IPAF Premiers Safety Film at Malaysia Aerial Safety Conference
The International Powered Access Federation premiered a short film warning people not to cut corners when using mobile elevating work platforms to conduct temporary work at height at its Asia Conference and Showcase 2016 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The film depicts an employee who complains to his boss about a faulty light, and follows two very different scenarios. In one, the man is given a scissorlift in poor condition and told to get on with the job without any training. In the other, the boss engages a reputable powered access rental company and offers the employee operator training. The outcomes are obviously different.
The film can be viewed on IPAF’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cksuj5uvuC4&feature=youtu.be and is aimed at spreading IPAF’s MEWP global safety and training message. It was developed by IPAF’s Malaysia members and officially launched at the showcase, which was well-attended with about 350 delegates.
The event, hosted in conjunction with the Master Builders Association Malaysia, with which a memorandum of understanding was signed by IPAF, included a Showcase feature more than 30 IPAF member companies.
Speakers included Kang Han Fei (Aerial Lift & Equipment); Janne Haapalainen (Scan-Rent); Johnson Lai (Keng Guan Skylift), and Tan Kee Chong (OSH Specialist Department, Ministry of Manpower, Singapore). IPAF also demonstrated a sophisticated virtual reality MEWP simulator to delegates.
“This was another excellent occasion in IPAF’s burgeoning global events calendar and is now established alongside the IPAF Summit and IAPAs Europlatform, Elevacao in Brazil and the IPAF Middle East Convention, traditionally held in November each year,” said Tim Whiteman, IPAF CEO and managing director. “IPAF has an engaged and vibrant membership in Malaysia and Singapore, so it made perfect sense to bring the event to the country for the first time, and it has once again been a great success – there was a palpable sense of excitement throughout the event and tremendous buy-in to what IPAF is trying to do in ters of driving up MEWP and MCWP training and safety standards across the whole region.”
The next IPAF Asia Conference & Showcase is set for July 17-18 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China. Go to www.ipaf.org for more information on IPAF events.
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.