TP Hire safety campaign sees significant drop in plant tips

Travis Perkins Hire has seen a 71% reduction in incidents of plant tips across its fleet since it launched its dedicated safety programme. 

Since 2019, TP Hire has been working to minimise the potential for customers to be injured when using hired plant equipment, including diggers, dumpers and dumpsters, through a combination of technical modifications and improving customer education.

Garry Roberts, group health and safety manager, commented: “In 2019 there were 101 incidents of plant tipping. We realised this figure was far too high and saw an opportunity to explore how we could help in bringing it down. We landed on a two-stage approach.

“We reached out to JCB as a key manufacturer and supplier of our plant and discussed technical improvements that could be made across our fleet. All of our diggers now have extendable tracks to provide a larger footprint and all dumpers are fitted with wider tyres to add stability, and now have an in-built inclinometer which will automatically shut off the engine if the skip is tilted too steeply.

“We wanted people to understand the seriousness of this issue, so if the cut-off is triggered, the engine can only be reactivated by a JCB engineer, adding an extra incentive for customers not to incline the skip too far.

“We also needed to find a way to educate operators on some of these risks, so we now send out instructional safety videos with every hire that cover things like walking the route and using a seatbelt. We have a strict ‘no watch, no delivery’ rule, so if a customer hasn’t watched the video, our drivers will bring the plant back to the branch.”

While TP Hire has seen a significant reduction in incidents since 2019, Roberts believes the number can be brought down even further, but will need the support of the wider industry.

He added: “The next big step would be for the industry to come together as one to discuss with manufacturers how we can see greater integration of safety measures as standard.

“While we won’t ever be able to entirely account for the risk of someone misusing plant equipment, the machinery that merchants hire to the public can be dangerous and it’s in all of our interests to do what we can to keep people safe.”