Effects of Health and Safety Legislation and Regulations on the Recovery Industry Written For Recovery Operator by REMSA Chairman Eric Ayres – Part 2 of 2
Vehicle Operator Responsibility
Operators of vehicles incorporating specialized equipment of any kind have considerable responsibility to ensure the various obligatory regulations are applied. This ranges from ensuring the initial specification of the equipment to be used is correct through to providing operators with adequate training. There is then the ongoing requirement to make sure the equipment is properly inspected and serviced.
The regulations that apply are summarised below.
PUWER- (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations)
These regulations cover the operator’s obligations to ensure the correct specification and selection of the equipment to be used for the work to be undertaken is carried out and that user training is conducted to ensure an adequate level of competency is achieved.
LOLER- (Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations)
These regulations cover the users obligations to inspection, testing and methods of use and also risk assessments of the equipment as a whole.
It may prove helpful for operators to adopt the following procedure for all additional vehicles:
Make sure when a new vehicle is supplied that it comes with the following documentation which must be retained for future reference by insurers and other authorities.
- Declaration of conformity on the whole installation
- Declaration of conformity on the winch, crane (or other machinery)
- Wire rope test certificate
- Proof Load test certificate
- Installation inspection certificate
- Working Load Limits clearly indicated
Also check to make sure the whole installation has been CE marked and that emergency stops for all functions that can be operated remotely via wander lead and/or control systems has been included in the installation and that all operating controls are clearly marked.
An inspection sheet must be produced and completed for each vehicle and signed off and dated and this must be retained. Inspection intervals must be established and the frequency of inspection can be set initially at set intervals as deemed appropriate. If on inspection a number of items were found to be in need of repair or replacement then reduce the inspection interval.
The recovery operative should be trained to visually inspect between each job items such as wire rope and hook that can easily become damaged.
Conclusion
These regulations appear tough and onerous for all involved but once the procedures have been put into place they should become fairly straightforward and routine. We also strongly recommend to operators for their peace of mind to buy their equipment from a company who is a REMSA member.
Ignoring the changes that are taking place could have very serious consequences for any business.
Eric Ayres
Chairman of REMSA
And Director BHW Group Ltd
