Plant Hire Safety

Adequate Training

The first best practice for plant hire safety is ensuring adequate training. Ensuring operator competency is fundamental to plant hire safety and should not be underestimated.

All operators and workers should receive sufficient training that covers equipment operation, safety protocols, hazard awareness, and emergency procedures. Training should be assessed and operators should only be assigned to plant machinery that they are qualified for.

Even after training has been delivered, reviews should be conducted to ensure operators are up to date with the latest machinery and practices.

Pre-Use Inspections

Another key component of plant hire safety is to consider pre-use inspections. Fortunately, when you hire plant machinery and equipment from companies just like us at P&L Tool Solutions, this is done for you before hire is agreed.

Pre-use inspections involve visual examinations, inspecting safety devices, inspecting tires, and checking fluid levels. All this will be checked by our highly-experienced team for you.

Additionally, we’ll also highlight easy but effective pre-use inspections that your operatives can do for themselves every time before use.

Personal Protective Equipment

Personal Protective Equipment is also key to maximise safety when operating plant machinery and equipment. Typical PPE we recommend and advise includes hard hats, safety glasses, protective gloves, hearing protection, and fall protection equipment.

It’s advisable to have a PPE checklist to ensure you are ticking all of the criteria. Employers and site managers are responsible for providing and ensuring the proper use of the necessary PPE, while workers must wear the designated equipment.

Regular Maintenance and Servicing

Regular maintenance and servicing is also required to maximise safety when using plant machinery and equipment. But, don’t worry, your plant hire company should have this under control for you.

Here at P&L Tool Solutions, we undertake regular plant hire servicing to ensure our machinery is in the best possible condition for you. Servicing is paramount in order to ensure machinery is kept in the best possible condition. Just like your car, plant machinery needs to be serviced regularly in order to perform to their best ability.

Safe Work Environment

Our fifth top is ensuring a safe working environment before operating plant machinery. Firstly, it’s important to audit the area where operatives plan to work and then eliminate any potential obstacles that could impact safety.

For example, remove debris and obstacles that could get in the way of operation. It’s also important to establish appropriate barriers or signage to prevent unauthorised access.