IPAF introduces international safety committee

A new International Safety Committee (ISC) has been created by the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF), to assist in globalising standards development and effective implementation, and promoting awareness about industry safe practice.

IPAF International Safety Committee (ISC) chair Mark Keily, of Sunbelt Rentals

The new committee is born out of the existing IPAF Accident Work Group of the IPAF UK Country Council, which has been instrumental in compiling and analysing incident statistics gathered via IPAF’s Accident Reporting Portal, leading to the annual IPAF Global Safety Report, recently published for 2021.

The current members of the Accident Work Group will constitute the core of the new committee, with Chair Mark Keily of Sunbelt Rentals UK taking the reins for the first meeting on 22 September 2021. IPAF is now inviting representatives to join the existing members of the ISC. Candidates should be powered access professionals with a passion for improving health & safety. The committee will meet three or four times a year, mostly virtually with one physical meeting in conjunction with a major industry event.

Brian Parker, IPAF’s Head of Safety & Technical, said, “The IPAF Accident Work Group has long worked hard behind the scenes to produce safety guidance based on the accident reporting data we have been collecting and analysing since 2013, when the vast majority of reporting at that time coming from our UK membership.

“With the accident reporting portal now receiving reports from more than 20 countries worldwide, and with IPAF preparing and promoting technical guidance and safety campaigns in almost 80 countries, we felt it was appropriate to expand the remit and outlook of the group, and so have created the International Safety Committee, which will ultimately report to and be represented on the IPAF Council.”

Peter Douglas, CEO & MD of IPAF, says: “It is clear from the latest IPAF Global Safety Report and the difficulties faced by our industry during the pandemic, as well as new standards being developed and implemented in recent years in places such as the US, Canada, the Middle East and South-East Asia, that powered access as whole will benefit from clear, consistent and independent leadership in safety globally.

“If any IPAF member company wishes to be represented on the new committee I urge them to get in touch; we look forward to a high calibre of interested parties expressing their interest. In the meantime, I recommend all stakeholders take the time to review the latest Global Safety Report online and of course I urge all operators, managers and users of powered access around the world to keep reporting accidents and near misses in their businesses.”