health and safety

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richard challis

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I live in Devon were health and safety seems to be ignored or im just lucky as ive seen no one in 9 years of scaffolding working for small and bigger companies. Now ive started my own company and am trying relly hard to do the right thing when others dont and off course with costs get the jobs done quicker and cheaper. Man this drives me mad when i price a job and some cow boy lashes up a monster of a job cheaply so im not getting it. Any advise as they seem to be lucky and as these firms have been going a while if an accident was to happen there d be trouble but until then im lossing out.
 
were all in this together mate,you could try ringing hse up when you see something dodgy going on,just go round the area and put your company on the map with local firms.
 
Richard try to educate the companies you wish to work for explaining their legal obligations, if this fails then advise the HSE of any scaffold that puts anyone at risk.
 
swifty took words out my mouth bud lol i was going to say that obviously most the potential clients down there mustnt think much of safety either so you need to try seeing which ones will follow your lead and help promote the health n safety route to all building maintainance projects etc etc

i got a leaflet flyer thru post the other day regarding iso 9001 which was based price wise around size of company and turnover, i know you probably think its a bit much to bother with when just starting out but at approx £495-00 for a company with turnover of £100,00 or less i think its cheap and it only gets more expensive as your company grows, this would help you out in so many ways
it would help organise your company for future
help open doors up for you
and help promote your company as a well run safety concious company with principles

if interested i ill check it wasnt filed in the shredder and post the number and details to you via pm mail
 
This conflict of quality versus price

Has been going on for as many years as I have been in the game and thats a blo*dy long time.

The HSE and local authorities DO NOT police the legislation that is in place to prosecute these cowboy outfits

Set your standards high Richard from the start, It is your company, its ethics will reflect your management.Remember not all of your potential clients will be looking at price alone.

Quality and your service on site will start to speak for itself in the coming months.

Superscaff has posted good advice follow up on iso 9001 there is a lot of help within it.
 
many thanks to all that have posted advice i myself am not 100 percent sure on everything and have visited a health and safety company today to gain advice on what im doing wrong or not doing at all that i should be.im hoping foe every one that other companies follow suit.but i dont think they will maybe it might end up being to late for some of them again thanks to all.
 
Richard it is hard mate to see people getting away with murder while you struggle to keep going , but remember these guys can only do work for small builders and cash jobs, any reputable company or council can not and will not use these guys , as they have to make sure that you have all the correct criteria before they can use your company.
Stick to your guns and keep everything legal and above board as this is the way for your company to grow , good luck with it mate :)
 
Stick to your principles,and continue putting the jobs up to the required standards,word of mouth and reputations are everything,one lashed up job ruins everything,dont let it grind you down,the jobs will come to you eventully,keep faith mate,cream always rises to the top.
 
richard challis said:
I live in Devon were health and safety seems to be ignored or im just lucky as ive seen no one in 9 years of scaffolding working for small and bigger companies. Now ive started my own company and am trying relly hard to do the right thing when others dont and off course with costs get the jobs done quicker and cheaper. Man this drives me mad when i price a job and some cow boy lashes up a monster of a job cheaply so im not getting it. Any advise as they seem to be lucky and as these firms have been going a while if an accident was to happen there d be trouble but until then im lossing out.
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Good advice from all as usual Richard and for what it's worth I'll add my tuppence worth. Firstly by asking are you really so sure you haven't had a visit from hse in all of your 9 years operating? I only ask as he turned up on one of my jobs in a tiny village in Southend more commonly known as the Mull of Kintyre which is about 24 miles south of Campbeltown and even with my limited mathematics that must be his third or fourth visit this year. It might not sound a lot but when you consider our location and the distance from his office I can only assume he is seeing something he doesn't like. I never heard from the contractor involved and only discovered he was even there by accident when he turned up on another of my jobs about 120 miles away the next day and he told the site manager there.

My point is, you only hear about these visits if there is a problem and if as you say you are doing everything correct they will have had no need to contact you. I feel these guy's efforts can go undetected at times as sometimes they have to work under the radar to build up a picture of what's going on in a particular area. Your real problems will only start when these guy's find the need to knock on your door every other week.

Leave the cowboy's to lash up what they want and you can sleep easy at night. I like the old saying "Thank god for the fools as without them I could not have succeeded."
 
Thats an interesting point Aom, ive never thought of it like that and its something i will def keep in my mind for future reference!
 
aom said:
Good advice from all as usual Richard and for what it's worth I'll add my tuppence worth. Firstly by asking are you really so sure you haven't had a visit from hse in all of your 9 years operating? I only ask as he turned up on one of my jobs in a tiny village in Southend more commonly known as the Mull of Kintyre which is about 24 miles south of Campbeltown and even with my limited mathematics that must be his third or fourth visit this year. It might not sound a lot but when you consider our location and the distance from his office I can only assume he is seeing something he doesn't like. I never heard from the contractor involved and only discovered he was even there by accident when he turned up on another of my jobs about 120 miles away the next day and he told the site manager there.

My point is, you only hear about these visits if there is a problem and if as you say you are doing everything correct they will have had no need to contact you. I feel these guy's efforts can go undetected at times as sometimes they have to work under the radar to build up a picture of what's going on in a particular area. Your real problems will only start when these guy's find the need to knock on your door every other week.

Leave the cowboy's to lash up what they want and you can sleep easy at night. I like the old saying "Thank god for the fools as without them I could not have succeeded."
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Excellent post my Knowledgeable Northern friend. However, as has been stated by Richard his self " Some of these firms have been going a long time" so really, in retrospect, is this not more about being established as a new company and trying to gain work.

I must commend Richard on his approach and attitude regarding his new buisness, and i hope he can implement his ideas, Advertise your services mate and include all neccesary legislation on your campaign ie WAHR 2005,TG20:08 SG4:05 compliant and maybe member of SCCR:D Good luck mate.

Paddy
SCCR H&S Development Officer
 
Agreed Paddy, but my point is this, if mr hse can visit my area and find an non notifiable job buried in the sticks of Southend then surely he must have come across some of these monster jobs in Devon.

I'm in total agreement regarding stick to your guns but I think you have been incredibly unlucky not have an inspector on at least some of these sites. The hse by their own admission can't police the whole of the country all of the time and must spread their resources pretty thinly I would imagine, in fact they did admit to thumping the big boy's and hoping it spills down to the rest of us in due course. Far from ideal, but it's as good as funding allows them.
 
aom
"The hse by their own admission can't police the whole of the country all of the time and must spread their resources pretty thinly I would imagine, in fact they did admit to thumping the big boy's and hoping it spills down to the rest of us in due course. Far from ideal, but it's as good as funding allows them. "

A classic piece of spiel or is it spin these days,
No I think it is the HSE spouting a load of sh*te as usual.

The "trickle down effect" is a figment of the imagination, much used by politicians to give tax breaks ect to the very well off. It does not happen

I have watched cowboys operate all my scaffolding career and get away with it :mad:

The only way to stop the cowboys is to go after them with avengence, prosecute and go for the biggest fines possible, or goal for repeat offences.
This applies from the owners down to the so called scaffs that erect the abortions I see on a daily basis.
 
Aye, fair enough Rigger but the point is, unless you call in these jobs the hse will do nothing about it. If you report it, they then have a legal obligation to investigate it, and honestly how many times have you reported these jobs? I'm not having a dig, but obviously nobody has reported these jobs as they are still standing. Does that make us all guilty by association? We can all talk a good game of name and shame including myself who posted a few pics I probably shouldn't have.

The whole point of me sticking my oar in to this thread was to let people know that the hse could turn up anywhere, and I know you are acquaint with the location I am talking about and should appreciate the likelihood of an inspector turning up there would be almost nil, the fact that he did puts him up a few steps of my ladder.
 
Good post AOM, agree with what you say. just wondering is the transport provided for them, or do they claim mileage.
 
Either way Brandy he must have a good claim this month with the mileage he has covered, but it has been more than made up by the amount of extra work I have picked up due to his presence. :cool:
 
The Sccr raised that question at the hse meeting and the answer given was inform the hse. There is a hotline u can ring.
 
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