47
APRIL-MAY 2014
ACCESS, LIFT&HANDLERS
THE AUTHOR:
KevinO’Shea is the director of safety and training at Hydro-Mobile. He has
workedwithMastclimbers LLC, JLG, SGB, Lavendon andMastclimbers LTDUK
(nowHarsco). O’Shea serves as Chairman of IPAF’s North American Council,
Chairman of the SAIA’sMCWPCommittee, is amember of the SAIA/OSHA
Alliance Team and haswon various awards over the years, including: IPAF
Safety Champion 2009, 2010 and 2013; SAIACouncil Chairperson of the Year
2009 and SAIA ‘Coupling Pin’ Award 2010.
KevinO’Shea
reports fromWindsor, England, on the 2014
IPAF Summit and International Awards for PoweredAccess.
T
he International Powered Access
Federation hasmade some important
changes to its focus on themast climber
industry.
The IPAF Summit, and International Awards
for Powered Access (IAPAs) were held on April 3
inWindsor, England, andmembers of themast
climbing industry gathered to agree on a new
constitution for the International Mast Climber
Committee, newmembership, newChairperson
and to discuss a number of proposed focus
campaigns to highlight aspects of the product
and its use.
The new committee ismade up of eight
members:
■
KevinO’Shea, HydroMobile, Canada
■
DarrenBrady, Apollo Cradles, United
Kingdom
■
AdrianBolton, AlimakHek, United Kingdom
■
Julian Valenzuela, Encomat, Spain
■
Bobby Reese, Mastclimbers LLC, USA
■
Nicolas Lopez, TecnoAndamio, Uruguay
■
GerhardHillebrand, IPAF, representing
ItalianManufacturers
■
Romina Vanzi, IPAF Switzerland, Convenor
The first task of the new committeewas
to agree on a new constitution, including the
scope of the committee.
The scope of the committeewas agreed as:
■
Develop best practice guidance for the
MCWP industry
■
Represent the IPAFMCWP industry in
government level discussions
■
Encourage technical efficiency
■
Encourage the highest standards of safety
and goodworking practice
■
To provide for co-operation between all
members in the discussion of common
problems
The committee then elected KevinO’Shea
as Chairman and AdrianBolton as Deputy
Chairman for the next two years.
O’Sheawas pleased to be electedChairman
and explained the challenges ahead, “The
mast climber industry has emerged from the
recession bruised and battered, much in the
sameway as the AWP industry. We’ve lost
some key people, we’ve lost some impetus,
andmanufacturers are finding it tough to fund
the post-recession growthwhich is starting to
take shape. The committee needs to focus on
re-introducing the product, and its productivity
and safety advantages to potential users, and
we need to reinforce the ‘duty of care’ message
to equipment owners.”
TheMCWP Industry then presented an IPAF
Summit ‘breakout’ session on themorning
of the Summit where the newly elected
Chairman andDeputy Chairman, committee
member Bobby Reese, andMCWPConvener
Romina Vanzi, brought delegates up to date
on standards development inU.S., Canada
and Europe, and discussed planned focus
campaigns for 2014/15.
Focus campaigns
KevinO’Shea identified three safety-related
safety campaignswhich have been selected
based on a number of accidents and near-
misses experienced in the industry in the last
two to three years:
■
LOADMANAGEMENT
Operators clearly aren’t aware of the load
carrying ability of themast climbers they
happen to beworking from based on the
experience of committeemembers. Operators
need to be aware of point load restrictions,
eccentric load restrictions, uniformly distributed
load capability and the need to know theweight
of whatever they are loading onto the platform.
■
FALL PROTECTION
There have been a number of accidents caused
by guardrail removal, insubstantial planking and
the presence of trip hazards on the platform.
Operators need to be aware of all fall protection
issues in the platform, and need to be trained
in the use, maintenance and inspection of any
required fall protection equipment required on
the platform.
■
INSPECTIONS
Equipment owners aremostly unaware of all
the inspection requirements placed upon them.
SAFETY OPINION
Daily, frequent and annual inspections are
required, with the relevant documentation and
record-keeping requirements, and thosewho
conduct the inspectionsmust be qualified to
carry them out.
The committee also agreed to look at novel
ways to focus attention on these issues,
and additionally agree to look at ways to
increase the visibility of themcwp industry to
prospective users.
Standards development
Work is currently underway on the ANSI A92.9
and 92.10 re-drafts in the U.S. (American
National Standards Institute standard A92.9 for
MCWPs and A92.10 for transport platforms),
and the standardwill be broken into three
sections, Design, Safe Use and Training.
Similar work is underway for the CSA
standards inCanada (Canadian Standards
Authority). B354.5 andB354.6, forMCWPs
and transport platforms respectively are
being drafted in similar fashion to the A92.9
standardswith respect to the three-part
structure, andwith a degree of correlation
between the respective committees the industry
could see the benefit of almost common
guidance inNorth America.
O’Shea explained the challenge ahead.
“A significant amount of equipment in the
marketplace is now 10-15 years old, and
having come through a bad recession,
owners are dragging equipment from the
back of the yard and putting it into service.
Is this equipment functional?Has it been
periodically inspected?Has it been inspected
by a qualified person?Highlighting inspection,
loadmanagement, and fall protection and
bringing further focus to operator training
should further increase awareness on vital
issues as themarket improves. If we can
increase awareness, harmonize standards,
trainmore operators and increase awareness of
the benefits of MCWP ownership and use, our
industrywill hopefully see the benefit.”
■
News and views from
the 2014 IPAF Summit
