Liebherr launches equipment safety programme

The Product Familiarisation Programme will be available to all Liebherr customers in the UK and will initially focus on materials handling machines where the company says there is a ‘recognised gap’ in both knowledge and support.

According to Liebherr, the course will ensure that customers have an ‘in-depth understanding’ of their own specific machines, helping them operate more efficiently and safely.

As part of the Programme, Liebherr said it is to supply highly skilled product demonstrators to customers’ sites for a one or two-day session. Each course will comprise an interactive classroom session designed to cover all elements of operating the machine and understanding its capability. This is followed by a demonstration and a tour around the customer’s own Liebherr machine, so that points discussed during the theory session can be reviewed in an operational environment.

Testing

This is then followed by a classroom-based test. All participants reaching the required standard will be issued with a certificate to demonstrate that they have passed the Product Familiarisation course.

Commenting on the launch, material handler product specialist, Mike Hanlon, said: “Whilst there are numerous training companies running courses for most machine types, there are none for industrial material handlers.

“The Product Familiarisation Programme will extend Liebherr’s responsibility beyond the stringent machine safety requirements stipulated by many of the industry’s insurance companies.  It enables us to support customers, many of whom are running multiple machines, who want to take even greater ownership for the safe operation of their machines and the care of those employees operating them.”

Earlier this month, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) released its provisional safey data for 2016/17, which revealed that there were 14 fatal injuries to waste and recycling workers between April 2016 and March 2017 (see letsrecycle.com story).

HSE said despite being a relatively small sector in terms of employment, the annual average fatal injury rate over the last five years is around ’15 times as high’ as the all industry rate.