That's the commercial-vehicle workshop, but at RTITB's High Ercall training
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centre they try to make sure that potential's never realised. Tim Blakemore explains how
'HERE CAN BE few places of vork more potentially danger)us than a commercial vehicle vorkshop. Just about every )iece of equipment to be found here could cause serious injury I it is used .without due regard or safety.
In view of the wide variety of ools and equipment in general ise in workshops it is perhaps urprising that more accidents lon't happen there — statistics how that the home is still the nost dangerous place!
I've generally found commerial-vehicle mechanics to be a airly responsible breed, not isually given to skylarking, and his must be part of the reason at .ast for the generally good saaty record of the commercialehicle repair workshop.
But don't let's get complacent, r safety in any place of work lepends to a large extent on the pproach and mentality of emiloyees. This was emphasised 3 me by Bob Ford of the Road .ransport Industry Training board when I visited him at the board's Multi Occupational raining and Education Centre MOTEC) at High Ercall Dronounced like the legendary orse's name, Arkle) to discuss /orkshop safety.
Bob is a management tutor at IOTEC, and he specialises in le topics "safety and employlent". But most of his students re workshop managers or the ke who would soon lose inrest if he concentrated too -Rich on safe working practice )r. repair jobs, so Bob's ap
proach is to interpret for his students the appropriate legislation, particularly the Health and Safety at Work Act, so that they in turn might point their staffs in the right direction.
Once again it comes down to the workshop manager himself having safety uppermost in his mind and encouraging his staff to think along the same lines.
A safe workshop does not necessarily mean an expensive one. The Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974 places a duty on the employer to provide a safe and healthy environment for his employees, but does not go into specific detail on just how to go about this.
Bob Ford explained that he often finds companies could economise and still comply with the Act's requirements, for example in the use of oil-absorbent compound on workshop floors.
This is an expensive substance and makes a big hole in many workshops' budgets, but the amount used could be greatly reduced in many cases simply by not spilling the oil on the floor in the first place.
Contrary to popular belief, the use of sawdust to absorb spilled oil is not expressly prohibited by the Act but of course if oilsoaked sawdust is left on the workshop floor it could present a fire hazard.
Did the RTITB have a "black museum" to show students the dire results of unsafe working practices? "That's not our style," said Bob. "We think it's a negative approach to training and we prefer to take a more positive line by showing students examples of well-organised and safe workshops."
The Board's own hgv workshop at High Ercall is just such an example. It is currently used for hgv craft and technician training, but later this year all those courses will be moved to MOTEC 2 at Livingston, leaving the Shropshire Centre to concentrate on management subjects (CM News, August 30).
Not surprisingly the workshop is a model of safety and efficiency. That's all very well, many operators will argue, but it's not possible to achieve such ideal conditions in the average workshop.
Not so. Some very busy workshops manage to maintain safety standards similar to the RTITB's (a good example being the London Borough of Wandsworth CM, August 2), and indeed many workshop managers have reaped many peripheral benefits from improved safety standards in the form of improved efficiency and an en hanced reputation for the company among skilled staff who, despite the current economic climate, still aren't that easy to recruit.
No matter how safe a workshop is or how good the systems provided by an employer, it is always possible for an employee to disregard them and act irresponsibly, endangering himself and/or others.
Anyone stupid enough to do this would be contravening the Health and Safety at Work Act which places a duty on every employee while at work (a) "to take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions 'at work; and (b) as regards any duty or requirement imposed on his employer or any other person by or under any of the relevant statutory provisions, to cooperate with him so far as is necessary to enable that duty or requirement to be performed or complied with".
A mouthful, and disentangling 'this legalese is part of Bob Ford's job in the courses he conducts and, as a practical guide to some common dos and don'ts in workshop practice, he uses slides from an RTITB training pack called Safety in Motor Vehicle Workshops.
Tony Rae, a craft and technician instructor at MOTEC, demonstrated for us some of the situations illustrated in the slides. 1. Loose clothing such as ties, scarves or torn overalls, which could be caught in any revolving parts, should not be allowed in the workshop.
Scrotal cancer can be caused by oily rags left in overall pockets, and diesel or petrol soaked into any clothing can cause a rash or dermatitis. Mechanics must have their overalls cleaned regularly.
2. Many mechanics/technicians still insist on wearing watches at work. In an instance like this,touching the metal watchstrap against the battery terminal could result in a painful wrist burn. Rings and bracelets can be even more dangerous.
3. The dangers associated with compressed air have been well publicised but still injuries happen. Any employee found guilty of this kind of insanity should at least be severely disciplined, 4 and 5. The wrong and right way of tackling this lift pump repair job. There is a safe and a dangerous way of doing most jobs, so why take unnecessary risks?
6. Using open-ended spanners the right way can avoid painful grazed knuckles. For injector pipes, a flared ring spanner such as this is much better anyway.
7. Soft shoes may be more comfortable, but they're also more dangerous than protective footwear. One shoe company has now come up with an interesting compromise by producing training shoes with protected toe caps.
8 and 9. This is the wrong way to use a grindstone i.using the side of the stone and not using goggles) while this is the right way to test an injector (ensuring that the atomised spray does not contact any part of the skint. One of the many requirernents of the Abrasive Wheels Regulations 1970, governing the use of grinding wheels, is that every workshop with grinding wheels has at least one person trained in their maintenance.
10. This isn't the safest way to check the specific gravity of a battery's electrolyte. The battery location on many heavy commercial vehicles make it difficult but the hydrometer should be held at arm's length to avoid the danger of being splashed with acid or inhaling toxic fumes.
11. A vehicle's wheels should always be chocked before it is jacked-up. A timber chock such as this is cheap and easy to make, and fitting a length of rope to it makes it less likely to be thrown away and yet easy to pull away after use.
12 and 13. There is a right and wrong {or rather a safe and an unsafe way) of performing even such a simple task as jackingup the front of a vehicle. Picture 12 shows the front axle balanced precariously on the edge of the jack's lifting pad. Picture 13 shows it seated much more securely in the centre.
14. A spring brake that has the spring held under tension by a large circlip should be marked every time it is stripped down and it should not be overhauled more than twice. Every time it is reassembled and the piston centralises itself, it tends to wear off a little of the circlip slot so that after several overhauls there is a danger of the circlip slipping out and the spring being suddenly released.
15. When spring brakes were first introduced, a number of horrifying accidents were caused by people trying to dismantle ,them in the same way as conventional brake chambers. It can't be stressed too often that great care, and usually special tools, is needed when repairing these units. (An hydraulic press can sometimes be used.)