Control of Access to AWPs on Jobsite a Winning Idea for Finland’s Ramirent
Skanska, a Swedish construction company, selected Finland-based Ramirent’s idea of having a system for controlling operators’ access to aerial lifts as the best occupational safety idea during the company’s occupational safety week in May 2016. Skanska invited suppliers and subcontractors to participate in an idea contest titled “How would your company improve safety at worksites?”
The idea was to brainstorm methods to promote safety at worksites and share the ideas with Skanska. The contest received suggestions from all over Finland covering unloading, the treatment of subcontractors, usage of vests for ground men, online orientation and usage training.
The jury from Skanska selected Ramirent's idea of having a system for controlling operators’ access to lifts as the winner. The system is based on a key card that only allows certified operators to use aerial work platforms. Access control on equipment also prevents misuse of the machinery and prevents rental equipment from being broken. Ramirent’s idea brings a solution to an important matter at Skanska.
"In our opinion, Ramirent's entry in the competition and the idea of lift usage control proves that Ramirent is continuing its work to improve work safety when using lifts,” said Hannu Tomperi, Skanska managing director. “Last year, a change process was launched whereby all boom lifts where equipped with a device preventing to be pressed. Ramirent was the first company to truly understand our requirements and needs and correct the situation. Control of lifts is an excellent continuation of this progress."
“We are very pleased to receive this award from Skanska,” said Mikael Kämpe, executive vice president of Ramirent Finland. “Ramirent wants to be the leader in providing safe rental equipment and solutions to its customers that help improve occupational safety at construction sites. Our RamiSmart system that was the winning idea at Skanska’s occupational safety week competition is an excellent example of how we through system development can improve site safety. It is a system for controlling and monitoring access to equipment, so that only trained and competent personnel can use the equipment, and it includes also other features such as control of access to the entire construction site.”
Ramirent, based in Vantaa, near Helsinki, Finland, is active in 10 European countries.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.