Friel Construction

[Jeremy Rowland]

Local to myself in the West Midlands is Friel Construction who have been busy on many local housing contracts, you may have seen more pictures on here that I have posted of their Liebherr 944 at work. They have now started working in West Bromwich where I took the following photos, looks like they will be busy here for some time to come with another new large housing contract.
The PC450 set up as a vibro compactor looks an interesting piece of kit, will have to see if I can get any pics of it in action.

Jeremy

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Nice selection Jeremy

I wonder if anyone can tell me if with all the LOLER and PUWER regs nowadays, if it creates alot of hassle to use a set of forks like on the Liebherr machine? And do you need a different license to use them?

The only reason I ask is that H&S and our insurance company are a right pain in the butt with stuff like this at my works, the paperwork it creates for me is unreal..... An example is we use a non-integrated working platform on our forklifts for occasional work such as changing a blown bulb in one of the roof lights but each year it gets more difficult to warrant having it...... But the way I see it is that if it is used safely it has still got to be better than using ladders!!
PM28 is etched into my mind http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/pm28.htm
Richard

[Jeremy Rowland]

Richard; as a Quality & H.S. Manager I can tell you that LOLER and PUWER would both apply to the fork attachment for the 13 ton Liebherr excavator. In reality all you would need to do is to ensure that the fork attachment is inspected by a qualified person every 12months and it must also have a notice with the SWL marked on it, it would then comply with LOLER.

As for PUWER so long as the operator has been trained on how to use the attachment then you would be okay, in that instance I would of generally have thought that in-house training would be okay.

Again as for your lifting cage; we have one where I work and it means that any fork truck that would be used to lift the cage with a person in it must be LOLER inspected every six months as opposed to twelve months, the cage itself must also be inspected and only harness trained people should be taken up in it.

Jeremy

[Jeremy Rowland]

One last important thing that I omitted here is to say that there should be a seperate risk assessment for the use of the fork attachment or for the use of your lifting cage. No risk assessment simply means that you are wide open because you have broken the law (HASAWA 1974 etc) you did not assess the risk!
I know the law is a nightmare and it bugs me big time and creates mountains of unwanted paperwork however such is the madness of modern society.

Jeremy

[Joes1989]

Great pictures as always Jeremy! Really like those hitachi's! Don't care for the tilt rotators myself yet though!

Joe

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Jeremy, We have recently had our LOLER inspection, and it has flagged up quite a few new regs!...... Also they are now stating that each machine that uses the man cage must be plated with the relevant info and even more signage on the man cage itself ...... It has also flagged up a problem with our recently purchased JCB telehandler which is rated at 3500kg but the fork carriage is rated at 3100kg, they are not happy and i am looking into this with our dealer.
The list goes on and on, but hey ho.... keeps me busy and the main thing is nobody gets hurt.
Richard

[Jeremy Rowland]

Jeremy, We have recently had our LOLER inspection, and it has flagged up quite a few new regs!...... Also they are now stating that each machine that uses the man cage must be plated with the relevant info and even more signage on the man cage itself ...... It has also flagged up a problem with our recently purchased JCB telehandler which is rated at 3500kg but the fork carriage is rated at 3100kg, they are not happy and i am looking into this with our dealer.
The list goes on and on, but hey ho.... keeps me busy and the main thing is nobody gets hurt.
Richard

Richard who does your inspections? We use Allianz they flagged up a few things on the inspections where I work, I am just about at the bottom of the list but nowt serious and in my opinion most certainly not dangerous. Unfortunately much of this crap is jobs for the boys makes me cross to say the least. As for your telehandler they will sometimes de-rate the lifting capacity if they think it is unsafe; I have been through several different scenarios with this including the possible de-rating of a hook on one of the 25ton overhead cranes, in the end the boss purchased a new hook, the price of which made his eyes water a bit.

Joe the tilt rotater fitted on these machines is a 'Steel wrist' I don't think these are made by En-con, the one operator seemed very adept at using it, must post more pics when I have the chance, oh and the PC450 is off site sometime today so I guess I won't be seeing that in action.

Jeremy

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Allianz do our inspections also Jeremy, they are pretty fair with most of our stuff but very thorough....They seem to have an issue with the man cage tho? I am in a similar position to your self and I do much of our H&S, having done my IOSH and various other things (thats why I asked the question regarding LOLER ) . The issue with the man cage has me a bit cornered and after a discussion this evening with one of the MD's we have decided to throw in the towel as it is just causing too many issues and costing too much money to keep.....It's days are now numbered!

As for the telehandler, Allianz are not happy that a machine has been supplied from the dealer plated at 3500kg which gives you the impression that you can lift the stated weight unless you check the plate on the carriage which is rated at 3100kg......like you said, jobs for the boys

Richard

[Jeremy Rowland]

Richard it seems crazy to throw a good safe piece of kit away and then make somebody climb up a ladder to do the same job I do have harness trained workers, the harnesses of which are also inspected under LOLER, you can only let harness trained people go up in the fork truck cage.
I will look at LOLER again on the HSE webiste later and check to see if there is any update to the regs that would affect the cage we have here; I once had an issue with the people who come in to service our gas heaters which are mounted quite high on the building walls, they claimed that it was illegal to work off a ladder which I can assure you that is most certainly not the case.
Perhaps the biggest issue is the HSE themselves who will not commit themselves to giving you a definate yes or no when it comes to complying with the law which I find is totally hypocritical I know we've had two inspectors at my place of work around eight months or so ago, both ladies and both very clever, but both non-comital when it comes to the law.

Jeremy

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Your right Jeremy its definitely safer than a ladder, but every 6 monthly inspection creates something new against keeping it, PM28 now states that you cant use the cage with a telehandler that has a greater lift height of 6m, ours can lift to 7m I cant win......
I have every thing in place to use it, Risk assessment, maintenance schedule, trained staff etc but its still never seems to be not enough....
The Allianz inspector specialised in lifting gear,he was a down to earth type of guy with lots of common sense and we discussed all the issues, he basically said that the HSE are trying their best to force people into using Genie lifts etc in a back door sort of way

This is one of the reasons British companies cant compete with the rest of the world......you cant do right from wrong..... red tape and all that.
All that is needed is a little bit of common sense.....

I am starting to rant now so I will end be fore the poor old PC gets the brunt of it

Richard