The International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) has established the new International Safety Committee (ISC) to help globalise standards and promote awareness around industry safe practice.
The new committee is born out of the existing IPAF Accident Work Group of the IPAF UK Country Council, which helped compile and analyse incident statistics available for viewing in the IPAF Global Safety Report.
The current members of the Accident Work Group will constitute the core of the new committee, which will meet, mostly virtually, three to four times a year, with Mark Keily, chair of Sunbelt Rentals UK, taking the reins for the first meeting on 22 September 2021.
“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,” said Brian Parker, head of safety and technical at the IPAF.
“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 ISC, which will ultimately report to and be represented on the IPAF Council.”
The 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 and safety.
Peter Douglas, chief executive officer and managing director of IPAF, added: “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.”
