The business has seen a 71% reduction in incidents of plant tips across its fleet.

Travis Perkins Hire has seen a 71% reduction in incidents of plant tips across its fleet since it launched a dedicated safety programme. 

Since 2019, Travis Perkins Hire has led the industry in working to minimise the potential for customers to be injured when using hired plant equipment. This has been through a combination of technical modifications to the equipment itself, and customer education.  

The company has four pieces of plant available to hire, including two types of diggers, and dumpers and dumpsters. 

Speaking during Construction Safety Week, Garry Roberts, Group Health and Safety Manager at Travis Perkins Hire, said: “In 2019 there were 101 incidents of plant tipping. The majority were due to improper use, overtipping due to turning with raised skips on dumpers or tracked dumpsters, manoeuvring too close to open trenches and while operating plant on slopes or mounds.

“We realised this figure was far too high and saw an opportunity to explore how we could help in bringing it down. We undertook a really thorough investigation into the causes of tipping incidents and landed on a two-stage approach. 

“We reached out to JCB as a key manufacturer and supplier of our plant and discussed improvements that could be made across our fleet. All of our diggers now have extendable tracks to provide a larger footprint, and dumpers are fitted with wider tyres to add stability. 

“An issue that caused a lot of accidents was over-tipping, so all dumpers now have an in-built inclinometer which will automatically shut off the engine if the skip is tilted too steeply. 

“We wanted people to understand the seriousness of this issue, so if the cut-off is triggered, the engine can only be reactivated by a JCB engineer, adding an extra incentive for customers not to incline the skip too far.”

TP Hire also had systems installed to link seatbelts to the ignition systems, and limiting maximum speeds to prevent tipping when cornering too sharply. 

Roberts said: “One of the bigger issues was that people were doing things like using a digger to try and pull a tree stump out of the ground like a crane, rather than properly excavating it. 

“We needed to find a way to educate operators on some of these risks, so we now send out instructional safety videos with every hire that cover things like walking the route and using a seatbelt. We have a strict ‘no watch, no delivery’ rule, so if a customer hasn’t watched the video, our drivers will bring the plant back to the branch.”

While TP Hire has seen a significant reduction in incidents since 2019, Roberts believes the number can be brought down even further, but will need the support of the wider industry. 

He added: “The next big step would be for the industry to come together as one to discuss with manufacturers how we can see greater integration of safety measures as standard.

“While we won’t ever be able to entirely account for the risk of someone misusing plant equipment, the machinery that merchants hire to the public can be dangerous and it’s in all of our interests to do what we can to keep people safe.”