Winter Workplace Essentials
It’s that time of year again – it seems like it gets earlier every year – the mornings are freezing and it’s dark by 4pm. Sites and workplaces up and down the country are bracing themselves (and their teams) for another cold snap and site managers are preparing winter essentials to keep staff and visitors safe and keep their businesses running smoothly through the colder months.
According to HSE incidents and accidents increase across the winter months as pathways become more slippery, leaves block normal access routes and sites of all types struggle with increased rainfall, not to mention the darker hours, decreased visibility and risk of ice and snow. At ULS safety is our number one priority so we’re pleased to bring you Six Winter Essentials – practical steps you can take today to help ensure your workplace stays safe and secure this winter.
Winter Safety
Your site, whether in construction, warehousing, manufacturing or office environments is critical to ensuring your staff and visitors are safe this winter. It’s essential that good site risk assessments are completed with the changing weather conditions for both vehicle and pedestrian traffic indoors and outdoors. If you’re responsible for the site or for the safety of staff and visitors then you’ll want to consider any additional risks that the winter weather might bring, as well as keeping core pathways and work spaces clear of both water and dirt. Be sure to review your existing equipment including any manual handling requirements that might be exacerbated during the winter – many consider switching to using either a standard pallet truck or Semi electric pallet trucks like the Pramac Agile Plus Semi Electric Pallet Truck to avoid accidents and keep productivity high.
Similarly the risks associated with working from height can be increased in the winter as ice and rain can make surfaces more slippery and gutters become blocked and well maintained access platforms can be a great choice during the winter months for maintenance departments too.
Winter Lighting
When the nights start to merge with the afternoon’s many workplaces can see a slump in productivity and an increase in accidents. Light towers can be an ideal solution to keeping your workplace well-lit and safe during the darker months, not only are they portable and compact but light towers help you to make the most of the working day if your team are in a permanent site but also help construction, civils and groundworks contractors – in fact any remote or temporary sites to stay productive even when the light starts to fade. There are a huge range of mobile generator powered light towers and mains powered light towers available depending on the coverage you need for your site so it’s well worth talking to the team at ULS if you’re not sure about the best option for you or your site.
Generators
Talking of generators, both petrol and diesel generators make it onto our list of winter essentials, these must haves for any modern business. On site, on location or on the move – Pramac Petrol Generators are ideal to make sure that your tools and your team are fully operational in all areas especially in the winter months.
Winter Petrol Generators
The Pramac range of Petrol generators starts with our super lightweight, portable E3250 Generator (2.9KVA/2.6KW) which features a Honda engine in a robust frame to keep your 110 volt and 230 volt tools powered whatever the weather. At the top of the range is the professional grade PX8000 Petrol Generator (6kVA/5.4kW Dual Voltage Petrol Generator with AVR) for more demanding applications – this powerful generator is ideal for making sure your site, office or plant is protected should the winter months bring the unexpected. This versatile petrol generator includes AVR or Automatic Voltage Regulation which ensure that if you do need to use it to power computer, electrical equipment and particularly sensitive equipment the AVR will make sure your kit is protected. From every day use to emergency power in the winter months ULS have got you covered.
Winter Diesel Generators
For anyone that needs a longer run time or to make sure that noise is kept to a minimum over the winter months would be hard pressed to beat the Pramac Diesel range. We know how important it is to keep your own or your clients’ businesses safe and powered in the winter months and hire can be just too unreliable to ensure consistency – that’s why we’ve picked the P6000S to add to our winter essentials list.
The Pramac P6000S Diesel Generator comes with its own wheel kit included to make positioning on site easy and simple, better still the super silenced diesel generator has electric push start functionality and a quality Yanmar engine to ensure that even under intense use the Pramac 6000S is designed to last.
Winter Snow and Ice Equipment
One of the biggest challenges we all face in the UK is the ever-changing weather – it’s not unheard of for us all to experience wind, rain, snow, bright sunshine and freezing temperatures all on one day! And as we all know snow and ice can be big issues for UK businesses regardless of whether you’re on site, in offices, distribution or warehousing so it’s no wonder that Salt Spreaders and Snow Ploughs are on our Winter Essentials list.
Salt Spreaders
These simple, effective tools are an absolute must have for any environment and at ULS we’ve got you covered with two manual salt spreaders, from 20kg to 50kg capacity and with a choice of free flow, push along spreading or lever controlled for dealing with icy patches quickly making the salt spreaders perfect addition to any maintenance teams or caretakers essential winter kit.
Snow Ploughs
At ULS we know just how troublesome a sudden flurry of snow can be for any workplace or site and whilst many businesses may have the option to have their teams work from home construction sites, civils, agriculture, education and many, many more simply do not have that option. Depending on your own site make up it’s important to make sure that walkways and transport routes are kept clear of snow and fully functional through the winter months. That’s why snow ploughs are a key item in our winter essential kit.
Manual Snow Ploughs
Simple but effective! Manual snow ploughs help you and your teams clear snow and debris fast – our bidirectional snow plough switches effortlessly from right to left clearing and the simple design allows snow to fall quickly off the plough. If you need to clear pathways and routes more quickly check out the V shaped snow plough – an innovative design that cuts straight through both compact and freshly fallen snow, pushing snow quickly to each side to create clear, effective routes for your staff and visitors.
Pedestrian snow ploughs are an ideal solution for those that need to keep walkways and paths clear even in restricted conditions, clearing spaces quickly and easily without the need for shovels. Another reason to swap to a pedestrian snow plough, they minimise the effort of the operator by pushing instead of lifting and throwing the snow, less stress and strain on arms and more critically the back.
Forklift Snow Ploughs
Clearing larger areas is perfectly possible with a manual snow plough but of course can be time consuming and labour intensive, neither of which are ideal in adverse weather conditions. If you are running larger sites, then Forklift Snow Ploughs may be a better choice in the winter. But which should you choose and why?
Forklift Snow Plough – Reversible
This robust forklift snow plough attachment features a reversible Snow Plough that clears snow to left curb or right curb complete with flexible hard wearing polyethylene dish this is ideal for sites that need to protect the floor and/or surface being cleared of snow. This solution is perfect for softer floors or external surfaces, mud and grass etc that could be damaged by an all-metal plough plus the scoop can also be replaced to give you great durability long term.
Forklift Snow Plough – Galvanised
The hardiest and most durable of our forklift snowploughs – this fully galvanised snow plough fits easily to convert your existing forklift into a fully functional snowplough. This galvanised snow plough can also be fitted with an optional rubber strip to protect more delicate surfaces. Whilst we all think of Snow Plough’s in the winter this clever forklift accessory is ideal to help keep yards, roads and carparks clear of debris too.
Forklift Snow Plough – Adjustable
When snow strikes we all know how quickly we may need to act and the adjustable snow plough is the premier tool for keeping your site fully functional and operational in all weathers. Unlike other attachments that require refitting to clear left or right handed the Adjustable Snow Plough only needs a quick adjustment of the lynch pins and you’re ready to clear in a new direction. Featuring a heavy duty steel blade roller for complete durability and longevity and an additional 20mm thick rubber blade insert (replaceable) for added wear and tear protection the adjustable Forklift Snowplough is the ultimate winter pick!
One thing not to forget as we go into the colder weather is to keep stock of grit and salt should you need to use them, if like many, you choose to buy salt in bulk to secure your safety you’ll also want a secure, safe place for storage, commonly and simply called “grit bin”.
Grit and Salt Bins
Depending on your site you’ll want to look at various sizes and capacities to help you through the winter ours start with smallest 100 litre grit bin all the way up to our 400 litre grit bin which is large enough to protect the biggest of carparks. All grit bins supplied by ULS are manufactured from prime UV stabilised polyethylene, corrosion proof and weatherproof and come complete with double skinned lids for increased strength.
Winter Security
Last but not least on our Winter Essentials list we have to talk about security, darker nights and less visibility can mean that valuables can become a target for theft from sites. There’s nothing worse than a tough day, leaving the tools in the van, on the back of a pickup or on site to find that they’ve been stolen – not only can it be a tussle with insurance to replace them but worse still it can bring your business to a halt – the last thing anyone wants especially during the winter. That’s why last but no means least on our list is the Armorgard range of secure van and site tool boxes and tool chests. If you haven’t heard of Armorgard then we’ll give you a quick summary – this innovative and trade friendly firm have been protecting your tools for 30 years – and many of their products are Secured by Design certified and tested for both security and reliability. During the winter many sites choose the Oxbox and Tuffbank ranges to keep their tools secure and safe on site, ranging from smaller boxes for portability up to large site chests for maximum security even during the harshest of conditions.
Finally and this should go without saying, it’s important as well as having the right kit to make sure that your existing kit is fully operational and serviced properly, be it cranes, hoists, loose lifting gear, forklift attachments, jacks or any other lifting equipment making sure you have the right tools for the job in the winter is essential. So, there you have it – our complete guide to all the winter essentials your site and workplace needs to stay safe, secure and operational this winter.