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CASE STUDY RJ JONES TRANSPORT
Page 37
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Bill Foulkes is operations manager for R.J Jones's Transport, based in Flintshire. Part of the RJ Jones Haulage Group which also has depots in Yorkshire and Northants, the company runs 109 trucks and 450 trailers with a high proportion of flats used to deliver building products to construction sites for customers such as Kingspan Structural Products, where the drivers inevitably have to work on the back of the trailer, helping unloading and crane slinging operations.
"Even in the 21st century you still have people saying 'Hey driver! Just jump up onto the trailer'," reports Foulkes. "And they still expect you to handball things off in this day and age. On construction sites people are crawling over trucks like ants. That's not the way to do it."
Following an earlier accident where a company driver tripped on a brick net, and after H&S feedback from Kingspan, Foulkes started looking for a suitable fail restraint system that could be used on a flat. Working together with Foulkes, the company's regular trailer supplier, Schmitz Trailers, came up with the version as tested by CM.
So far 70 trailers have been fitted with the kit. It had to meet strict criteria. "It was essential that it all stored within the trailer's width which this does," says Foulkes. "It can all be done at ground level, too, but above all it is simple to use-so the drivers use it. You can set it up on or off-site while you're waiting.
A strong advocate of H&S, Foulkes says: "You should never die working in this business. You should go home in exactly the same condition as you started in the morning."