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 About six years ago Northern based building maintenance and refurbishment contractors, cityresponselimited brought in a Health & Safety Consultant to increase awareness of the importance of safe working practices among its staff. As a relatively new force in the business, Managing Director Billy Park, knew that developing a professional safety programme was the only sensible was of keeping abreast of legislation. Enter Peter Carter.
Fundamental for a business of this type was the issue of 'working at height', so Peter turned his attention to this aspect first. This time enter Ladderlog - a clear, visual safety tagging system, which allows for the proper recording of ladder inspections, therefore providing an inspection audit trail. In Peter's words; I found Ladderlog on the web and recognised that its format and style would suit the stores around the cityresponse plants. The staff working in the stores needed a user friendly system, but above all, one where results and records could be printed off as hard copy - a simple at-a-glance check, vital when you are dealing with as many as 60 to 80 ladders at any one time.
Indeed, Ladderlog does offer a very simple solution to logging, identifying and maintaining records on ladders and really can be up and running within five minutes. To be able to operate the system almost immediately was evidently a big part of Peter's decision in choosing the system, but there were other benefits too: Introducing Ladderlog has had the benefit of making everyone at cityresponse more aware of safety generally. The tags offer an immediate visual inspection, not just of the ladder's inspection history but also of its ownership - this has prevented non-cityresponse ladders from ending up on sites and compromising worker safety. By incorporating the ladder inspections into a staggered, regular six monthly recall programme it has minimised downtime. In fact cityresponse took it one stage further. They linked the ladder checks with van inspections, checking for van cleanliness, roof rack security as well as the mechanical state of the vehicle.
And all of this of course has the effect of reinforcing to their staff that their safety comes first. This attitude sits well with the Company's own vision statement which among other things says: We recognise that the loyalty and commitment of our people is the key to our success. We create a climate where people take pride in the work they do, and always take personal responsibility in doing their best to improve the servies they deliver.
And the proof of the Ladderlog pudding? The initial launch was so successful, cityresponselimited rolled it out to their Leeds and Chesterfield depots. Now a total of 86 ladders are covered by the programme, helping to protect more than 135 operational staff.
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