UK rental company Nationwide Platforms, a division of Loxam, has begun installing its new ‘Harness On’ safety device on its Specialist Vehicle truck mounted platform fleet, all of which are rented with operator. The move follows the installation on some of its boom lifts. The company hopes to have more than 6,000 of its boom lifts - virtually the entire fleet - equipped with the device by the end of the year. The Harness On device Developed and tested over the past four years, the Harness On component is attached to the platform’s harness anchor points and is wired into the platform controls. Anyone planning to go up in the platform must then attach their lanyard to the device, which then enables the machine to be operated. The production version also includes an indicator light allowing operators to see when the device is working or, if the light fails to illuminate, a fault. The company is also making the device available to any company that is interested in installing it. Christopher Houlton of Nationwide’s BlueSky Solution division, said: “We are really excited about this new evolution of Harness On and hope to get as many people exposed to this device as possible in the coming months. There's nothing else on the market that is quite so wide reaching with multiple applications across such a wide range of machines. Harness On is the future of safely working at height.”
Glenn Hall head of sales at Nationwide’s Specialist Vehicles business added: “Having our 26 metre and above truck mounts kitted out as an initial commitment and to demonstrate how the device works is a great step to ensuring safer working conditions across the industry. We hope to see more companies take up Harness On and continue the hard work that has been put into designing and utilising the product.”
Vertikal Comment
Anything that encourages the use of a harness and properly attached lanyard in boom lifts is to be applauded. Devices such as this have been around for a couple of years, for example news[35151[(Terex Utilities Positive Attachment Lanyard (PAL)) warning device, although they have tended to avoid a total lock out aspect, in case of a system malfunction etc…
This one seems not only much simpler to install on almost any machine, but also does include a lock out function. It will be interesting to see how it is accepted in the self-propelled fleet. It will need to be 100 percent reliable of course.
It is also good to see the company making it widely available, a completely different attitude to what it had with the Blue Sky anti-crush device, following its acquisition of the business in 2012. It will be very interesting to see how the take-up goes and if manufacturers purchase it or devise their own solutions.
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