6 Reasons You Should Regularly Service Your Access Equipment

One of the biggest mistakes that any business owner or whoever is in charge of it can make is failing to regularly service equipment. The equipment is used very much and is constantly exposed to difficult and demanding tasks and therefore it is necessary to maintain and service it regularly. It is important to have experts who can notice even the smallest irregularities in work and react in time before it is too late. This will provide security for your workers, but also reduce costs for you. It is especially important when we talk about access equipment that is used to work at heights. There, any malfunction is catastrophic, because it will lead to very serious injuries and great damage. So we will tell you what are the reasons why you should regularly service your access equipment.

Access equipment

There are many different ones, and although they all work on a similar principle, it is still very important to choose the right one. And since there are so many of them under different names, it can be very confusing. Some of the most used are the so-called booms, and there is an elevator, articulated, telescopic, etc. Articulated booms are used when you need flexibility, while telescopes are used for higher heights. Skylift is also something that is often encountered also.

Reason

1.Avoiding workplace injuries

Jobs at height certainly carry danger and injuries occur regardless of the condition of your equipment. But for that very reason, the possibility that the equipment was the culprit and that caused the injury to the workers should be completely ruled out. Prevention is paramount, because every year, unfortunately, a thousand deaths occur as a result. And by far the leading cause of death in industries is falling from a height. That is why it is important that everything is serviced regularly, so that no part is scheduled. Because every part, no matter how small and active it may be, is irrelevant for proper functioning. When you are at altitude, a catastrophe can happen in just one moment.

2. You will not waste time

When equipment failure occurs and even if one of the workers is injured, everything will have to stop. Your whole job will be halted until everything is fixed and until the worker recovers. Even when minor injuries are involved, it is rare for a worker to be able to return to work in less than two weeks. Not to mention the serious problems that may require months of absence, and perhaps even permanent disability challenge. Because like we said before, injuries that happen when you work at height are almost always serious. Until the worker recovers, you will either not work at all or at reduced intensity because you are missing a man. And if you try to find a replacement, it will cost you extra.

3. Avoiding restaffing costs

As we said in the previous paragraph, when a problem occurs and you don’t want your job halted, you need to find a replacement worker. Or in case it is permanently disabled, you need to find a permanent replacement. Restaffing costs are always significant. Whether you are looking for a temporary replacement, which will be much more expensive than a full-time employee, or you have to invest in training a new employee. According to research, it takes over a month to find a worker and to train him to know everything necessary to perform a job successfully and safely. It will cost you thousands of dollars, and maybe even over ten thousand dollars. Also, there is no guarantee that the new employee you have invested in will stay with your company because employee turnover rate is high.

4. No need for renting

If you were very lucky and no one was injured when the breakdown occurred, you were still left without the necessary equipment. Workers do not have everything necessary for work, because it is impossible to improvise work at height, which will lead to delays and overdue deadlines. To avoid this, you will have to rent equipment, which is very expensive and you lose a lot of money every day. It can cost you so much that in the end the earnings are minimal.

5. You won’t face fines

There are many laws and regulations that you must obey in order to perform this type of work. It must have happened to you many times that an inspection comes to you and checks whether you respect all safety standards, whether your equipment is regularly serviced and the like. It is up to you to keep everything in the best order and provide workers with a safe working environment. If the inspection finds that you have exposed the worker to danger because of your negligence, the fine may be even up to tens of thousands of dollars. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is an agency that is known for not forgiving even the slightest omissions, so be careful. The fines will be a big blow to the company’s budget, and it will also be very bad for the reputation. That is why it is necessary for you to be familiar with the basic repairs that are carried out on access equipment, and if you do not know, you should learn more.

6. Liability

You are insured and your insurance should cover all damages in the form of injuries, equipment damage and the like. But if you are found to be liable, then you will bear all the costs. And you can be liable if it is determined that the whole problem arose as a result of your inaction or wrongdoing. This refers to the fact that you have not regularly serviced access equipment, if servicing was done by unauthorized companies, then you do not have a record of everything done and the like. You may also be liable if you expose a new worker to danger, one you hired in the same place where the previous worker was injured. And finally, even if you have all the documentation that says that servicing and inspection has been done, but still notice the malfunction and do nothing about it, it is again your fault.

Conclusion

Since you are engaged in a potentially dangerous business, you must be responsible and must not leave anything to chance. Also, you will save money by making repairs much cheaper. When you do maintenance on a regular basis, any malfunction will be detected at the very beginning and then the repair costs will be incomparably less than when a major breakdown occurs. And it is very unlikely that a major breakdown will happen out of the blue.