PAR2007 - IPAF

“Customers should
start to realise that
the IPAF Rental+
companies are
safer companies to
do business with.”
Gordon Leicester
Managing director
Facelift
The IPAF
Rental+ logo
is a sure sign
of reliability
and good
service.
continued from page 23
trees. The audit made us evaluate what
we do and made us sharpen up some of
our paperwork and ensure everyone on
the hire desk knows about every bit of
kit.”
Regular inspections
For customers, who may not care about
the procedures and paper trails within
the offices of their equipment suppliers,
the real benefit from using an IPAF
Rental+ company is that it is safe to
assume that the machines have been
properly and regularly inspected.
“A lot of the time, customers haven’t
the faintest idea whether their machine
has been inspected or not,” Leicester
says. “Nowadays, when you get into a
lift in a block of flats, you absolutely
assume it is inspected regularly. Today
they probably are, but in the 1960s there
were a lot of accidents.”
He continues: “Everybody assumes
that all access hire companies are
working to the same standards,” says
Leicester. ”But there are lots of people
out there who don’t inspect machines
pre-hire or are not timely in their sixmonthly
thorough examinations.”
Both Facelift and Rapid Platforms
find that, for the time being, the power
of the mark to win business is limited.
However, they expect this to change.
Quality systems
Hall says there is kudos attached to
being an IPAF Rental+ company and
it certainly helps relations with big
customers such as Glaxo SmithKline
and The Tate, who prize quality systems
and safety prizes. However, its pull as a
sales tool with construction contractors
remains limited until awareness of the
scheme grows.
Leicester agrees. “Too few companies
have it for it to really mean anything
yet,” he says. “As more companies join,
contractors will become more aware of
what it stands for.”
The importance of the scheme will
be particularly enhanced as the UK’s
fleet of powered access equipment
gets older, Leicester believes. “In five
years’ time there will be a lot of age-
Meeting the IPAF Rental+ standard
ing fleets in the UK. That is why the
IPAF Rental+ scheme has been started
now,” he says.
“This is the beginning of voluntary
industry self-regulation. It will
become a big thing over the next
couple of years. Customers should
start to realise that the IPAF Rental+
companies are safer companies to do
business with.”
Training
• All delivery drivers must be trained and competent to provide demonstrations
of the machines.
• All operators must be IPAF trained and certified.
• All engineers must have appropriate qualifications, whether as full service and
maintenance engineers, or as PDI inspectors.
• All hire desk staff must be trained so that they can understand what a
customer wants, to stop mistakes from happening through providing
inappropriate machines.
Booking
• Procedures must be in place to ensure the right questions are asked to
ascertain what machine is best for the job, and if the customer is uncertain, to
offer to conduct a site-survey.
Cross-hire
• Where cross-hire is used, the companies who provide this service do so to the
levels set out in IPAF Rental+.
Maintenance
• All appropriate PDI and maintenance paperwork/records must be kept.
Delivery
• When a machine is handed over to a customer, there must be an offer of a
demonstration of the machine for the purposes of familiarisation with its
controls.
• There must also be proof of this question having been asked, and there should
be a system in place to deal with circumstances in which this familiarisation is
not possible.
Other areas
• IPAF auditors also verify that a company has processes and policies in place
for dealing with issues such as customer satisfaction, insurance, and health &
safety.
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IPAF POWERED ACCESS REVIEW 2007