Door Industry Journal - Summer 2017

12 THE door industry journal summer 2017 industry news Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk BID GROUP STRENGTHEN THEIR PRESENCE IN THE NORTH EAST BID Group has announced two key appointments to strengthen and support their presence in the North East. Chris Lane has taken on the role of Sales Development and Keith Fisher is heading up the three engineering teams based in the North East. BID Group is a leading supplier of service and repair solutions and a manufacturer/supplier of industrial doors, rapid roll doors, dock levellers, gates, barriers, and automatic doors. In addition, they service maintain and repair, not only their own doors and associated products, but also those of all other manufacturers. Nigel Livesey said: “With 25 years of refined technical experience, we are extremely competitive offering unbeatable value to our customers. We have built our reputation on our fast, reliable, professional and efficient service, where the customer always comes first. We also operate a 24-HOUR CALL OUT service, which is in operation every day of the year. We welcome Chris and Keith on board with their knowledge and technical expertise, I’m sure they will prove a valuable addition to our UK Team” For further information contact BID Group Ltd on 0870 607 5050 or visit www.bidgroup.co.uk . Chris Lane and Keith Fisher with Nigel Livesey BID Group Sales Manager. UK TRADESPEOPLE AT RISK DUE TO LACK OF HEALTH AND SAFETY KNOWLEDGE A new survey released to mark Health and Safety Week (19-23 June) has revealed that tradespeople are putting themselves at risk of serious accidents and missed earnings due to a lack of health and safety knowledge when on site. The survey from IronmongeryDirect, of nearly 700 tradespeople from across the UK, has revealed that 70% of tradespeople that have had an accident at work have ended up in A&E as a result. One in six tradespeople also admitted that they have never attended a health and safety course, despite 91% thinking they are important and 70% consider they should be mandatory. The results also revealed that younger tradespeople are more health and safety savvy than older generations, with just 13% of 31-40 year olds having had an accident at work compared to almost a quarter (23%) of 51-60-year-old tradespeople. This is hardly surprising considering that nearly a quarter confirmed they last attended a health and safety course more than five years ago. Even more worrying, one third (31%) of the respondents who are sole traders have no specific work insurance and only 15% have accident and sickness insurance, not only putting their health and wellbeing at risk but potentially their financial security should an accident put them out of work for a prolonged period of time. Back injuries (25%) and muscle strains (32%) were two of the most commonly reported problems for tradespeople, with 41% confirming they don’t use any specialist safety equipment at work beyond the essentials i.e. hard hats and steel toe cap boots. Wayne Lysaght-Mason, Managing Director at IronmongeryDirect, commented: “This survey shows that there needs to be a change in attitude to health and safety including more training for tradespeople, to ensure they are as safe on their respective jobs as they can be. We all know that there are risks involved in most trade professions and with more and more young people going into a trade it’s vital that they are given the opportunity to attend health and safety courses and know all of the ways to safeguard themselves and others when on site.” For more information visit www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/research/how-safe-are-tradespeople/