Call the experts
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NOW that the Health and Safety at Work Act is with us employers need to do more than keep an attentive eye open and put up a few relevant posters on the notice boards. It is important that they implement a well defined policy and ensure that it is complied with by all members of the firm.
Besides providing safety equipment and protective clothing an employer is obliged to keep his business premises clean and free from any dirt hazards. Unless this is carried out regularly it can become a very laborious, time-consuming and costly job.
However, during the last decade a number of specialist firms armed with special machinery has entered the industrial cleaning business. Their host of chemical cleaners can make light work of even the dirtiest premises.
Road haulage premises and yards are not the easiest places to keep clean, but a regular visit by an industrial cleaning contractor can certainly keep the business looking smart. The workshops can be cleaned from the grease and grime which usually collects on the floors t and walls while bright windows will allow more natural light to the interiors of the buildings.
Set standards
To find an industrial cleaning firm is relatively easy — by either recommendation or looking in the Yellow Pages — and there is an association to which the more experienced contractors may belong. Always choose a member of the Contract Cleaning and Maintenance Association (CCMA) as they set standards to which members must comply, General Cleaning Contractors, part of the Pritchard Services Group, are well aware of the changes that have taken place because they have been cleaning industrial . establishments for more than 80 years.
Gerald Hutchins, a director of General Cleaning Contractors, explains:
"Technology has had a marked effect on the design and organisation of the modern business premises, and cleaning consequently requires a more sophisticated approach. "ft takes careful planning, good organisation and effective control procedures to do the job. efficiently.
"A professional cleaning company such as ourselves can achieve these standards without disrupting business which today, more than ever, is a key factor in the services we provide."
Every road haulier's premises cleaned is unique in as much as each requires variations on a theme. The theme is naturally cleaning whereas the variations occur from the individual construction and size of premises to be cleaned.
Inspection first
Once suitable contact has been made then the first thing to happen will be a visit from a local representative. He will carefully inspect every detail of the offices, workshops, warehousing, and parking areas to be cleaned and discuss first hand with management how to tackle the problem. Also how to fit the cleaning schedule into the daily work pattern to provide minimum disruption.
Having ascertained the specific requirements of a client a complete survey and costing will then be produced.
Dependent on the client's wishes they can either have an estimate for a one-off clean or on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis.
At any time
This can be arranged to be carried out either during the day or if more convenient at night or at the weekend. Some holiday periods are also included.
Once the client has accepted the cleaning contractor's proposals the cleaners will then move in.
The equipment and cleaning materials to be used vary widely with the type of job to be done. In a typical transport depot, for example, high-level cleaning would be undertaken using anything from ladders and scaffolding to mechanical lifts, depending on the roof height and construction. Back-vacs (vacuum cleaners carried like haversacks), long floor mops, mittens and cloths may be used to clean trunking and air conditioning ducts.
Where necessary tarpaulin sheets are hung to catch any dirt or debris removed from high -level that may fall onto equipment, machinery or vehicles below.
When reaching the floor areas again techniques will vary depending on the type of surface to be cleaned.
In offices it is likely that industrial vacuum cleaners and floor polishers will be used together with the more traditional feather and yellow dusters. Toilet areas are scrubbed, scoured and disinfected.
The workshop floors present slightly different problems particularly in a transport depot where there is likely to be oil and grease that has soaked into the concrete.
This problem is tackled with scourifying machine that soaks the floor with a powerful detergent, scours with a revolving metal brush and then sucks up resultant mess into a refuse tank on the machine.
Just like everything else the type of cleaning fluids and detergents that are used vary with the job to be done.
This can be liquid soap at one end of the scale to hydrofluoric acid at the other. Naturally, if acids are being used all necessary precautions are taken by the cleaning contractor's personnel to ensure that all equipment,
materials stored or situated ii the vicinity are well protectes When thinking of industri cleaners it must not be forgotten that the larger contractors can clean roofs., walls and car or lorry parks. They are able to degrease, up tired looking brickwork oi stone and remove the majori of stains caused, for instancE by fuel spillage.
Big or small
Whether it's a small haulier's premises or a multi-national organisation t professional cleaning compa can handle it and quite poss save its owners both time an money. It will take on all the administration of the cleanin contract — which again SOW time and money.
Each cleaner will be covei by third party insurance and also by personal accident insurance, which is often overlooked by some of the smaller companies operatinE the cleaning field.
Finally, the question of security must be considered The reputable contractor wil have carefully selected its personnel and they are quite used to working under the strictest security situations. Even the Department of Transport uses cleaning c tractors in its offices.