist training to enable for a grounds person to carry out their daily activities such as mowing, hedge-cutting, strimming and leaf blowing...

2% OF ALL ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO VEHICLE DEFECTS AND FAULTS Given that the National average age of UK vehicles is 8 years, it's no surprise that faults such as tyre blow outs, broken lights and smearing window wipers are causing accidents across the UK. ONLY 44% OF PEOPLE INSPECT THEIR CAR PRIOR TO TRAVELLING FOR WORK.. and of that 44% who do complete checks... • 30% don't check their oil levels • 42% have a warning light on their dashboard • 57% have deferred their MOT • 27% don't check tyre pressure • 35% don't check brake lights • 32% don't check tyre tread • 32% don't check headlights THERE ARE 6 CARS IN EVER..

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) conducted an investigation after an employee of Dnata Ltd was crushed to death at London Heathrow Airport on the 23rd February 2022. The incident occurred during the unloading of baggage containers from an Emirates Airbus which had arrived from Dubai. The employee walked underneath a high loader (a raised platform similar to a scissor lift) in order to access the other side of a trailer. At the same time the high-loader operator lowered one of its two hydraulically operated platforms, which trapped then fatally crushed the employee. A spindle locking mechanism used to secure containers onto the baggage trailer was broken at the time of the..

Forklift truck inspections can increase productivity by up to 25%. Additionally it will reduce breakdowns by 70% and lowers forklift truck maintenance costs by 25%. Depending on the type of forklift truck, costs and technical sophistication, a broad spectrum of maintenance strategies should be applied. A faulty forklift truck may significantly slow or completely halt your entire production process. Poor maintenance strategies can reduce the overall productive capacity of a warehouse by 5 to 20 percent. “Predictive maintenance increases equipment uptime by 10 to 20% while reducing overall maintenance costs by 5 to 10% and maintenance planning time by 20 to 50%" Why Preve..

A 46-year-old worker was crushed to death by two granite slabs whilst working for Graniteland Limited at the company’s Lyde Green site in Halesowen. An investigation by the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) found that the incident which occurred on the 30th November 2020 could have been avoided with the correct training and maintenance procedures. The investigation found that Robert Czachracz, who was from Poland, had been moving the granite slabs onto storage racks, using an overhead crane when two of the slabs, each weighing a quarter of a tonne, fell and fatally crushed Mr Czachracz against a forklift truck. The HSE found that Graniteland Limited and its director, Mr..

A textiles company has been fined £60,000 after an employee suffered serious injuries their right arm in an incident at a factory operated by Pin Croft Dyeing and Printing Co. Limited in Market Street, Adlington, on 20 June 2022. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the employee had been operating a large fabric spooling machine when the brake malfunctioned. During an attempt to manually slow the rotation of the machine, he broke both major bones in his forearm when his sleeve was caught by a rotating spindle. Despite the company being aware of the risk posed by the moving spindle, they failed to either remove or suitably guard this part of the machi..

A fascinating report courtesy of TyreSafe Admin National Highways Imperial College London looking at tread depth survey at the point of tyre replacement. The 2023 findings show an overall reduction in the number of illegal and borderline tyres at the point of replacement compared to 2016 but 16.7% of tyres were below the legal limit when replaced. The 2023 findings confirm the number of illegal tyres on Britain’s roads annually is potentially as many as nearly one-in-four vehicles – at just over 6.1 million per annum! How scary is that (especially during these wintry months)? Lack of sufficient awareness among drivers of the need to carry out systematic and regular checks of their tyr..

A Lincolnshire-based workshop has been fined after his employees were exposed to a hazardous substance. Inspectors found a significant build-up of wood dust and that Local Exhaust Ventilation systems, provided to capture wood dust and protect employees, had not been thoroughly examined and tested. The HSE prosecuted Chris Buckley, trading as The Furniture Chest of Station Road, Heckington, Lincolnshire, on the 7th April 2022. A subsequent HSE investigation found Chris Buckley had failed to prevent or adequately control employees’ exposure to wood dust and had failed to ensure that Local Exhaust Ventilation systems had been thoroughly examined and tested. Improvement Notices had bee..

On average, predictive maintenance increases productivity by 25%, reduces breakdowns by 70% and lowers maintenance costs by 25%. Depending on the type of assets, costs and technical sophistication, a broad spectrum of maintenance strategies should be applied. One failing machine may halt the whole production process. Poor maintenance strategies can reduce the overall productive capacity of a plant by 5 to 20 percent. “Predictive maintenance increases equipment uptime by 10 to 20% while reducing overall maintenance costs by 5 to 10% and maintenance planning time by 20 to 50%” Why Preventative Maintenance? 1. Unplanned repairs can lead to substantial downtime and jeopardise p..

In the UK, we bear witness to over 1300 fork lift truck accidents every year, which means on average there are five accidents every workday in the UK that involves a forklift. In the US there are over 35,000 serious injuries every year due to forklift operation and OSHA (The Occupational Safety and Health Administration) estimates that over 70% of these incidents were preventable. It’s easy to lose sight of safety in the rush of everyday life, thats why Forklift Safety Day is so important. Forklift Safety Day reminds us to remove the daily assumptions that "the forklift was fine yesterday, it'll be fine today". Forklift safety minimises the dangers related directly and indirec..

Starting on 24 April, the HSE (The Health and Safety Executive) will carry out 100 targeted inspections of fairground and theme park rides following a string of incidents throughout the UK. The campaign's strategy is to promote the safe use of fairground rides and inflatable devices and reduce the risk of catastrophic incidents. The campaign is targeted at both theme park sites and travelling fairgrounds and is set to finish by September 2023. It wasn't long ago that we wrote about an incident at Oakwood Theme Park in Wales when a man and his teenage daughter's support bars failed on a rollercoaster resulting in the man falling 26ft to the ground. In our previous blog we highlighted a str..

The UK uses more that three and a half million vans for business activities. As part of targeted roadside checks, the DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) stop around 15,000 vans each year to carry out spot checks on vehicles and issue prohibitions if necessary. A prohibition prevents van drivers from using the vehicle until the problem is fixed and can cost owners and operators up to £4,000 per day, per vehicle. 59.9% of vehicle prohibitions were due to a mechanical defect / failure and 83.9% of vans were overloaded. The top three mechanical defects for light goods vehicles that resulted in a prohibition were: 1. Tyre condition 2. Lights and indicators 3. Steering linkage. ..

Anyone involved with driving for work or for the management of fleet vehicles should find our latest guide of interest as it highlights ways for businesses to improve vehicle inspections and management. This TakeAIM guide provides useful advice on getting the most out of your fleet and covers many of the key questions and considerations that management may come across. We look at key legislation, industry statistics, grey fleet issues, and driver concerns as we aim to deliver the answers and possible solutions to help improve and implement fleet management systems. With the large costs associated with running a fleet in today’s market, a good fleet manager can actually result in a posi..

It’s not always obvious where to start with managing driver risk. After all, there are so many different areas that need to be tackled. And how do we know whether what we’re doing is good or bad, or whether we have any glaring gaps. It’s easy to feel like we’re just going round in circles. There is a simple process that can help you, based around four easy-to-understand steps: 1. Benchmarking – Do I need to improve? 2. Gap Analysis – If I need to improve, where do I start? 3. Action – How do I make improvements? 4. Check – How big were the improvements? Driving for Better Business has created a range of free online tools that can help you with all these key steps. Benchmarking s..

Every year in the UK there are hundreds of serious injuries, including fatalities, to forklift truck operators and pedestrians, which could have been prevented if staff were properly trained and followed safe systems of work. Within the material handling industry alone, there are over 1,300 forklift truck accidents a year, which means on average there are five accidents every workday in the UK. When we look at statistics from the United States, these numbers are even more staggering with an average of 95 people being seriously injured in forklift accidents EVERY DAY and 1 person losing their life due to forklift accidents EVERY 4 DAYS. Approximately 11% of forklifts in the U.S. will b..