EXPERT VIEW
HSE updates advice after 35 ladder deaths in a year The HSE has recently issued a safety bulletin offering guidance on how, when and where to use ladders and stepladders. Is this good news for your business?
Why the concern? 2021/22 HSE statistics show there were 35 fatal injuries and 39,376 non-fatal injuries caused by falling from height. There is an urban myth that ladders of all types are “banned” from the workplace. This is not the case. If they are used sensibly, they can be an appropriate piece of work SAFETY equipment.
PAUL MARSH
Office manager SafetyAide
What’s the updated advice?
The HSE has recognised the danger that incorrect ladder use presents and has updated its guidance to offer a sensible, balanced approach to using ladders. ‘LA455 Safe Use of Ladders and Stepladders – a brief guide’ is the new guidance jointly produced by the Ladder Association and the HSE. It highlights the importance of training and offers expanded guidance on different types of portable ladder, such as telescopic and combination (or multi-purpose) ladders.
Managing ladder use If you are purchasing ladders, the standards have also recently been updated to improve their safety. Class 1 and Class 3 ladders are no longer available to buy. However, if you own such ladders they may still be used. All ladders should now be designed and manufactured to the current EN 131 standard. Simple measures to use ladders safely include: lU se for short tasks only, generally less than half an hour. If over this timeframe other lifting equipment such as scaffolding should be used. lS elect the correct ladder for the task. lU sers must be trained in how to assess the risks of using a ladder, when it is right to use one (or not), which type and how to use it. lA ll ladders, whatever type, should be safety checked before each use and removed from use if damaged. Tip. Use the new guidance along with our document to avoid getting bogged down with overly complicated control measures for working at height.
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Using software to help sell aged parts
DEALERSHIPS OFTEN HAVE to wrestle with their unsold inventory to clear space for new products, a problem that can become difficult to solve without help. There are only so many places you can sell your old stock, especially as a local business with a limited pool of customers. The more money and time you waste trying to move old parts and outdated tools, the harder it becomes to recover once you finally have room for fresh stock. In some cases, this can be a silent business-killer, something that can only be stopped if you prepare in advance.
older products are worthless, but that they’re only worth a lot to the right people. Finding those people is hard, and getting them to buy from your dealership can be even harder, which often makes it tempting to just write off your old parts and sell them for scrap.
Buying old stock It helps to flip your perspective on the situation. You may have situations where you need older parts, or scenarios where buying another dealership’s aged stock allowed you to fulfil an important service job at the last minute. In most cases like this, the hardest part wasn’t recognising that you needed these Stock gridlock Having aged and unsold products taking up parts – it was finding a platform where you storage space in your dealership creates some could purchase them. The biggest issue with very irritating problems. Even if you can pile aged inventory is displaying it in a place all of those parts and components onto a sin- where the right audiences can see it. These aren’t always going to gle shelf, that’s one less shelf you be your normal customers, and can use for new, high-demand MARKETING in many cases, they will be other stock that will actually make JORDAN dealerships looking for emergenmoney: you are bottlenecking STOVOLD Ibcos Strategic cy solutions to a lack of imporyour own profits. Business Of course, for many dealer- Development Analyst tant components. But what kind of platform can actually resolve ships, simply throwing away this problem? these unsold parts isn’t an option. After sinking thousands Solving the gridlock of pounds into stockpiling your The Ibcos Gold Parts Marketstorage room, it’s hard to justify place provides a business-tolosing that money when there’s business solution for buying and still a chance that it could turn selling aged parts inventory, a profit with the right audience. For many businesses, especially smaller running on software that makes it incredones, this creates a form of gridlock where ibly easy for a dealership to display and sell either option involves losing money. If you their old stock. With features like stock filtering, easy have extremely tight profit margins or haven’t been operating for very long, then it price setting and reliable in-platform marcould only take a single mistake to put your keting options, Gold Parts Marketplace has essentially become a new dealer-to-dealer business at serious risk of failure. storefront for discounted stock. While it might still be in its infancy, it will be an excelReselling old stock One of the biggest problems with unsold lent way for businesses to offload old parts stock and obsolete parts is that a market for that they can’t find another profitable use for. Free advertising and no-commission them does exist – but it’s just hard to identify customers’ needs for this purchasing have made it a very accessible type of stock. It’s easy to iden- option to dealerships that need some aged tify an audience for some parts, with sellers only paying a small comold dealership stock that’s mission fee. two years out of date, but If you want to know more about how Gold it’s hard to actually mar- Parts Marketplace operates and how to ket towards them without list your own stock on the platform, go putting yourself in an even to www.customer.ibcos.co.uk/gold-partsbigger financial deficit. marketplace or send an email to sales@ The problem isn’t that ibcos.co.uk BAGMA BULLETIN JULY-AUGUST 2022
