Where is the tall tower?
The stairwell job starts Monday and needs the tall tower. It was last seen on a job three weeks ago. Somebody thinks it went to the unit, somebody else thinks it is in a customer's garage. On Monday morning you hire one instead. The own tower turns up in a van in November.
Meanwhile the scissor lift hired for the warehouse repaint sat for a week after the high-level work was done, because nobody off-hired it. And the inspection tags on the podiums are dated last year.
Why access kit goes missing
Painters need access equipment on most jobs, and it moves in and out of vans constantly. Hired equipment arrives at site directly. Inspection records are paper tags or a notebook, and nobody can see them in one place.
- There is no list of what you own and where it is.
- Kit moves between vans and jobs without being recorded.
- Inspections are on paper tags, not visible to the office.
- Hired access equipment is not tied to the job or off-hired on time.
- Access needs are not planned from the survey, so kit is sorted on the day.
Which inspections are required, how often and by whom are for you and your safety adviser to decide. The register records what you do.
What the loose kit costs
Hiring what you already own. Hire running on after the work is done. Time spent hunting for equipment. And inspection records that cannot be produced when a main contractor asks, which can stop you starting on a commercial site.
Access kit that cannot be found also affects how jobs are priced. If the estimator is not sure the business owns a tower tall enough for a stairwell, they add hire to the quote to be safe. Across many quotes, that makes you slightly more expensive than you need to be, for kit you already have somewhere.
The access kit register we build
- Every item you own, such as towers, podiums, ladders, steps and trestles, is recorded with a QR tag and its inspection interval.
- Painters scan the tag when kit goes to a job or comes back, so the register shows where each item is.
- Inspections are recorded on the phone against the item, with a photo and the checks you set, and items overdue for inspection are flagged as not for use.
- Access needs are planned from the job survey: stairwell height, high ceilings, exterior elevations, and the kit is allocated before the job starts.
- Hired equipment is recorded against the job with the supplier and start date, and the supervisor is asked daily whether it is still needed, with off-hire recorded.
- Main contractors can be sent inspection records for the kit on their site in one go.
| Item | Recorded |
|---|---|
| Towers | Location, inspections, components |
| Podiums and steps | Location, inspections |
| Ladders | Location, inspections |
| Hired platforms | Job, dates, off-hire |
Kit where you expect it
The office knows where each tower is before the job starts. Inspections are up to date and visible. Hire goes back when the work is done. And the evidence a main contractor asks for is ready to send.
Are you hiring what you already own?
- You have hired a tower while your own was lost.
- Hired platforms have sat idle on site.
- Inspection records are on tags only.
- Nobody knows what access kit you own.
- Access is sorted on the morning of the job.