IWS Group Announces Leadership Changes: Welcoming New Divisional Managing Director

In an exciting development, IWS Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Gary Coleman as the new Divisional Managing Director for both Brandsafe and Rack Group, effective June 12, 2024. This strategic move comes as part of an ongoing review of IWS Group’s operating structure.

Gary brings a wealth of experience with him to this new role, having spent over 18 years in the industrial sector, primarily with NENE Warehouse Solutions. During his tenure at NENE, Gary held several key positions, including National Account Manager and Managing Director, demonstrating his expertise and leadership capabilities.

Gary expressed his enthusiasm for the new role, stating, “I am thrilled to join the talented team at IWS Group. Together, we will work towards driving the business forward, enhancing our service offerings, and ensuring we provide exceptional value to our customers. I look forward to contributing to the growth and success of Rack Group and Brandsafe and am excited about the opportunities ahead.”

In conjunction with this appointment, Susy Keating has decided to step down from her role at Brandsafe after a decade of dedicated service. Susy’s contributions have been instrumental in the growth and success of Brandsafe, and her decision to leave was made with careful consideration. Susy will remain with the company until the end of July, ensuring a smooth transition by working closely with Gary and the team.

“Over the past 10 years, Brandsafe has been a significant part of Susy’s professional journey. Her commitment and dedication have been invaluable to both Brandsafe and IWS Group,” said Richard Harden, CEO of IWS Group. “We thank Susy for her remarkable service and wish her all the best in her future endeavours.”

The operational, sales, installation, and finance structures within Brandsafe and Rack Group will remain unchanged, ensuring continuity and stability for our clients and partners.

Please join us in welcoming Gary Coleman to IWS Group. We are confident that his extensive experience and leadership skills will drive continued success for both Brandsafe and Rack Group.

About IWS Group

IWS Group is a family of market-leading product brands, manufacturers and service companies, providing essential services and supplies to the logistics, material handling and other industrial sectors across Europe and beyond.

IWS Group is thrilled to announce the recent appointment of Richard Harden as Chief Executive Officer. This move comes as part of the Group’s ongoing strategy to further drive innovation and growth, ensuring sustained leadership in the sector.

Richard brings his wealth of industry experience to IWS Group with a strong leadership background, having held CEO and MD positions at previous companies, Stuart Turner Ltd and WILO, alongside his role as President of the trade organisation BPMA. He has enjoyed a successful career built around improving top-line growth for private equity-backed firms, leveraging strategic partnerships and formulating innovative sales and marketing strategies to regularly achieve significant growth milestones.

Under Richard’s leadership, a key focus will be on amplifying the established collaborative strengths of IWS Group to provide a seamlessly integrated solution for customers in the industrial workspace. This cohesive approach is ultimately aimed at enhancing our customers’ satisfaction and safety, as well as increasing the overall impact and efficacy of IWS Group’s unique value proposition in the marketplace.

Commenting on his new position, Richard said, “It’s clear IWS Group is a very ambitious company with a strong track record of organic and acquisition-driven success and a clear vision for growth, which is what attracted me to the position. The future of the group excites me, and I am delighted to lead it into its next phase of growth and innovation”.

“We’re extremely excited to have Richard on board as our new CEO,” said Neil Stephenson, Chief Financial Officer for IWS Group, “Richard’s extensive leadership background and his proven track record of accelerating market share aligns perfectly with our strategic vision for IWS Group. His dynamic leadership and innovative approach is just what we need to navigate the evolving market landscape and propel IWS Group to new heights. We look forward to the fresh perspective and the boundless energy he brings to our team, and we’re confident that under his leadership, IWS Group will continue to thrive and achieve great success.”

About IWS Group

IWS Group is a family of market-leading product brands, manufacturers, and service companies providing essential services and supplies to the logistics, material handling, and other industrial sectors across Europe and beyond. The IWS Group portfolio of companies currently consists of Beaverswood®, Brandsafe®, Rack Group, and Anco Storage.

Safety bollards serve a number of purposes; from EV charging point protection to keeping pedestrians safe, they’re a vital asset to many businesses. However, although these bollards are incredibly useful, that’s not to say they don’t need looking after.

Safety bollards require regular inspection to ensure they continue to serve their intended purpose effectively. This is essential to keep them in good condition, extend their lifespan, and ensure they provide adequate protection. Here, we explore some of the most common reasons why maintenance might be required.

Wear and tear

Although seemingly obvious, bollards can be subjected to wear and tear over time. Especially if they are located in high-traffic areas, such as in and around a busy warehouse or factory.

This can result in dents, scratches, or other damage that may weaken their structural integrity and compromise their ability to protect your visitors, staff, and equipment. Inspections and maintenance are, therefore, essential to ensure that all safety bollards perform as they should.

Foundation stability

Bollards are typically anchored to the ground through a foundation or base plate. Over time, the bollard foundation may shift or settle, which can affect the overall stability of the bollard. Regular inspections can identify any issues with the foundation and allow for subsequent repairs to be made promptly.

Rust and corrosion

If bollards are made of metal, they are susceptible to rust and corrosion, especially in outdoor environments or areas with exposure to moisture. Regular inspections and protective coatings can help prevent this.

Paint and visibility

At Brandsafe, we have an even simpler solution than repainting. Our bollard cover kits feature diamond-grade reflective bands and simple push-fit assembly so they easily fit over your existing steel bollards without the need for repainting.

The frequency and extent of maintenance will depend on factors such as the type of bollard, its location, the materials it’s made of, and the environmental conditions. It’s essential to establish a maintenance schedule and conduct regular inspections to identify any issues promptly. Bollards that have been neglected for longer periods of time may not provide the level of safety and protection they were originally installed for.

If you’d like to find out why Brandsafe is a leading provider of high visibility impact protection and safety solutions for the industrial workplace, get in touch with the team today.

Throughout our lives, we’ll likely have encountered hundreds of speed bumps. Whether you’re the driver yourself or a passenger, you can be sure to find speed bumps in most places you’ll travel.

But how exactly do they work? We know they’re there for a reason but what is it about speed bumps that reduce vehicle speed and save lives? We’ll take a look.

What are speed bumps?

Put simply, speed bumps are a traffic calming measure that force drivers to slow down – usually to around 10mph – in an attempt to reduce aggressive and dangerous driving. 

According to Sunderland City Council, results prove that new schemes (involving speed bumps) will reduce accidents by around 60%, and they are particularly effective in reducing accidents to pedestrians and cyclists.

What is the difference between speed bumps and speed humps?

While the terms are often used interchangeably, speed humps are generally shorter in height and wider than speed bumps. Speed bumps are usually what you’ll find in car parks and other areas where pedestrians and vehicles share busy spaces.

How do speed bumps reduce speed and save lives?

Visual cues

Speed bumps serve as a visual cue to drivers, signalling them to slow down and proceed with caution. Their distinctive shape and bright colouring draws attention and prompts motorists to anticipate a change in road conditions.

Physical discomfort

Let’s face it, most of us can think of better things than the uncomfortable jolt that accompanies driving over a speed bump. This often leads to drivers reducing their speed to minimise discomfort for themselves and their passengers.

Increased reaction times

By lowering vehicle speeds, speed bumps provide drivers with more time to react to unexpected events or hazards on the road. This increased reaction time can help prevent collisions and enable drivers to respond appropriately to pedestrians, cyclists, and/or other vehicles.

Enhanced pedestrian safety

Speed bumps are commonly installed in areas where there is a high volume of pedestrian activity, such as near schools or in commercial areas like industrial warehouses and factory / manufacturing sites. By reducing vehicle speeds, they create a safer environment for pedestrians, as it becomes easier for drivers to notice and yield to people crossing the road at any time.

At Brandsafe, we’re the leading provider of high-visibility impact protection and safety solutions for the industrial workplace. If you’d like to find out more about our speed bumps and how they can help, please feel free to get in touch with our team today.

By now you’ve undoubtedly heard of them, you’ve likely seen a good few out on the road, or perhaps you even own or lease one yourself. The rise of electric vehicles is a significant development that has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years.

As a result, this is affecting a variety of businesses, meaning that companies are being forced to adapt to the logistical and infrastructural changes the EV market is bringing about. We take a look at what those changes are, and what this means in practice for different sectors.

Automotive Industry

The automotive industry is, of course, one of the most impacted industries of the EV movement, as electric vehicles represent a significant shift in the technology and engineering of cars.

As electric vehicles continue to grow in popularity, companies that specialise in the production of traditional vehicles may struggle to adapt. They’ll need to place particular focus on innovation and modernisation if they hope to compete with the rest of the EV market.

Energy Industry

It goes without saying that the energy industry will experience unprecedented demand for electricity as electric vehicles become increasingly commonplace.

The pressure to increase efficiency and capacity is likely to put pressure on many energy companies in order for them to effectively cope with the rising demand.

Charging Infrastructure

As more and more people invest in electric vehicles, the demand for charging infrastructure will rapidly increase.

Think offices, supermarkets, and shopping centre car parks. The majority of these will currently only have a few dedicated EV charging points; however, companies are going to be forced to adapt to the ever-growing demand if they want to retain both staff and customers.

Of course, the addition of extra EV charging infrastructure isn’t cheap, but it’s an essential cost that businesses will need to consider if they want to keep up with the demands of the modern consumer and workforce.

In order to save money in the longer term, however, companies can invest in solutions such as EV charging point protection which offers cost-effective impact damage prevention for such valuable assets.

Sustainability

Businesses are currently under increasing pressure to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability, and the rise of electric vehicles merely serves to further this cause.

By installing EV charging infrastructure, companies can not only show they care about their employees, customers, and the environment but also that they are focused on adapting to, and supporting, eco-friendly change.

At Brandsafe, we are a team of technical experts who are proud to be pioneers in superior performance, high visibility, and sustainable impact protection for the industrial workspace. To find out more about how we can help your business, contact us today to speak with our team.

Introducing IWS Group’s PAS 13-Certified Impact Safety Barriers

IWS Group has impact-tested its Brandsafe® range of polymer safety barriers, adhering to the rigorous PAS 13 code of practice. This process, third-party accredited by TÜV Nord – an internationally recognised quality seal – measures the barriers’ impact resilience. It empowers customers to choose the most suitable systems for their needs. By complying with PAS 13, IWS Group positions itself among the elite companies upholding the industry’s highest safety benchmark.

In April 2023, the Rack Group, an IWS subsidiary based in Barnsley, conducted the barrier range tests. There, the design and manufacturing of the barriers occur. The team used a custom-built pendulum to strike the barriers at various points, assessing their resilience. They meticulously recorded the force each barrier withstood and the extent of its deflection using high-specification measuring equipment on-site.

Our Leaders’ Perspectives on Enhancing Impact Protection Standards

Commenting on what the testing means for customers, Susy Keating, MD at Brandsafe said, “This testing is an important step for customers looking to purchase impact protection barriers for their workplace. Knowing what impact forces a barrier can take, as well as ensuring that data is independently certified by a reputable third party, is a vital factor in choosing the right barrier.

For too long impact protection has been over-engineered, over-priced and overly complicated. It’s time to reset the bar on what impact protection ultimately comes down to, which is keeping people and products safe.”

Stuart Ovington, MD of Rack Group said, “TÜV Nord independently verifying that our testing abided by the PAS 13 guidelines serves as a testimonial to our teams here at IWS Group, as well as the quality of our polymer barrier range. Not every barrier manufacturer undertakes product testing to this level, so we are proud to be amongst the industry leaders.

Our barriers are shown to be high performing, long-lasting and can withstand greater impacts than similar, industry-leading products. In addition, we can create bespoke designs quickly to suit individual needs and, with short lead times, provide a cost-effective solution at the highest standard.”

Matt Mason, Group Design Manager at IWS Group added, “We undertook this activity to prove the capability of our barrier range and, with TÜV Nord witnessing, it confirms that our internal testing procedure adheres to the industry code of practice.

Testing is conducted on a purpose-built impact pendulum rig designed and commissioned entirely by IWS Group, which simulates real world impact energies of material handling vehicles travelling at different speeds and provides physical proof to the capability of our products. The pendulum strikes barriers at various pre-determined locations to measure the level of energy the barriers can withstand, how much deflection they display under impact and how much force is transferred to the ground fixings and concrete.

Testing also defines the distance behind barriers that is considered the ‘safe zone’ for the barrier to deflect in to, which is identified during installation of the barrier by visual floor markings. All testing was conducted with UKAS calibrated measuring equipment such as high-speed cameras, torque wrenches, load cells and industrial weigh scales to ensure confidence in every result witnessed.”

Elevating Safety Standards with Brandsafe® Barriers

As we conclude, it’s evident that IWS Group’s commitment to safety and innovation is redefining industry standards. The extensive testing of the Brandsafe® polymer safety barriers, endorsed by TÜV Nord’s certification, not only provides our customers with assurance of our product’s quality but also highlights our dedication to advancing safety technology.

Our goal is to offer solutions that are effective, simple, and accessible. With capabilities for bespoke designs and quick production, we cater to a variety of needs, ensuring each barrier we produce is not only a product but a commitment to safety and dependability.

The path to enhancing workplace safety is continuous, and at IWS Group, we are at the forefront. Through innovative testing methods and adherence to strict industry standards, we are not just meeting safety requirements but actively shaping them for a safer future.

Please feel free to request detailed technical data about the impact safety testing we have carried out on the Brandsafe® range and our approach to safety. Contact us at sales@brandsafeprotection.com for additional information.

Safety, simplified.

As a business owner, your number one priority should be the health and safety of your employees. An unsafe workplace can potentially be disastrous, and it’s always better to prevent these issues rather than fix problems after they happen.

While there are a number of obvious signs your workplace is unsafe, there may be some that are either difficult to spot, or you’re so used to seeing them that you forget about them! We’ll discuss the key signs to look out for in your workplace.

Your Employees Aren’t Clued Up

One of the first things your employees should be made aware of is how to safely operate any machinery, know what the procedure is in the event of any incidents, and where all of the fire exits and first aid / medical stations are.

If your staff look confused or straight up tell you they don’t know (or worse, haven’t even been told) any health and safety procedures, this is a huge problem that needs rectifying with the appropriate training ASAP.

Your Existing Safety Measures Are Deteriorating

It’s all well and good installing measures such as safety barriers and guardrails, but if these were installed many years ago and have not been correctly maintained or inspected, it’s crucial that this issue is addressed immediately. The same goes for things like exposed wiring, rusting metals, and other elements of your workplace that could put employees’ health and safety at risk.

Lack of Correct PPE

If your staff are walking around without the necessary personal protection equipment for your workplace, this is naturally going to be a huge safety risk. Safety goggles, hard hats, and high-visibility protective clothing are all essential health and safety elements in many businesses, particularly in the manufacturing industry.

Regularity of Injuries

If it seems like every other day an employee is either injuring themselves in the workplace or becoming ill, then this may not be a coincidence. Old or run down equipment as well as unsanitary working conditions are key factors in employee sickness and injury. It’s a crucial legal requirement to ensure that all workers have access to a safe, sanitary environment.

Lack of Communication

Communication is a key part of any business, and when it comes to the safety of your workplace, this is no different. Whether verbal or written in the form of safety signage, if there is a lack of communication in your company, this is a clear sign that your workplace could be unsafe. After all, your employees should be regularly reminded of the health and safety protocol to ensure that everyone stays safe.

At Brandsafe, we’re a leading provider of high visibility impact protection and safety solutions for the industrial workplace. If you’d like to find out more about how we can help keep your workplace safe, contact us today.

IWS Group Announces Acquisition of Anco Storage Equipment Ltd

We’re very excited to announce our parent company, IWS Group, has acquired Anco Storage Equipment Ltd, the largest trade-only supplier of storage solutions in the UK.

Established in 1991 in West Sussex, Anco has gained an enviable reputation for quality and service at a competitive price. Exclusively through its trade-only distribution channel, Anco offers an extensive range of over 7,000 variations of products, covering all kinds of applications from industrial racking, multi-tier projects and mezzanine flooring, to office archive storage and modular shelving. Anco stores over £3M worth of stock in their warehouse to facilitate quick turn-around times on orders.

What does this mean for Brandsafe and its Customers?

Anco and its wealth of storage solutions is the perfect complement to IWS Group’s growing portfolio of innovative industrial workspace brands. This acquisition will no doubt further strengthen our product offering, resource, infrastructure, and capability, to provide our customers and partners with a complete warehouse lifecycle solution. In particular, for Brandsafe customers, it not only enhances our range offering, but provides a whole new category of products and services available to you.

Strengthening the IWS Group Portfolio

IWS Group is a rapidly growing family of market-leading product brands and service companies which provide essential supplies and services to the warehouse and logistics, material handling, and industrial sectors.

The group portfolio currently includes Beaverswood, Brandsafe, Rack Group, and now Anco.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Anco to the IWS family,” said Jeroen van den Berge, CEO of IWS Group, “Anco’s wealth of storage solutions, its team of specialists and its long history of building strong partnerships with its distributor network are the perfect complement to our growing portfolio of innovative industrial workspace brands. Our vision is to be the partner of choice for essential products & services throughout the lifecycle of an industrial building, and this acquisition is a natural progression towards this end.”

Visit: www.iws.group

About Beaverswood

Beaverswood manufactures innovative products that improve the efficiency, safety, and sustainability of the physical workspace. The Beaverswood range of warehouse safety and management products includes labelling and signage, recycling solutions, identification products and visual communication solutions.

Visit: www.beaverswood.co.uk

About Rack Group

Rack Group is the UK’s leading provider of warehouse racking solutions that focus on prolonging the life and safety of racking. These solutions, which include racking inspection; repair; maintenance and training, are provided to many of the biggest household names across the UK. Its range of racking protection includes the market leading brand Rack Armour.

Visit: www.therackgroup.com

If you have any questions about IWS Group’s range of products and services, please feel free to contact us.

Creating or updating your impact protection strategy

What to use when Armco Barriers can’t be installed

Traffic management in workplaces is not simply about compliance with H&S rules. Some vehicle safety measures also help you to save on car repair bills with simple and cheap solutions.

It’s easy to think that only organisations dealing with HGVs and LGVs need to regularly review their private roads, car parks and vehicle exits/entrances. However, all workplaces need to source and install products that save on car repair bills with simple and cheap solutions.

That’s because you are likely to have a staff or visitor cars – or sales vehicles, for instance – moving around your premises. Plus, no one wants the embarrassment of an important customer reporting dented bodywork!

Being really thorough in the way you protect vehicles from damage serves another purpose too. It avoids business interruption if a car your organisation depends on is out of action to fix avoidable damage.

HSE rules on preventing vehicle damage

Before looking at the products you can buy to protect cars transiting your site, let’s explore the legal responsibilities you have to avoid accidents and incidents, using sensible traffic management systems.

Clearly, both off and on-road vehicles can do a lot of damage if they hit a pedestrian, even at low speeds. Also, collisions with other vehicles or workplace structures put drivers at risk. The simple act of manoeuvring into a parking space can be problematic in many environments.

For this reason, the Health & Safety Executive issued strict guidelines for workplace transport, including rules on parking safely on private and public sector sites.

Compliance hinges on a thorough risk assessment. This should especially focus on areas where vehicles and pedestrians are both on the move and key spaces where cars tend to carry out manoeuvres such as reversing.

Of course, there are also clear rules on limiting speed on commercial premises and the things you need to do to maintain your car park properly.

Simple, cheap measures to save on car repair bills

Prevention is always better than the cure, and that certainly applies if you want to stay compliant with workplace traffic management regulations and find ways to save on car repair bills with simple and cheap solutions.

Road and parking maintenance

The foundations of avoiding vehicle damage around your workplace are literally the foundations of your outside area! For instance, is the ground level, with good drainage? Relocating parking to firmer ground with less risk of wheels slipping could be a practical way to limit accidents and incidents.

Well mapped traffic flow and parking

This leads to the wisdom of reviewing how vehicles transit your site, and the spaces set aside for visitor and staff parking for example. Has it been strategically managed, or has it evolved over time?

You may want to refresh how vehicles move on-site and where they park if your business has become busier too.

Signage and lighting

These are both important measures in maintaining site safety and avoiding damage to vehicles.

There are many inexpensive traffic management signs you can buy to give drivers clear directions and safety information. As well as vital signs to segregate vehicles and pedestrians.

This also requires you to install good site lighting for darker or shorter days. Drivers need to be able to see signs, people, structures and road edges with ease. Do you also need hi-vis barriers along roadways and around car parks?

Staff and visitor guidance

Make your rules on safe parking and transit clear, and strictly enforced. This means training staff on your traffic management protocols and issuing pre-arrival instructions for site visitors.

Buy car wheel stops

This truly is a cheap but effective way to avoid vehicle damage! You simply need to buy and install car wheel stops to keep vehicles parked safely.

Clearly, these need to be clear to see! Our quality car wheel stops are designed to be robust, and quick to install, but also unmissable for both drivers and pedestrians.

Commercial site speed bumps

They are not always popular, but well-made speed bumps are a highly effective way to maintain site safety.

Find a supplier of quality domestic speed bumps suitable for cars, rather than heavy-duty traffic calming measures for lorries. You don’t want your speed bump to present a risk, rather than a way to avoid car damage.

We sell speed bump kits for cars (made from recycled truck tyres) that are versatile, low-cost, high quality and easy to install.

Help with traffic management measures

If you have a complex site or heavy traffic use to manage, it can be hard to know which safety products are best, and where to install them. This is also true if the layout of your roads, car parks, yards and loading bays is out of date or constantly changing.

Brandsafe would be pleased to provide a free survey to map out measures that improve your site safety and which save on business car repair bills.

This short installation guide will introduce you to the tools and steps required to install Armco barriers. We will also briefly run through the context and environment in which installing Armco barriers may be necessary or useful.

Where do You Need to Install Armco Barriers?

Armco barriers are perfect for any roads, car parks or warehouses that have slow traffic, as the armco barriers will be able to contain any damage to prevent any damage to buildings, machinery or pedestrians.

During installation, it is important to consider what could be damaged by a collision, and assess the likelihood of that collision taking place. It may also be useful to consider how fast the vehicle will be moving, the weight of the vehicle, and the angle of impact.

Not only are armco barriers built to protect features such as buildings in the event of a collision, they can also act as a visual warning to the driver. Often, armco accessories come with a bright yellow finish to make the barriers easy to spot. Armco barriers, when used alongside proper signage and markings, can warn drivers that there is a feature or obstruction ahead, and help them to avoid it.

Different risks and situations call for different armco safety barriers and accessories. Armco barriers that are curved or wall mounted may be used to fit around specific features or obstacles. They also come in a variety of sizes and heights, depending on the context and the size of the vehicles used in that area.

Here are the most common sizes:

560mm – to be installed internally in warehouses to protect smaller vehicles and keep people away from dangerous areas.
610mm – This is the industry standard, usually used in car parks and similar scenarios.
760mm & 1100mm – For larger vehicles such as lorries.

To figure out what parts you need, you can use a free online armco barrier calculator or give us a ring on +44 (0)1525 850222 for a quote.

Tools and Skills You May Need

When considering how to implement safety procedures such as armco barriers, it’s always best practice to get professional installation. This will ensure that the barriers are completely secure, and will properly prevent accidents. However, armco barriers are relatively simple to install, so if professional installation is not available, you should have no problem doing it yourself.

Tools

Drill / Screwdriver
Pegs
String Line
PPE
Spirit Level
Clamps
Spade / Digging Equipment
Cement
Cutter / Petrol Saw
The correct barrier length and parts (as mentioned above)
A minimum of two people

How to Install Armco Barriers

Step one: Joining

The main beam sections of the barrier can be bolted together using the pre-existing holes, where the barriers overlap. The barriers usually require M16 x 35mm fixings. Barriers usually come at a standard length, but if a shorter length is required ask an installer to cut down the barriers, ensuring new holes are drilled to line up with the other components.

Step Two: Posts

If you are installing onto an already level and secure concrete surface, you can use base plated posts. Alternatively, the posts will need to be concreted into the ground to make them secure. We recommend carrying out a survey or the ground conditions to ensure your barrier is being safely installed.

You will need three posts per barrier, with the post at the end of one barrier also serving as the first post of the next barrier. Corner sections will need two posts each. Again, there should already be pre-drilled holes, and this time you will need M16 x 50mm fixings to connect the posts to the main beam.

Step Three: Corners & Terminal Ends

Fix the corner and end pieces onto the armco beams. Armco safety barriers and accessories can be brought separately, allowing for you to personalise your safety barriers to suit the situation.

Brightly coloured armco accessories, such as an Armco Pedestrian Safety End, will reduce the risk of a safety hazard due to its visibility. Most armco barrier accessories can be retrofitted to steel Armco terminals, and can add extra buffers for absorbing impacts, such as Brandsafe’s innovative ImpactSAFE Buffers.

Armco barriers are an effective way of preventing damage to equipment or buildings, and protecting workers and the public. If you are still unsure about how to go about implementing your Armco barriers, or whether or not they are needed in your workplace, get free advice from our experts on +44 (0)1525 850222, sales@brandsafeprotection.com, or by contacting us through our website: https://www.brandsafeprotection.com/contact-us/

This blog post will cover the best practice for the installation of speed bumps, and general safety and regulations.

Speed bumps are often overlooked but they are essential to ensuring people’s safety. When installed correctly and in the appropriate environment, they have been proven to reduce the speed of vehicles. This is especially useful in areas where there are pedestrians or equipment that is at risk of being damaged.

Why do we need speed bumps?

According to HSE, The fatal injury rate in transportation and storage is around twice the All Industry rate.

There were 10 fatal injuries in 2020/21 in transportation and storage, in comparison with the annual average number of 13 fatalities for 2016/17-2020/21. 37% of deaths over the same five year period were classified as struck by a moving vehicle.

Speed bumps allow you to prevent these accidents by slowing down traffic and enforcing speed limits.

The Best Practice

Do you need speed bumps?

Investing in speed bumps and other safety equipment can help to develop more trust with employees, prevent the cost of employee accidents, and prevent damage to machinery.

You may want to consider installing speed bumps if you need to control the speed of vehicles or enforce speed limits in a private car park, especially around pedestrian walk ways.

Bear in mind that certain machinery or warehouse equipment cannot pass over bumps, such as large forklifts. They can also only be installed on roads where the speed limit is lower than 30mph, and at least 30 metres away from a zebra-controlled area.

How often do they need to be spaced out?

Speed bumps should be spaced out between 20 metres and 150 metres apart, with the average being around 70 metres. The longer the distance between them, the more likely vehicles are to speed up between bumps.

Required height and width

The average height is from 25 mm to 100 mm. The length should be 900mm at a minimum, and should not cover the entire road to allow other vehicles such as large emergency vehicles or bicycles to pass over the flat surface of the road.

The difference between commercial and domestic speed bumps, and which one you need

Commercial speed bumps are best for use in industrial workplaces. They are generally higher than domestic and reduce vehicles to a typical 10 mph operating speed.

Alternatively, domestic speed bumps are smaller in height and are best for use in car parks or areas where pedestrians are near. A typical 50mm speed bump reduces vehicles to an operating speed of 5 mph.

signs and lighting

Speed bumps should be clearly visible to avoid accidents or damage to vehicles. Most come with ​​high quality yellow and black finish with diamond grade reflectors for night-time visibility, such as Brandsafe’s.

It is also advisable to make sure bumps are under clear lighting and have proper signage on the approach.

Installation Guide

You should be able to install a speed bump in less than an hour. Simply mark the area that you want the speed bump to be with chalk. Your speed bump should be placed at a right angle to an imaginary line that runs down the centre of the road.

Measure where the bolt would be inserted into the pavement, and drill holes for each bolt, ensuring to clean up the area afterwards. Next, place the speed bump in the marked area and fasten with the bolts, ensuring that you tighten the bolts securely to make sure the speed bump does not move when travelled over.

The installation of speed bumps are certainly worth considering as an effective way to enforce the speed limit. We hope this guide on the UK regulations helped you to understand more about the government recommendations. For more information, visit the HSE website or call Brandsafe by email at sales@brandsafeprotection.com or by phone on +44 (0)1525 850222.

The importance of Pedestrian Handrail Systems in the workplace can often be overlooked. However, besides being an essential part of customer safety, they are also a legal requirement. We will run through when and where handrails are required.

Slips, trips and falls are most likely to occur where there are potential trip hazards, slippery surfaces, or inefficient lighting. Safety Barriers & Guardrails are crucial to any working environment, but especially in high-risk environments, as other hazards may increase the chances of serious injury.

For example, whenever workers are expected to complete any activity at a height, handrails are required by law as part of the Working at Height Regulations (WAHR – 2005) and need to meet particular specifications in order to be permissible.

In a warehouse or factory environment, additional dangers such as sharp edges on moveable machinery, or risk of impact from forklifts or trucks, escalates the need for handrails. In this instance, pedestrians need to be separated from traffic to ensure that no one is hurt.

When you’re evaluating the best places to install handrails in your workplace, it’s important to take into consideration the legal requirements.

What are the legal requirements for handrails?

Below, we have listed where UK Legislation requires employers to install handrails around:

According to the law, any platform, walkway or landing higher than 0.5m must have a guardrail to prevent falls of both people and equipment. Guardrails must have a top rail, (at a minimum height of 42 inches above the floor,) an intermediate rail, (assembled so that you cannot pass a 21-inch-diameter sphere through any gaps,) and posts.

Additionally, the whole guardrail must be able to resist the force of a concentrated live load of 200 pounds or a distributed live load of 20 pounds per foot. Brandsafe’s Guardrail Systems (MHE / PIT) are a good example of these specifications in action.

Handrails on staircases

Within the UK legal regulations, the number of handrails required depends on the width of the staircase. For staircases over 1000mm wide, you need a handrail on both sides of the stairs, and for staircases, over 2m a divide is required.

If handrails are mounted to the wall, separate regulations apply. Wall-mounted handrails are required to be 50 to 75mm off the wall, need to have a diameter of between 32mm and 50mm and be non-slip.

Best practices for safety

Regardless of legal requirements, there are also areas in the workplace where handrails are necessary to reduce the risk of accidents in the workplace. We would advise that you assess the following areas in the working environment to determine whether a simple handrail could prevent an injury:

• Pedestrian walkways that come into contact with moving vehicles. Pedestrian Safety Barriers (SEG+) prevent pedestrians from crossing the path of moving vehicles. This reduces the risk of impact or injury from heavy moving machinery, forklifts and trucks.
• Around dangerous machinery. This can prevent cuts or grazes caused by sharp edges and moving parts.
• To zone off restricted areas on the factory or warehouse floor. This keeps visitors or untrained workers from entering restricted areas and endangering themselves. This can be especially useful in areas where harmful chemicals are being used or stored
• In car parks and in front of main entrances. Barriers or bollards, like the ImpactSAFE Protection Post, prevent vehicles from rolling and endangering the general public, as well as your valued workers. Brandsafe’s Sign Post WRAP Protectors can also be used to prevent any damage to your vehicle in the event of an impact.

Health and Safety in the workplace is an important part of morale and trust between workers and their employers. By installing barriers that meet industry standards you can protect your workers from easily preventable falls or injuries. We recommend checking that your handrail systems are up to industry standards as soon as possible to ensure the best possible working conditions, and to meet all legal requirements.

Looking for a safety product checklist for your business? This article will highlight the most important industrial safety products (also known as control equipment) that you need in a warehouse environment. 

Industrial safety products help to ensure the wellbeing of your employees by providing protection from potential work hazards and preventing accidents. Whether that’s traffic safety & management, or protecting staff and visitors from hazardous chemicals.

The most common industrial hazards are caused by; manual handling, chemicals, machinery, working at heights and driving movable machinery. Use the checklist below to ensure you are taking every precaution necessary to keep your workplace a safe environment.

The top industrial safety products

Control equipment, (or industrial safety products,) are an essential part of employee safety and wellbeing in a warehouse environment. When implemented properly, it should be used in conjunction with controlling procedures, (such as supervision and maintenance,) and correct worker behaviours (ensuring workers follow the procedures).

Proper control equipment takes on many forms and is dependent on what types of health hazards exist in your working environment. It can include improving pedestrian safety or providing racking protection.

Here are our recommendations of the most important industrial safety products, depending on the scenario:

Manual handling

Manual handling accidents often happen when a worker is attempting to manoeuvre a heavier or larger object than they can realistically manage. Providing equipment to assist manual handling can prevent workers from attempting to move an object in an unsafe way.

Manual handling aids like sack trucks, trollies and dollies are good examples of equipment that may prevent employee strain. It’s important to train any manual handling workers on good handling techniques for lifting and carrying, such as good posture and maintaining a good hold on the load. 

It is also important to protect the equipment being used within manual handling roles. Warehouse racking protection is an effective solution to limiting bumps and scuffs from trucks and trolleys. For example, Rack Armour is proven to reduce racking damage by up to 80%.

We recommend using a highly visible and impact-resistant product to ensure the safest environment possible. 

Chemicals

The most common way for chemicals to cause accidents in a workplace is through inhalation of contaminated air.

However, some chemicals can also permeate the skin and can enter the body through the eyes. PPE is essential to protect against contact with hazardous chemicals. This can include anything from eye protection to gloves.

Safe storage of chemicals is also essential; you have up to date storage equipment with good ventilation, placed strategically in the workplace. Bollards & delineators, (such as these Pedestrian Safety Barriers) strategically placed around hazardous chemical storage stations are recommended, to keep the public, or untrained workers, away from danger. 

Machinery

PPE is also frequently used when operating machinery. For example, we suggest wearing earmuffs or earplugs when operating loud machinery and wearing the correct clothing to prevent clothes from becoming caught in the machines.

Wearing the appropriate clothing can also reduce the risk of serious harm in the event of impact from forklifts or lorries, and installing Guardrail Systems can prevent any danger of impact to pedestrians.

To ensure the protection of warehouse equipment, specialist safety guards can be put in place. For example, electric vehicles are becoming increasingly popular, and are a significant investment; but EV charging point protection can be a cost-effective way of protecting valuable hanging stations.

Working at heights

Guardrail Systems are also useful for working at heights, to prevent workers from slipping or falling. We recommend training employees for working at heights on the possible risks and the correct precautions to take to prevent accidents.

Wearing the correct PPE, such as non-slip footwear, is also essential. 

Driving movable machinery

When driving moveable machinery it is important to protect surrounding pedestrians, as well as other equipment that the machinery may come into contact with.

Sharp edges on the machinery can cause cuts or abrasions, and there is a risk of being struck or injured by moving parts. Pedestrian Safety Barriers can be useful here too, in addition to the use of Column & Post Protection to prevent damage to your machinery. 

These preventative measures are both effective and essential when working in a potentially hazardous environment.

Providing a safe environment for your workers is not only a legal duty but can also contribute to the success of your business; especially when considering the impact of a bad reputation or bad public relations. 

Terminology, ratings and product categories can make choosing the right pedestrian barriers for your workplace challenging. This guide directs you along the right path.

The best safety barriers & guardrails are ones manufactured to meet the highest traffic safety standards. That is the only way to avoid workplace injuries to staff or visitors, and stay compliant with H&S legislation. However, choosing the right pedestrian barriers can be tricky as there are different types.

For example, do you need a heavy-duty option with a reliable degree of impact absorbance? Which are the best high-vis foot traffic guides, especially on the edges of off-road vehicle routes?

As there are now pedestrian barriers designed and manufactured to fit various locations and levels of activity in workplaces, you need to find the most appropriate one to manage each risk.

For example, some barriers are specifically designed for areas where HGVs and HLGVs operate, and others slot perfectly into warehouse interiors to segregate your workforce and forklift trucks.

Do you know which products provide a handrail as pedestrians transition between ground level and mezzanine floors, or up steps? Also, there are specific pedestrian barriers to stop people from getting too close to sensitive or dangerous equipment in your workplace, or to ensure they don’t bump into racking systems.

To add to your understanding of this important traffic management issue, we have gathered information on the best pedestrian barriers.

Pedestrian Handrail Systems

Safety barriers & guardrails don’t just direct foot traffic along a set route by providing pedestrians with a visual indicator of danger. They also offer pedestrians a firm barrier to hold on to in areas that present a trip, slip or fall risk.

The best pedestrian handrails are suitable to use internally or externally and come in an easy to assemble modular form. That way, they can be used for diverse locations and risks.

For instance, to manage safety in:

• Car park walkways
• Exits and entrances
• Uneven pathways and internal floors
• Multi-level flooring
• Manufacturing and engineering spaces (guiding pedestrians away from machinery)
• Work areas close to electrical equipment or other incursion hazards.

Pedestrian Safety Barriers (SEG+)

Pedestrian safety barriers (SEG+) have been designed and manufactured to give an advanced level of protection in areas where industrial vehicles operate. They come in yellow/black to identify hazardous situations, and accessories include Pedestrian Sprung Return Gates and Demountable Shoe Plates. This makes it easy to create a practical flow of pedestrians around your site, without letting them stray into the path of moving machinery, for example.

How else could you use this type of pedestrian barrier?

• Preventing encroachment on LV and IT Cabinets.
• Managing the risks from walking on and off mezzanine floors.

Guardrail Systems (MHE/PIT)

Safety barriers for your warehouse need to be fit for purpose, durable and reliable.

Places where off-road vehicle traffic is most intensive and risky for pedestrians demand specially designed barriers. Particularly guard rails able to withstand impact from Material Handling Equipment (MHE) and Powered Industrial Trucks (PIT).

A heavy-duty steel guard rail system can avoid serious workplace accidents, and of course fatalities. Though it is recommended that you find versions with foam gaskets as standard (underneath the base rail) to prevent dirt and debris gathering, Also, closed-cell construction resists corrosion from guardrail cleaning processes.

Apart from segregating people and off-road vehicles and machinery, what other purpose do they serve?

• By opting for destacker extensions for your steel guard rails, you can increase the height to around 3000mm, for shielding high-level racking or pallet stacks.
• The same height increase can make these products ideal to guard heavy-duty machinery.

Armco Barrier Systems

Armco safety barriers are the gold standard for traffic management on public as well as private roads. Their distinctive and ingenious design creates an impressive degree of impact absorbency.

When using them to help keep drivers and pedestrians safe on your worksite, Armco Pedestrian Safety Ends come highly recommended.

These safety ends provide an essential layer of protection if pedestrians inadvertently come into contact with your Armco barriers. The yellow or black safety ends prevent damage to limbs, torsos or clothing.

More insights on choosing the right pedestrian barriers

With all the different options available, it can be difficult knowing which pedestrian barrier is suitable for your site. This guide has outlined several popular pedestrian barriers, their features, and applications.

With this in mind, we hope this blog has helped you understand how to choose the right pedestrian barriers to properly protect pedestrians on and around your premises.

Finding ways to protect your staff, visitors and workplace safety record is now a fundamental daily business practice. We’ve put together some steps to take to help you foster a safe workplace culture – from simple yet effective workplace safety products, to a full workplace safety checklist.

Statistics on workplace accidents in the UK highlight that more needs to be done to protect people in their place of employment. Particularly in high-risk work environments, where site visitors are also vulnerable to injury.

The figures on workplace safety failures are still shocking when you consider the low-cost safety products and simple measures that could reduce their numbers significantly. According to the HSE, 142 workers were killed ‘on the job’ and 441,000 sustained injuries at work in 2020/21.

Serious issues of this nature are also bound to create residual effects like business interruption, productivity reduction, costs and loss of reputation too. Further emphasising that there is no room for complacency.

So, let’s revisit the fundamental steps needed to build workplace safety and create a safe working environment.

1. Regular meetings on workplace safety

Weekly safety meetings on protection and compliance issues could involve working through your workplace safety checklist.

It’s important to discuss roles and responsibilities for checking and maintaining such things as:

• Placement and integrity of pedestrian safety products. Have new trip, slip or fall hazards arisen, or could incursion on new or infrequently used machinery create a risk?
• Workloads and priorities for the week that could impact the site’s use of traffic safety products. Do you need to update or move safety barriers for example?
• Plus, safety meetings are a good opportunity to ensure your employees are informed and up to date when it comes to industrial safety products to prioritise in 2022 and beyond.

2. Continuously refreshed training

Training your staff properly when it comes to workplace safety, should absolutely be a priority. However, your efforts to create site-wide safety processes and procedures can be undone by an employee who unwittingly breaches them.

To mandate against momentary lapses in memory and concentration, constant safety awareness refreshers are needed. Alongside signage and information to constantly remind your team about potential risks and the best ways to avoid them.

3. Partnering with occupational clinicians

To be confident that you have managed every risk at your workplace decisively – and your staff are fully aware of the role they play – bringing in outside expertise is a wise approach.

Especially for places like busy warehouses, factories, and engineering and chemical plants, where operations are intense, complex and ever-shifting.

4. Constant checks on safety tools and regular equipment inspections

It is highly recommended that you create – and regularly update – a comprehensive list of all the tools and equipment you use to manage workplace safety. Including timescales for any replacements or inspections.

In a busy workplace, you can never assume everything is where it should be. It is advisable for safety officers to do spot checks frequently, to make sure equipment is instantly available to create a speedy and decisive response to safety issues.

5. Employee welfare measures – and breaks

This is one element of workplace safety that can get overlooked in periods of intense pressure or change. It comes down to creating a nurturing workplace culture in which employee health is a priority. You get staff who are more alert, energised and aware of their own obligations.

It could be as simple as encouraging 5 minute breaks for warehouse operatives or office staff, to ease muscle tension and loosen joints. This, in turn, reduces the potential for repetitive strain injuries.

6. Encourage employee discussion

This too is a cultural aspect of workplace safety 101. If you operate on the basis of ‘no blame, no shame’ and encourage staff to speak up about issues promptly, you have a better chance of tackling potential safety problems quickly.

Are your staff encouraged to flag up safety concerns and suggestions?

The big picture on workplace safety

This workplace safety 101 guide shows that companies need to balance overarching risk management, with drilling down on ways to mitigate against even the smallest site hazards. Including the issues that crop up when your organisation’s priorities, layout or processes change slightly.

Brandsafe has worked in partnership with architects and specifiers to create and maintain efficient and safe workspaces worldwide. Including via our RIBA-approved CPD seminars that keep industrial areas, warehouses, logistics and distribution centres updated.

Sourcing the best lamp post protection options can help you to ‘shed light’ on ways to reduce injuries and vehicle damage when a momentary lapse results in a collision.

It’s ironic that though the vertical structures – such as column & post protectors – around a warehouse site often serve fundamental and vital safety functions, at the same time they can be a source of serious workplace risks too.

The best example is workplace lamp posts to light the way for off-road and HGV/LGV vehicles travelling around your site. As well as to help pedestrians see clearly when visibility is poor.

Unfortunately, the presence of these important safety measures can cause substantial problems if a driver misjudges distance or has a momentary lapse in concentration. This can result in driver injury but also costly damage to vehicles if they make substantial contact with posts on commercial premises.

This makes it important to do regular risk assessments of your site structures, including exploring the best lamp post protection options – items that can help you to stay compliant to H&S rules and on-site traffic safety management too.

Why replace lighting posts, when you can protect them?

By sourcing the best lamp post protection options, you not only minimise the likelihood of human injury and vehicle damage, but you could also save yourself time, money and hassle.

If vehicles do bump into or scrape lamp posts, the cost of repairing or replacing a faulty structure can be considerable. When in fact, there are cheap lamp post protection products that you can fit in minutes. Then quickly replace after scuffs and bangs, at very little cost.

A compelling example is Brandsafe’s Lamp Post WRAP Protector products. These work on an ingenious clam-shell principle – they are engineered from Polyethylene with a highly absorbent but durable high-density foam core.

The versatile lamp post protectors from Brandsafe are adaptable to different lighting posts sizes. You also have the option of stacking lamp post projectors to manage the impact from HGVs and other more substantial collision risks.

As you would expect from a leading warehouse safety product, they are engineered in highly visible colours and incorporate diamond grade, reflective bands. This can be valuable when your lighting system is not on, but weather conditions reduce visibility and make your upright structures less obvious.

You can choose your own colour for lamp post guards from Brandsafe, to support either corporate branding or your bespoke ways of indicating different work zones or hazards.

Other systems to shield upright structures

When finding a supplier of workplace lamp post protectors, you should also consider options to shield other vertical structures with impact absorption materials. It could be time to assess all your other posts and columns, to make sure your safety measures are adequate and up to date.

This doesn’t only require you to focus on the obvious workplace risk areas, such as loading bay columns and posts though. For example, are there signposts and bay markers in your staff or visitor car park that are leaving you exposed to an accident or failed HSE inspection?

Purchasing cost-effective Sign Post WRAP Protectors gives you the same benefits as the lamp post protector products mentioned above. Including coming in a kit form, to make them quick and easy to fit around a variety of post types.

The same shock absorbent but hardwearing materials are used to manufacture column and post protection products.

Among the structural safety products warehouses need, are PolyWRAP to shield warehouse columns and highly effective PolyWRAP Forklift Impact Skirts. These crucial warehouse items are highly adaptable to different structural shapes and sizes.

The universal benefit of all of these post and column guards is their impact absorption, but also the fact their presence makes structures more visible. Making them doubly important to protect your safety record, as well as your vertical surfaces!

Risk assessing the routes HGVs take across your site involves evaluating different weather conditions and times of the day, then responding decisively to avoid or manage HGV blind spots.

A third of road traffic accidents in the UK involve someone who is working, according to the Work-Related Road Safety Task Group. Suggesting a horrific total of 20 deaths and 250 serious injuries every week, linked to someone doing their job.

These figures illustrate how urgent it is to increase the safety standards applied to all on and off-road vehicles used for commercial purposes. Including finding ways to prevent accidents related to HGV blind spots.

Have you heard of UNECE Regulation 46, which governs aspects of vehicle design? It is based on safety principles developed by Loughborough University. By 2029, this will be the standard applied to all HGVs sold in Europe. It fundamentally changes the minimum amount of direct vision that HGV designs must include.

(Direct vision is facilitated largely by window size, whereas indirect vision is provided by mirrors fitted to vehicles.)

This new vehicle design standard will save an estimated 550 lives annually, across Europe.

In the meantime, there are clearly steps employers must take to support HGV drivers, and enhance both direct and indirect vision. Particularly in premises that require them to navigate around structures and pedestrians not normally present on open roads.

This is our guide to things you may be overlooking when considering HGV blind spots.

Think HGV 24/7

No matter how well trained HGV drivers are, there are times when their skills are put to the test, especially around busy warehouse environments. A risk assessment must cover potential risks – and blind spots – throughout the working day, and year!

Some measures are obvious, such as using safety products to segregate pedestrians and vehicles. However, you also need to consider those brief moments when people or structures aren’t covered by direct or indirect vision. Something that can happen not just due to the position of the vehicle, but also environmental factors such as poor light, or even sudden bursts of sunlight.

Eventualities and factors that could create a vision deficit also include:

• Pillars where vehicles reverse, which are not clear when it’s dark and raining.
• Low walls below window level for HGV cabs and out of mirror view.
• People or structures off-centre, directly to the left or right, and obscured by the cab frame.
• Situations and structures behind HGVs, not apparent or clear in mirrors when reversing.

Awareness, then action

Making drivers and employees aware of potential blind spots on your site, and possibly changing the areas in which HGVs operate, is just part of the solution.

You also need to source safety products that manage blind spots. Which is something BrandSafe is highly experienced in.

What sort of installations can reduce risks created by HGV blind spots?

Landing plates

HGV Landing Plates need to be high-vis, to help drivers position trailers accurately and safely.

The yellow high-grade polymer in our plates also protects the concrete surfaces, which can erode due to heavy-duty movement and loading activities. However, it’s vital to specify landing plates that have chamfered edges, and that can be installed easily but seamlessly. This ensures that your HGV directional aids don’t become a trip hazard!

Wheel guides

HGV Cranked Dock Wheel Guides and straight dock wheel guides are another inexpensive and easy way to assist HGVs to manoeuvre confidently and safely.

Our wheel guides – in a choice of height options – have vibrant yellow nose cones to improve driver visibility. As well as being a way to protect vehicle wheel trims while HGV’s park on raised level loading docks.

Column guards, Armco barriers and more

Once you’ve drilled down on products for loading bay protection, there are more ways to safeguard people and structures. For example, fitting wraps to posts and columns to absorb impact or adding Armco safety barriers to approach roads.

Flexible bollards and delineators keep HGVs travelling along routes where visibility is more assured.

At the very least, wheel stops can give your drivers a guide to ‘no go’ areas, and clatter bars can warn them of height obstacles they may not see quickly enough.

See the risk, and respond fast

Even a quick glance at our loading bay protection range shows there are robust and reliable ways to mitigate against HGV blind spots in that area of your site. As well as plenty of ways of supporting driver visibility and vehicle risks site-wide.

Safety equipment on work premises doesn’t get more vital than traffic management systems. Our guide to Armco crash barriers brings you ‘up to speed’ on preventing vehicle accidents.

You might be wondering, what is an Armco barrier? Well, where traffic management and driver safety are crucial – from challenging farmland to major motorways – you are likely to see Armco Crash Barriers. They are an industry-standard thanks to their incredible engineering and superb track record for reducing traffic accident injuries.

As they are the first choice for crash barriers, the big question is, have you got your Armco products placed in enough situations to safeguard drivers on your premises? Also, is this vital traffic safety product configured to keep you compliant with H&S legislation?

Keep in mind crash barriers also protect important structures at your workplace too. This helps you to avoid big repair bills and business interruption. Not to mention vehicle damage repair costs!

To help you ring fence these important safety priorities for the coming year, here are our tips on buying Armco crash barriers.

Site vulnerabilities risk assessment

To find the best places to install Armco products, you need to think about worst-case scenarios. Gauge where a moment’s distraction or a haphazard incident could put people or property at risk.

Consider environmental factors too, as the weather or time of day can impact visibility. Even low autumn sunlight can blind drivers.

To be honest, it’s wise to invest in crash barriers right along the route traffic takes on your premises. It’s a belt and braces approach to traffic management if you like.

Keep in mind too that the very presence of Armco crash barriers (with their fluorescent yellow accessories) can prevent collisions from occurring. So why not go site-wide?

It can be cost-effective to place large orders of Armco products that match your site’s unique layout, including enough safety ends and cap posts to make your structures streamlined.

Are there alternatives to Armco?

This is the most reliable and respected range of crash barriers and accessories, and to buy alternatives risks compromising on your vital safety targets.

What makes Armco crash barriers stand out is their distinctive and ingenious grooved design. This is expertly engineered to absorb substantial amounts of energy from collisions.

So, despite their simplistic appearance the corrugated steel sections – when installed correctly and pinned with strong posts – are literally life savers. They also minimise vehicle damage.

Why take ‘shortcuts’, when Armco products are a ‘direct route’ to site safety for cars, LGVs, HGVs and off-road vehicles?

Which Armco products are best?

Apart from specifying different heights of Armco crash barriers to create a strategic configuration, there are other ways to adapt this classic safety product to your operational needs.

One of your options include Armco wall mounted safety barriers. These can be installed on brick, block or precast concrete walls, to reduce the damage done by collisions. Our wall-mounted Armco crash barriers include an ImpactSAFE shock absorber, to enhance their performance.

Another highly recommended crash barrier option are the Armco 360 Safety Barriers. The height of these is lower than most other products in this category (360mm) and they have distinctive forklift impact rails.

They do an amazing job in warehouse settings, to help off-road vehicle drivers navigate around confidently and safely.

You can buy accessories to finish off Armco configurations to prevent clothing snagging, scratches or worse injuries, when someone brushes against them

You will find the bright coloured Armco safety ends and safety corners are also a vivid way to avoid anyone tripping over your crash barriers. This ensures crash barriers don’t become a hazard in their own right!

Specifying Armco crash barriers

This crash barriers guide shows that though Armco products are simply the best and fundamental in design, there are numerous decisions to make. If you want your site traffic management and safety record to be flawless.

This is why companies with large or complex sites and approach roads turn to BrandSafe for free advice on Armco crash barrier layouts.

In fact, we can help any organisation to ‘bend’ this long-standing safety product range to their requirements.

With the start of the new year, now is the perfect time to reassess your industrial safety equipment requirements – get the new year off to a good and safe start with us as we explore the industrial safety products you should consider for 2022.

Reviewing your products

Before we dive into the industrial safety products that you will want to prioritise in 2022, first let’s think about how you will know what you need. It is important to regularly review your current industrial safety equipment – so take the opportunity to look at this now! You should also take this time to think about what you might need going forward, both new products and those which you have now that may need replacing. From this point, you will be able to find the right products and impact protection services for you.

Pedestrian safety

Pedestrian safety is more important than ever in the current times. With COVID-19 restrictions having eased, there will be more foot traffic in your workplace than in the past nearly two years. Now that there will be more people around, you need to consider how pedestrians can co-exist in your space with heavy machinery and equipment.

One of the best ways to keep pedestrians safe is with safety barriers and guardrails. These keep pedestrians in clearly delineated zones, keeping pedestrian routes separated from routes that are used by vehicles. EdgeWRAP is another essential part of protecting pedestrians, softening hard edges and protecting pedestrians from hurting their heads or limbs and protecting exposed edges from suffering damage, too.

Armco accessories

Armco accessories are simple but effective when it comes to impact protection, which can help to save you from both damage and costs later on down the line. Armco provides safety barriers for both your inside and outside spaces, as well as end protection and post caps. These help to keep edges from sustaining damage and can help to save you money on those unexpected yet costly bumps and accidents that can happen in a busy warehouse setting. They also have options that are highly visible to help you to see the impact protection in dimmer areas.

Bollards and delineators

Protecting your investment in workplace infrastructure might seem like a difficult job, but it is easier with bollards and delineators. These are perfect for areas of heavy traffic, keeping bollards clearly defined and delineated and separating areas. This also keeps traffic from being too close together, which can in itself cause problems and potential vehicle damage. There are many different types of bollards, from those that drop down to those that remain in place. They are available in classic black and yellow, but also in other colours such as red and white, to suit your specific area and needs. These high visibility products are ideal for car park areas, as well. There are even heavy-duty bollards suitable for warehouses with large equipment or coach areas.

Flexible delineator accessories

Delineators are an excellent way to keep your warehouse or car parks safe, but you will also need to think about some accessories which can help to increase and enhance the protection they offer. Flexible signage is useful for vehicle parking areas, as you can use them to show that an area is suitable for vehicles used by disabled staff or visitors – or use them to highlight a parking space that should be used for an electric vehicle. These not only prevent damage to vehicles when encroached upon, but they also provide clarity for visitors or staff.

Safety barriers & guardrails

Safety barriers are not just for pedestrians who work onsite, they also help to protect visitors and warehouse infrastructure from impact damage. You can keep your warehouse areas clearly defined and your traffic safety management clear and easy, reducing the chances of accidents in 2022.

As we have seen, these are a range of industrial safety products that you should invest in for 2022 in order to keep your environment safe and protected from those unfortunate accidents. If you want to upgrade and update your current safety products, get in touch with BrandSafe to see how we can help you to keep it safe in 2022 and beyond.

When you think about impact protection, you may not be aware of how important it is. Impact protection is required to prevent wear and tear, damage and accidents in warehouse settings, saving you money in the long run.

Why do we need impact protection products?

Impact protection is a vital part of the warehouse environment. You know that warehouses are busy and accidents can happen – and frequently do, even with the best safety measures in place. These accidents, even minor ones, can cause damage to equipment and even the building itself, which can be expensive. Aside from the inconvenience and expense of property damage, it is also possible that personal injuries will occur, which is something you always want to avoid.

How do you know what type of impact protection you need?

There are many different kinds of impact protection, but how can you be sure that you are getting the right kind for your own environment? The first and most important step in finding out is to carry out a risk assessment. A risk assessment can help to identify potential hazards in your working environment, both to property and people, and some of these will require impact protection. By implementing strong and appropriate impact protection, the chances of accidents occurring are reduced. Not only that but when incidents do occur, the severity of them is also lessened.

Different types of impact protection

As we have mentioned, there are many different impact protection options available to you. The kind you need will depend on the area that needs to be protected, and whether there is a high or low chance of impact occurring. For example, if you have a warehouse with many vehicles, there is a higher chance of impact occurring, however, this will be reduced if you have areas that are designated for pedestrian use only.

Corner and edge protection is a good example of impact protection that may be necessary for wall corners and edges that could experience fairly low impacts. Of course, if you are in an area with exposed pallet racking, you know that these areas often see high levels of impact. In this case, you would want to invest in heavier-duty impact protection, such as Rack Armour, which has been proven to reduce the damage done to racking by as much as 80%, protecting both the vehicles in your warehouse and your materials or products.

Important things to remember

There are some other vital things that you need to remember when you are considering impact protection, such as how visible it needs to be. This will again depend on the area it is needed in. While all impact protection tends to be highly visible for safety purposes, some colours are more visually striking than others. Impact protection is usually available in yellow and black, but you can choose some appropriate for various “zones” of your warehouse, in green/white or red/white, with some variations available. If you are protecting an outside space or car park, some impact protection has reflective designs, such as car park bollards, which further improve the level of visibility. This is also excellent for those who use these spaces in the evening or early morning when there is less natural light.

Improving safety standards

Impact protection can be used to improve safety standards in a variety of ways. As safety standards are increasing, this is highly important. Carrying out the initial risk assessment helps you to identify what you need to improve safety, also allowing you to note any areas that are lacking. By implementing impact protection, you are also taking the time to illuminate dangers before they occur and to educate your staff on the importance of what impact protection is there for and what it means. BrandSafe is a UK based impact protection specialist and offers a wide range of high-quality impact protection equipment and impact protection services, suitable for your environment.

As we have seen, impact protection is a vital part of the warehouse environment, both for identifying and reducing risks and the chances of accidents. If you want discover a range of impact protection options, get in touch and shop all impact protection products with UK company BrandSafe.

There are some essentials that you need to be aware of when thinking of health and safety within a warehouse environment. One of the most important things to consider is how you can improve warehouse visibility – here, we will look at how you can do this with Brandsafe.

Why is warehouse visibility important?

A warehouse can be a difficult environment to navigate, both for pedestrians and those working with vehicles such as forklifts. With a range of workers focusing on different areas, stacks of materials, and heavy-duty machinery, there are many areas where health and safety issues become more prevalent.

Providing full training and guidance to employees is a vital way to create a safer environment, but you can improve this further by increasing warehouse visibility. Ensuring that every space is well delineated and protected allows employees to see each area more clearly and creates a safer working environment for everyone, decreasing the number of accidents in the workplace. So how can you ensure that you have the best possible visibility?

Safety barriers/guardrails

Safety barriers and/or guardrails can be used to help improve the visibility of potential hazards whilst also protecting warehouse infrastructure from sustaining damage. They can help to reduce the number of collisions that occur in a busy warehouse environment. Pedestrian safety barriers are available in black and yellow to highlight areas where it is safe for employees to walk uninterrupted by equipment or vehicles, while yellow guardrail systems allow a more heavy-duty separation between machinery and pedestrians. These are essential for any warehouse setting, as they can also be used to separate pallets or stacked items from forklifts or other vehicles, preventing materials from being damaged by accidental collisions.

Bollards

Another excellent way of creating more visibility in the warehouse is with bollards. These create delineation and protect certain areas of your warehouse. Made from sturdy steel and polyurethane, Brandsafe bollards come in a range of colours to suit your warehouse, each providing a high level of visibility while also keeping areas of your warehouse separated and secure. These are especially essential if you have heavy-duty machinery, or need to block off part of your warehouse for pedestrians or smaller vehicles. For example, a drop core bollard can be used when you need it, with reflective elements for extra safety. There are many different types of bollards to suit your needs.

Bollards are also a good idea as sometimes collisions do occur, and they are designed to be able to absorb the shock of being knocked by a vehicle.

Column protectors

Another example of items that can help increase visibility is column protectors, which help make the columns more visible to pedestrians and vehicles to avoid collisions. These protectors create a barrier around columns both inside and outside your warehouse setting. The bright colours increase the likelihood of a column being seen from vehicles, and they are also designed to absorb the impact of unexpected collisions. This also helps to protect the structure of your warehouse, as these column protectors keep supportive elements of your warehouse secure. These are quick and easy to install and can be stacked in a straightforward manner, allowing for maximum visibility from all heights of vehicles, as well as from the ground. They can also be used outside on lampposts to allow for improved visibility in the areas surrounding your warehouse, ideal for incoming vehicles and pedestrians moving around the outer area.

As we have seen, visibility in the warehouse is of high importance, both financially and for security purposes. It can help to improve health and safety overall, keeping workers and equipment secure and lowering the risk of injury and damage.

Implementing such measures as safety barriers and column protectors can help with this – if you are looking for new ways to improve visibility in your warehouse environment, you can do so with BrandSafe’s variety of health and safety products.

In the long term, incorporating these products into your warehouse can help to save money on possible damage later on down the line, and prevent injuries from occurring. There are items to suit every kind of warehouse and every budget, so check out our full BrandSafe range for high quality products to keep your environment safer.

Have you thought about your traffic management system? There are some essentials you need for it, such as car park stops. Here, we will look at what car park stops are and what you need depending on the vehicle type.

What are car park stops?

Car park stops are, simply put, wedges of material that are placed in the path of wheels in order to prevent a vehicle from moving forwards. BrandSafe has a range of car park stops to suit every business and many wheel types – so you can keep safe and efficient.

Why do you need car park stops?

Car park stops (otherwise known as wheel stops) are a must-have for your traffic management systems. They are used to help protect pedestrians, and to ensure that your worksite is safe and well ordered. When used in conjunction with bollards and potentially even speed bumps, they help to control the movement of vehicles, which is especially useful in construction or warehouse environments, when a vehicle moving unexpectedly could have very serious consequences to both people and your workplace itself.

They keep vehicles from moving and allow them to move in an ordered flow when appropriate. In fact, wheel stops are a highly important part of your overall health and safety.

But what wheel stops do you need for your own vehicles? Read on to find out.

HGV wheel stops

It is very important to have the appropriate precautions in place when it comes to HGVs. Heavy goods vehicles often contain a large amount of materials, which means keeping them in place is of the utmost importance, ensuring the safety of the driver, the vehicle itself, any pedestrians around, and the area the vehicle is in. Not to mention the goods contained within the vehicle.

In this case, you will require a larger wheel stop, and BrandSafe’s design is 150mm high and 1000mm long to accommodate the size of HGV wheels. With a hi-vis strip, these wheel stops have excellent visibility for both pedestrians and drivers. These stops work for a range of vehicles, such as double-deckers, coaches, and combination vehicles. They do not require frequent repainting and are solid and sturdy enough to keep these large vehicles in place.

HLGV wheel stops

HLGV wheel stops can be used for combination vehicles, coaches, and even double-deckers. They are 110mm high and 1000mm long, suitable for these larger vehicles. They are also equipped with a high visibility strip which encourages the safety of drivers, pedestrians, and anyone who happens to be around the vehicles while they are parked. With a ribbed side directed towards the rear of the bay, these solid wheel stops are suitable for a range of settings.

Car wheel stops

While cars may be smaller than other vehicle types discussed here, it is still vital to ensure that they do not move independently. Keeping them in place and well-controlled is essential, so car wheel stops are a vital part of your workplace or car park. These types of car wheel stops can be used in domestic car parks where you need to ensure that cars, vans, coaches, or other vehicles are well spaced and do not clash against one another. Car wheel stops also keep the vehicles from parking in places they shouldn’t, such as against fences or walls.

BrandSafe’s car wheel stops are created using recycled truck tyres and come in yellow or red to suit your visibility needs. Measuring 900mm long, 200mm wide and 80mm high, they are suitable for a variety of vehicles. The high visibility strips mean that both drivers and pedestrians have that little bit of extra safety.

Keeping people safe should always be your top priority in your working environment – and you can improve the safety of your space with BrandSafe’s wheel stops. These essential car park stops can be suitable for cars, HGVs or HLGVs, meaning you can make sure that your working environment is secure no matter what type of vehicles you use. Each of these is supplied with a fixing kit so that you can take advantage of them quickly and easily. View our full BrandSafe range of car park stops, and get in touch to see how we can best help to improve the safety of your environment.

Judging from last Winter’s record-breaking rainfall, daylight will be in short supply in the coming months. Making sourcing warehouse pedestrian safety products especially urgent.

Workplaces that involve pedestrians, off-road vehicles and trucks in close proximity are difficult to manage in terms of productivity and risk. The Winter months add to the complexities.

External visibility and movement are impacted, and even some internal warehouse areas become contaminated by moisture and grit from snow, ice and rain.

Assessing how to keep employees, visitors and drivers safe in warehouse environments is a year-round priority of course. However, setting aside falling temperatures, there are added risks in winter that compel you to ramp up site safety from October through to March.

To help you meet targets for warehouse pedestrian safety, which products can help you remain compliant and accident-free this winter?

Strong visual guides and signals for pedestrians

Winter is the perfect time to evaluate all your pedestrian safety features in terms of location, but also visibility. Have you got sufficient numbers of bollards, markers and notices in place across your entire site, but also how well can they be seen during hours of reduced daylight?

Clearly, this especially involves loading bays, approaching roads and car parking areas where staff and visitors walk near traffic.

If the visual impact of your safety structures and fixtures has been compromised over time, then sourcing authentically high-vis safety products for traffic management is now vitally important.

Risk assessments and structural safety measures in Winter

Have you considered every structure, angle or pathway that represents a risk for people walking around your site? Including any added distractions or issues caused by poor light or weather in winter?

Even the sounds of a storm could cause a momentary lapse in concentration.

Keep in mind that it’s now possible to specify versatile safety materials and products in a multitude of dimensions. Everything from easy to see yellow corner wraps, to heavy-duty pedestrian safety barriers and guard rail systems that are impossible to miss.

One of the ways installing new barriers is advantageous in winter months, is it could prevent accidents as staff hurry to get away from outside areas or draughty loading bays, or when drivers have less chance of hearing warnings and commands when it’s windy and wild!

There really is a pedestrian safety product to match every place and situation, and ingenious ways to keep vehicles and pedestrians apart whatever your site layout.

Reducing the risk of winter trips, slips and falls in warehouses

Not all winter hazards in warehouses can be solved by good traffic management though.

Apart from the prospect of icy surfaces leading to your doors and bays, there is also the very real prospect of moisture and other contaminants transferring inside. Making walking on stairs or even flat floors in your warehouse a potential slip risk.

Risk assessment should take account of the need for products such as:

Self-adhesive EdgeWRAP

For stairs and steps, this is one of the quickest and easiest ways to manage foot traffic risks in workplaces, by clearly indicating boundaries.

Keep in mind that this yellow/black light-duty foam edging material can be used in other ways too. Such as to cover over anything that presents a snag hazard, or a sharp edge that could hurt someone.

Versatile Pedestrian Handrails

These are vital externally where ice can build up, but can also be swiftly installed internally, wherever walking becomes perilous when moisture is present.

The best-designed handrail systems don’t simply help pedestrians stay upright. They are also an important way to prevent clashes with structures and off-road vehicles or to segregate staff and visitors from sensitive onsite areas.

Advice on winter safety solutions for pedestrians

There has been considerable investment in campaigns to keep pedestrians safe on public roads, and the HSE has put a strong emphasis on the steps needed to avoid pedestrian accidents in workplaces. However, in busy warehouse environments, the weight of responsibility falls firmly on employers.

Winter brings a fresh set of problems for anyone managing in-out workplaces when staff and vehicles use both external and internal areas for their activities. Planning warehouse pedestrian safety, and knowing what products to buy and where to place them, can become particularly complex in the colder, darker and wetter months.

The answer is to work with BrandSafe, to build on our expertise and experience in mapping out safety systems that leave no opportunities for gaps or oversights, no matter what the British weather brings.

Commercial driver training can only go so far in avoiding vehicle accidents on business sites. It’s important to know where to place speed bumps in workplaces, to manage all traffic movement.

Vehicle-related accidents in workplaces are still all too common.

The overall total in the UK is hard to count, as things like falling from moving vehicles can be recorded under ‘slips, trips and falls’. However, the fact that 20 people died after being struck by vehicles on business premises in 2019/20, is enough evidence that it’s still a serious problem.

There are also many other cases of vehicle injury at work, including ones occurring during reversing and slow speed manoeuvres, or even accidents during loading and unloading, coupling and uncoupling, maintenance and repair for example.

However, that death toll shows that vehicles moving around workplaces are still a significant part of the problem.

Managing speed on your business site is therefore not just a matter of H&S compliance. It’s an ethical duty, and a commercial priority to protect your business from interruption, loss of reputation and even potential litigation.

To help mitigate the problem, here are insights on sourcing and placing speed bumps in your workplace.

Do speed bumps work?

If fitting speed calming measures saves one life or a serious injury, it’s money well spent.

However, research shows that vertical speed bumps make a substantial ‘impact’ and reduce accident rates by as much as 44%. When accidents do happen where road bumps are used, the lower speeds result in less serious injuries.

Speed bumps work because their presence is proven to encourage drivers to cross them at no more than 15mph. A series of traffic calming systems will force drivers to manage their speed to an average of 20mph.

The effectiveness of speed bumps is why they’re so commonly used on public roads. Motorists are now accustomed to responding quickly and slowing down.

Speed bump regulations

There are regulations on the type and size of road humps you can use on public highways. If you are planning traffic calming measures on roads leading to or around your premises, you must adhere to the Highways Regulations (Road Humps) 1999.

Keep in mind that you can only install bumps on roads with speed limits of 30mph or less, and you must indicate their location clearly.

For commercial premises, once you have the landowner’s permission, it is vital to find a speed bump supplier to produce structures that are reliable, durable and effective. Cheap and dubious products could cause more problems than they solve!

Placing speed bumps for maximum effect

Knowing where to place speed bumps is crucial! Their presence acts as a warning and hopefully a deterrent, but if they can be avoided or ignored, then your traffic safety system is flawed.

The starting point is a risk assessment of your site, finding strategic locations for all traffic safety products, including bollards, signs and road-based speed reduction systems. Speed bumps and wheel stops are often used in combination for warehouse environments, for example.

Potential locations include arterial site roads but also secondary access roads, car parks and areas where fleets and visiting lorries cluster.

Clearly, they need to be seen to be effective (and safe). So, hi-vis markings and signage must be included in your planning.

One of the key factors in specifying speed bumps is the fixing method, especially if you have HGV and LGV constantly passing over them. A structure that gets easily damaged or displaced creates a new safety hazard.

Also, the height and spread of speed bumps must be considered. This can mean working with an expert in traffic safety management, to get an effective speed deterrent that won’t damage your vehicles or make your site inaccessible for emergency vehicles.

The calculation is often height to speed goal ratio, and types of vehicles using your site. So, if you need to get drivers down to 5mph, you may need a bigger hump!

For most commercial sites, the perfect solution to managing vehicle speed is a 50mm high, black and yellow speed bump from BrandSafe. These come in kit form – in a range of lengths – to make them adaptable and easy to install on concrete or tarmac.

BrandSafe can supply custom-made speed bumps and ramps too if you need a site-specific requirement.

Also, contact us for help in mapping out traffic calming systems and other site safety features. It’s something we’re experienced at and can do fast!

No matter how logically laid out your car parking area is, accidents can still happen. This is why parking posts make such a good investment.

The most obvious advantage of buying parking posts is that they offer an important traffic management advantage. The different types of bollards, delineators and accessories can help you control both vehicle movement and placement. Including giving you the option of using posts as a clear indication of perimeters, hazards and no-go areas.

They can also be a way of optimising your parking area, making it easier for drivers to find and manoeuvre with minimal effort.

Let’s look more closely at these and other reasons to invest in parking posts.

Safety reasons to invest in parking posts

Strategically placed parking posts can help to prevent staff or visitors from parking in a way that causes inconvenience or hazard. Just one of the ways parking posts improves site safety.

To meet your Health & Safety obligations, you should seriously consider how you can use bollards to create better access for emergency vehicles. Is there a way to  ‘ring fence’ an area close to the building, using a removable post system for emergency vehicle access?

On the topic of site safety, the very presence of parking posts can help slow traffic down on your premises. As well as giving pedestrians unmissable indicators of where traffic is likely to be, and how to avoid walking into the path of vehicles.

As well as using bollards to clearly segregate foot and road traffic, they can be used to create clear demarcation of entrances and exits, where vehicles tend to cluster and create even greater risk.

Managing accident costs, repairs and disruption

The best parking posts can also act as an impact-resistant barrier, to shield key areas and site features. This is a great way to minimise damage to vehicles, charging stations for electric vehicles, and entry barriers in car parks.

It’s also a great way to avoid having to replace expensive charging equipment and security systems.

Improving site optics with parking structures

Finding a supplier of aesthetically pleasing parking posts can make your site’s exterior or car park look smart, well organised and logical. The fact you have invested in parking posts – as visual markers for individual spaces and to help drivers manoeuvre safely – shows you are a caring and conscientious organisation.

You can place parking posts to funnel vehicles along a set route too, ensuring drivers visit your gatehouse when entering or exiting your premises. This can help manage parking in terms of the number of vehicles on your site, and your security team can point out visitor only parking spots, which are then further marked out using high-vis parking posts.

Site security and investing in parking posts

That last point links with site security issues. Strategically placed posts in your car park can also limit the ability of vehicles to intrude in your car park or building exterior in evenings and weekends, for antisocial or even illegal activities.

They can be installed to maintain privacy too, shielding areas of your exterior that you would prefer not to be used for parking or shortcuts.

Types of commercial site bollards

There are various types of vertical posts designed to be high-vis indicators and barriers.

If you’re looking for a flexible post option that will create a great visual aid and minimal damage if hit the flexible bollard is the one for you.

This minimises vehicle damage on impact. The perfect example is the Flexible Bollards and Delineator Systems that bend and crush on impact, but spring back to shape afterwards.

If you want something with less ‘give’, the steel-core Drop Core Bollards will work well. Their colour variations can help to indicate different parking issues such as fire hazards or serious collision risks. They can also be quickly installed but also re-sited as needed.

Another option is Heavy Duty Bollards. These are ideal if HGV and LGV are operating on-site as a robust barrier.

Not sure which parking posts to invest in? Contact BrandSafe for no-obligation advice, evaluation and traffic management product quotes.

INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNISED SUSTAINABILITY AWARD FOR BRANDSAFE

We are delighted to have achieved a prestigious international award for our ongoing commitment to sustainability.

The EcoVadis rating agency has awarded Bronze status to Brandsafe in a move that sees us continue to strengthen our position as a leader when it comes to developing and supplying sustainable industrial workplace safety solutions.

US-based EcoVadis is a provider of universal sustainability ratings, with more than 75,000 companies from over 200 industries taking part and committing to ensuring responsible sourcing throughout the supply chain. The assessment covers a range of CSR topics including environmental impact, labour and human rights and ethics.

Across all categories, Brandsafe has demonstrated a strong sustainability management system and performs in advance of others in the same industry sector. This is the first time that we have been assessed by EcoVadis and we are already focused on further improving our sustainability rating going forward.

Susy Keating, Managing Director of Brandsafe, had this to say on the award: “This is fantastic news and we are extremely proud to achieve such a prestigious award. This is a strong endorsement of our ongoing environmental commitments and focus on the sustainability we bring to our products and solutions.”

When you’re busy being productive, it is easy to overlook your H&S priorities. To help, here’s an essential 10 item workplace safety checklist.

Regularly making sure that your workplace has all the tools and techniques needed to keep your staff and visitors safe is vital.

Firstly, you have a legal and moral duty to keep your team safe at work. And going through your H&S checklist regularly will also add structure to your assessments making them more time-efficient.

Written lists of safety priorities, tasks and equipment also makes it easier to assign responsibility. For example, who’s in charge of keeping traffic management structures up to date?

Keeping checklists will remind you of what you need to install or replace, to maintain levels of site safety – internally and externally.

You can also use your workplace safety checklist as part of your induction process, to highlight risks to new employees and demonstrate their role in keeping themselves and colleagues safe.

The HSE issues specific workplace safety checklists for different types of buildings, such as schools and hospitality venues.

Ours is a more universal workplace safety checklist, featuring 10 key workplaces areas to focus on, for ultimate safety.

1. Obstructions – are walkways clear?

Trips, slips and falls are the biggest cause of accidents in the workplace.

It’s vital to check walkways and doorways daily. Introduce strict policies on keeping floors free of hazards will help you to avoid any unnecessary incidents. Keeping fire exits clear of obstructions is taken very seriously.

2. Inspect hygiene and cleanliness

This is another task to do daily, especially as we are emerging from a global Pandemic. Note down areas of particular concern, and make sure all relevant staff understand their ongoing tasks to keep surfaces deep down clean.

3. Check ventilation/filter systems are working properly

Frequent evaluation of air quality in your workplace is especially vital in sites prone to contaminants such as dust and fibres. Keeping on top of this can prevent insidious health issues, but also keeps ventilation and air filtration systems well maintained.

4. Safety signs to warn of hazards/dangers

One of the most fundamental site safety priorities is good communication, yet signs can fall off, become damaged or be obscured without you noticing.

Creating a map of safety signage can help, as you can then regularly check all items are securely in place and easy to see.

5. Stairs – are safety railings in place?

Stairways are generally a workplace danger, but become additionally dangerous if moisture is dragged in from outside, or your site creates contaminates carried on the bottom of footwear.

Stairs should feature in various elements of this workplace safety checklist, but also deserve special attention with the installation of the best safety guardrails.

6. Loading-bay area appraisal

Warehouse operations are especially prone to H&S risks and should be checked frequently to make sure every measure is in place to protect drivers and pedestrians – as well as your loading bay structures.

Find a supplier of inexpensive loading bay protection products that are 100% efficient and effective.

Also, regularly check vehicle safety barrier integrity.

7. Personal protection equipment

PPE requirements vary from site to site. Having it all catalogued clearly is common sense. Including mapping out locations where PPE is stored and dispensed. Then, you can regularly check everything is available, every working day.

8. Inventory storage inspections

Accidents are more likely in storage areas, including things falling from height. A crucial part of H&S is to study your inventory storage. Is the most logical and safe system being used to keep items in place, and is anyone taking ‘shortcuts’ that create a risk factor?

9. Regular tool and equipment inspection

Another thing to timetable for workplace safety is the testing of tools and equipment. Have you got all the safety items you need for your site, and are they where they should be? Make sure electrical items are still ‘up to code’?

10. Electrical shutoff switch

Talking of electrical hazards, this is one workplace safety priority that sometimes gets overlooked. Do you and all decision-makers know how to cut site power – partially or entirely? Is access to the switch assured?

Help with Workplace Safety Checklists

If your checklist throws up urgent purchasing needs, having a supplier ready and waiting can be a huge relief and an important safety advantage.

Chat to the team at BrandSafe, to discuss your likely requirements to have important safety products on standby.

This article will help you to understand what to look for in impact protection services so that you can choose the best services for your company. Impact protection is a vital part of any warehouse and getting it right is an essential part of keeping employees safe.

With the health and safety of people at stake, it is important that the impact protection services you choose to use are of the highest standard. To ensure that this standard is met, the impact protection service should be reliable, affordable, and high-quality and provide you with knowledgeable staff. Understanding exactly what to look for in impact protection services will help you find the best option for you quickly to maintain excellent safety in your workplace.

What to look for in impact protection services

The best impact protection services will do more than just supply your company with safety products; they will send a team of experts out to your site to assist you through every step of the impact protection process. At Brand Safe Protection, our impact services offer a full project consultation, bespoke product design and professional installation. We also offer fantastic ongoing support to our clients after the installation is complete to ensure that safety standards are well maintained.

As well as offering a great all-around service, it is important that the impact protection you choose is of the highest standard; you can check this by asking the following questions.

How reliable is the service?

Impact protection is no joke and many of the products installed in the services save employees from serious injury, and even death, each year. With the well-being of others at risk, the impact protection services that you choose should be reliable and thorough in their approach.

The most reliable impact protection services will carry out audits to ensure that the protection offered meets the demands of your specific site. By conducting a comprehensive audit of the premises, our services can fully understand the use of the site and provide maximum safety to protect people and assets.

Fair costs for impact protection services

The process of making your workplace safe should not cost your company an arm and a leg! Don’t let overpriced services trick you into thinking that they are the best when in fact, many great services can be offered at a very affordable price.

The best impact protection services will offer you great value for money and should not throw in any extra costs halfway through the process. A good way to understand whether a service is offering fair costs is to phone up the company and discuss exactly what is included in their price. Then, compare this with other impact protection companies until you find one that offers the best value.

High-quality products and service

The most effective impact protection should be highly durable to withstand workplace wear and last for a long time. This result only occurs if the impact protection service you choose offers products and services that are high-quality. High-quality products will be made from strong, resistant materials that are designed to last a long time and will not become easily damaged.

High-quality services include any services offered by the protection company that could affect the quality of the protection that is offered. The best impact protection services will offer expert product installation to ensure that all products are fitted correctly and for maximum protection. Professional installation teams should be able to install your new protection quickly, effectively and in the least disruptive way possible so that workplace productivity is not affected.

Knowledgeable staff

If a company is supplying protection services, they should be incredibly knowledgeable about the products that they provide and the nature of health and safety in general. Without the right knowledge, impact protection products could be installed incorrectly or poor auditing/consultation practices may take place. If this were to happen, the impact protection that is installed in your workplace may be ineffective, poor-quality or even unsafe. With the right staff on the job, your impact protection service will be conducted to a high standard, leaving you with a fully protected workplace and safer staff.

Choosing the right impact protection service is a vital part of keeping your workplace safe. At Brand Safe, we ensure that our impact protection services offer expert advice and assistance through every step of the process to ensure a high-quality and efficient result. If you would like to know more about the fantastic services that we offer, get in touch with our team today.

When it comes to safety systems where traffic and pedestrians meet, Armco barrier models are undeniably the best option. What can be a grey area, is how to site Armco barriers properly, and the correct ones to specify.

Wherever HGVs, LGVs and off-road vehicles operate, you will be constantly balancing two primary needs. Creating an efficient traffic flow that meets your productivity deadlines. Alongside managing vehicle and pedestrian movement to meet your H&S compliance goals.

Keeping everyone safe on site is also a moral duty. Plus, proper structural and operational management avoids damage to your building and vehicles.

This is all especially problematic in and around warehouse environments. These rely on visits from a constant stream of vehicles at docking bays, and a buzz of forklifts, pallet jacks, order picking machinery, platform trucks and other off-road vehicles inside.

You have the ideal solution.

Armco barrier systems are respected throughout the world. They have a superb track record for vehicle management and site safety. However, knowing this and putting it into practice are two different things.

You need to commission the right barriers and accessories based on a strategic plan of the best places to install warehouse Armco products. This is something we can advise on – to match your exacting workplace demands.

However, here are some handy general insights on how to optimise Armco barriers for warehousing.

Placing Armco safety barriers

The starting point is to map out all the possible places a vehicle could encounter either pedestrians or protrusions.

This includes locations like loading bay entrances, but also the ends of pallet racking aisles, shelving legs, support columns and wall structures. Are there places that expensive equipment, conveyor belts or other vehicles need to be shielded?

As they are so cost-effective, Armco barriers can also simply act as a visual reference to guide drivers into position.

Once you’ve completed your risk assessment, and sketched out Armco safety barrier installation locations, you can decide which size is best to create a reliable obstacle for those occasions when lorries or off-road vehicles veer off course.

Replacing the barriers is a great deal cheaper than rectifying structural and vehicle damage from a nasty collision. It is certainly an important way to keep your safety record and reputation intact. However, to maintain a good line of vision and keep your site clutter-free, you may want to limit the spread of your barriers.

Fortunately, Armco barriers are incredibly versatile. You can specify them in heights and lengths to match your site and its traffic type. For example, low-level safety barrier sections can guard against incursion from low ground clearance vehicles like forklifts. Or opt for a heavy-duty double crash rail to protect against a hit from HGV vehicles.

Best use of Wall Mounted Armco barrier

Warehouse walls and the sides of ramps for example are likely to be the scene of scuffs, grazes and prangs as vehicles manoeuvre around. Especially in locations that are tight for space, or which require that drivers reverse.

In many cases, mounting a warehouse Armco barrier on vertical planes can be the best solution. These barrier sections come with built-in ImpactSAFE shock-absorbing buffers, to further improve their performance. Yet, they are relatively quick and easy to mount on the brick, block or pre-cast concrete surfaces.

Think outdoor and indoor Armco barrier

Though there are various warehouse Armco barrier models, many of them are designed to be multi-purpose. Including being a great traffic management solution both inside warehouses and externally.

There can be so much emphasis on warehouse efficiency and control in your aisles, that a potential outdoor hazard gets overlooked.

Regularly evaluate the risk factors on all the approaches and within parking areas around your warehouse. Then, you can remain alert to ways to use a warehouse Armco barrier to good effect. The galvanised steel is weather-resistant, as well as being incredibly impact-resistant

Get the end right!

Lastly, once you have drawn up a purchasing list of Armco safety barriers for warehouses, you need to think about the end. Or ends to be exact.

Brand safe sells a range of Armco safety ends and cap posts, to increase their visibility to pedestrians and drivers, reduce the chances of impact, and avoid sharp edges injuring staff.

We are always happy to provide help in mapping out the best configurations of our strong and durable Armco barriers (and accessories). Including the best ways to install them to ensure you have the ultimate warehouse site safety systems.

Managing your fleet of Heavy Goods Vehicles – or controlling how visiting HGVs manoeuvre on your site – relies on time-served safety solutions. Including these HGV dock protection products.

No matter how carefully you mark the entrance and exit paths around your site, and the best places to park HGVs, a momentary lapse or some especially hectic traffic flow can leave you with a serious Health & Safety challenge.

One wrong move by an HGV driver and you risk an injury to them or a staff member, structural damage to your workplace, or a large vehicle repair bill.

Just to drive home how important this is, according to figures from the HSE, around ten people die each year on construction sites in the UK, from collisions with moving vehicles.

This makes it vital to introduce logical site planning and control systems, for any workplaces where larger vehicles operate. Especially around loading bays, where there’s likely to be a high concentration of both vehicles and humans.

Managing this situation certainly means investing in the leading HGV dock protection products. Items that have already proven to assist in seamless manoeuvring of heavy-duty vehicles.

Here is a quick guide to three of the best ideas for HGV traffic management and protection.

HGV landing plates

These HGV dock protection products help drivers position their vehicles centrally and neatly. Installing well-made HGV landing plates – in a high vis colour – also gives your team the best way to site lorry legs without damaging your tarmac or concrete.

They must be the right ones to achieve their purpose adequately though. Including having countersunk fixings and chamfered edges, to avoid creating a trip hazard,

The quality-assured ones Brandsafe sells are made from high molecular grade polymer. Giving them the properties needed to create an incredibly robust surface to protect your loading dock surface.

HGV Landing plates also provide a level surface ensuring even contact with trailer landing legs and a more stable base so there is no compromise to health and safety.

HGV Dock Wheel Guides

The HSE provides strict loading guidelines for HGV vehicles operating on commercial premises. This includes the sort of visibility issues you need to evaluate, especially for HGVs being reversed into spaces.

One of the best ways to make it easier for drivers to properly position their vehicle is to install dock wheel guides for HGVs. That way, you can be confident that their manoeuvring will be accurate and they are in the optimal position for safe loading and unloading.

Our high-vis, galvanised steel HGV cranked dock wheel guides are designed to funnel vehicles into the correct position. Without wheel trim damage. There are two sizes so you can find a wheel guide that sits at the right height for your traffic needs.

We also sell HGV Straight Dock Wheel Guides, which are the ideal way to transition vehicles in and out of internal loading areas.

HGV Wheel Stops

HGV dock protection products don’t come simpler – or more essential – than this.

Installing robust and hardwearing wheel stops, to show parking limits, provides drivers with a highly visual reminder. However, if they do lose sight of your HGV guides, the best wheel stops provide an unmissable indication that a parking limit has been reached.

One of the pitfalls of rubber wheel stops is that they can bend, split and fail too quickly. The Brandsafe version, however, is made from recycled truck tyres, moulded to withstand a reasonable amount of force.

That way, if a driver does inadvertently hit them, they get a sharp reminder to stop before doing any damage.

Low cost, compliant and cash-saving solutions

The common factor with all three of these HGV dock protection products is that they are built to last and affordable, making them great cost-effective HGV parking management aids.

With correct installation, these are also a low maintenance way to save you money, hassle and a dent in your safety record.

If you integrate them with a logical layout of speed bumps, column guards, bollards, delineators and other site traffic management items, you can tick off crucial safety goals. As well as improving traffic flow to boost productivity.

If you would like a quote for consignments of HGV dock protection products – and other impact and safety systems – please get in touch with the Brandsafe customer service team.

Halt! Strategically placed wheel stops help drivers to manoeuvre accurately into designated spaces, with all the benefits that provides, as this article explains.

If you have never overshot a parking bay – or realised you are straddling the lines in a car park – then you deserve a medal. Even seasoned drivers who use commercial vehicles every day can have a moment of distraction or misjudgement, leaving them untidily parked and possibly the butt of colleagues’ jokes.

However, this is no laughing matter if manoeuvring a vehicle into place accurately is important.

This is when wheel stops can be invaluable for even highly competent drivers.

Logical reasons to install wheel stops

Before we get on to the different types of wheel stops, let’s look at how they can be used to good effect in commercial environments or public car parks.

Their value is not just in creating neat parking. Though in some situations this is important to keep productivity up, with HGVs and LGVs positioned appropriately. It also helps to keep major routes unhindered by inaccurately parked vehicles.

However, wheel stops become crucial when vehicles are constantly manoeuvring near expensive structures – or equipment such as EV charging stations. Giving drivers a clear guide can prevent a lapse in thinking leading to a large repair bill!

The other side of that costly coin is those occasions when overshooting a designated parking area results in damage to commercial vehicles. Potentially putting them out of action.

Wheel stops also prevent vehicles from constantly using your kerbs, walls and other structures as their indication to stop, which can gradually lead to substantial wear and tear.

Another important reason to find a supplier of commercial wheel stops is to remain compliant to H&S mandates. Using well-designed traffic movement and parking indicators keeps both drivers and pedestrians safer.

Placing wheel stops in workplaces and car parks

The first step is to carry out a thorough risk assessment and evaluate the best parking or loading area layout. Then, shop around for different levels and lengths of wheel stop.

The same principles apply whether this is a public car park, logistics centre, warehouse loading bay or emergency services centre. Wheel stops need to be placed strategically to provide an unmistakable sign that the edge of the zone has been reached.

They need to include a high-vis design, as part of their preventative role.

To be sure they last well in the face of constant knocks, scuffs and even forceable incursion, whatever category of wheel stop you specify needs to be made of strong, abrasion-resistant materials.

They also need to be quick to install wheel stops at affordable prices, so you can replace them or create new vehicle guides easily.

HGV and HLGV wheel stops

The likely force they will sustain affects the type of wheel stop you purchase.

For example, best practice in laying out HGV parking and loading bays demands a reasonably high, robust wheel stop that won’t buckle, fragment or split like traditional rubber versions.

Brandsafe sells strong wheel stops made from recycled truck tyres, moulded to enforce the last braking point. You get all the fixings needed to quickly add these HGV wheel stops to tarmac and concrete too.

There are more compact but equally collision-resistant wheel stops designed for HLGV locations too. Though not as high or long as the alternative mentioned above, these commercial leet wheel stops are a reliable way to help drivers of LGV vehicles manoeuvre with ease. These too come in kit form.

Traffic management in car parks

Another version of wheel stops to aid safe parking are ones designed specifically to manage car tyres.

Our durable car wheel stops are still made from recycled truck tyres. However, they are more compact than HGV and LGV wheel guides, to ensure that cars aren’t damaged. In other words, they are wheel stops that cater for vehicles with bodywork lower to the ground.

The best car park wheel stop arrays create clear space demarcation. This makes the best use of the available area, at the same time as preventing vehicles from overshooting bays, becoming a hindrance or colliding with structures.

Integrating wheel stops in traffic management plans

Creating the best combination of wheel stops, traffic bumps, HGV landing plates, delineator guides and clatter bars can keep vehicles flowing – and halting – safely and effectively on your site.

For help in stopping accidents, with strong wheel stops, give Brandsafe a call.

From motorways to factories, farms and race tracks, Armco barriers are synonymous with traffic safety management. In this article, we explain what Armco barriers are.

Rather than “What is an Armco barrier?” the question should probably be what makes these particular safety structures so prevalent around the world? Or, how are Armco barriers made?

The fact that they are so commonly specified in diverse locations – wherever traffic management is a high priority – shows very clearly that they work.

Their reliable and respected design also explains why this versatile range is becoming increasingly commonplace inside factories and warehouses throughout the UK and beyond – as well as along public and private roads and within busy car parks.

Key Facts About Armco Barriers

You will often hear these crucial safety structures referred to as ‘crash barriers’ as that’s their purpose in a nutshell. They are designed to reduce the incidence of collisions, but also to reduce the damage done when moving vehicles veer off in the wrong direction.

Armco barriers literally save lives and have been doing so for many decades now.

Though the engineering behind them is clever – and unlikely to be superseded – the different sized Armco barriers all have the same fundamental components. They are corrugated steel sections, fixed firmly in place, to enable them to absorb a considerable amount of force.

The safety barrier systems come in various dimensions. Following a risk assessment, specifiers match the likely level of impact with the best Armco barrier design for that location.

Beyond their important safety role, Armco Barriers are also popular as they require very little maintenance once they are installed correctly.

How Were Armco Barriers Invented?

The company that invented Armco barriers changed names and priorities over the years. The concept can trace its origins right back to the American Rolling Mill Company, founded in Ohio way back in 1899. The founder wanted to make his own steel to supply his roofing business.

As the years ‘rolled on’ and new technologies and processing systems influenced how steel could be shaped, a range of impact-resistant barriers was produced. Leading to the company eventually adapting Armco as its name, to reflect this globally successful product range.

That company got bought out by AK Steel, which recently changed its name to Cleveland-Cliffs.

However, while all these changes were occurring, the product concept gained a massive worldwide following and a life of its own.

This means Armco crash barriers are firmly entrenched in traffic management practices. Including those distinctive corrugated steel beams, pinned by strong posts, and finished off with matching corners, ends and reliably robust bolts.

Where Should I Buy Armco Barriers?

Now you know the answer to what is an Armco barrier – and a little of the history of the company that invented the concept – the important thing to know is where to buy Armco safety products in the UK.

Particularly the safety structures that can be used for traffic management both inside and outside busy warehouses and factory delivery bays.

Brandsafe provides different sizes of Armco Barriers to fit around specific site dimensions, but also to serve specific purposes. For example, our low-level Armco 360 system is designed to shield pedestrians and structures from forklift trip incursion, but also to minimise damage to expensive and vital off-road vehicles.

There are other Armco barrier specifications that go much higher, to protect commercial traffic routes effectively, for instance.

Thanks to the appliance of modern engineering and manufacturing techniques, the Armco accessories we stock fulfil a diverse range of safety roles too. Such as, Armco Ends that quickly and easily snap into place around the potentially sharp edges of safety rails.

It’s worth emphasising too that our products for workplaces feature distinctive yellow accessories and features. This adds a high-vis element to these usually grey corrugated steel safety barriers.

Also, all steel used in Armco systems is from leading suppliers and is fabricated, galvanised and powder coated to British Safety Standards.

What is an Armco Barrier System to Your Organisation?

With so many modern ways to configure Armco barriers – internally and around site perimeters – planning the best ways to use this important safety range can be a challenge.

Brandsafe would be happy to ‘shape’ the skills of our technical team around your layout and specific safety needs – to swiftly design and install your Armco solution, and get this tried and trust product performing exactly as it should.

As the Government-backed shift to hybrid and electric vehicles is gathering pace, now would be a good time to understand the steps involved with EV Charging Station set up in the modern workplace. We have created a guide to provide a useful overview.

Where to Start

Finding out who supplies EV Charging stations, where to place them and how to protect vehicle plug-in points will be at the top of your to-do list. Depending on the number o staff, company cars and fleet, you could create sufficient demand for multiple points to charge hybrid and electric vehicles across your business exterior.

Another thing to think about is the cost of a big switch to green energy in your workplace. The good news is there are grants available to help your organisation meet the cost of an EV charging station set up.

This is part of the campaign by the Office of Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV), which aims to transition individual motorists and fleets as quickly and seamlessly as possible. You can get help with the costs and EV grant application assistance from OZEV.

The Government has also announced an additional £20 million of funding for electric vehicle charge points in easily accessible public locations across the UK.

When you’re ready to go ahead with your new electric vehicle charging scheme, the next important things to consider are where you are going to put them and how you’re going to protect them. The last thing you want after installing your EV chargers is for them to be damaged by a reversing vehicle.

This is where our guide can help.

EV Charging Point Set Up

Setting up EV plug-in sites properly is not just about getting vehicles charged easily and efficiently. There are steps you can follow to avoid costly damage and the inconvenience of having this vital new business equipment out of action for repairs.

When you select a supplier of commercial plug-in equipment for electric vehicles, it’s worth finding out if they provide help with locating charging stations correctly, including any DNO and safety requirements.

They should also take steps to earth the equipment properly and adjust it to match your electrical demands and characteristics.

If you need large-scale projects to install EV charge points, the right supplier can also help with planning applications, DNO management and all the other hurdles.

Keep in mind that signage to help drivers easily locate EV charging stations is also something that we can help you with.

Protecting EV Charging Stations

With the above steps sorted, your next priority is protecting this expensive piece of equipment. By the nature of the product, it will likely be near to constantly moving traffic, potentially including HLGVs and HGVs.

Sourcing the best protection system for your EV charging stations will depend on its location and the type of vehicles that need access to it.

Light Duty Protection for EV Charge Points

If your EV chargers are being installed into a small company car park, for staff and visitors use, Brandsafe can provide light duty protection kits for EV charging stations.

These include high-vis ImpactSAFE Protection Posts, which absorb inadvertent knocks and scuffs.

They’re robust enough to cope with a lot of mishaps in your car park and they’re also great for protecting EV charging stations at homes.

Medium Duty Protection for EV Charge Points

If you have a larger car park and several electric commercial vehicles, your EV charging stations may need some additional safety management items.

Brandsafe has packaged up ImpactSAFE Protection Posts with a Wheel Stop, so you can shield your equipment quickly and effectively.

Heavy Duty Protection for EV Charge Points

If you have multiple charging stations in your workplace and considerable commercial traffic to manage, you need a system to minimise impact damage from multiple directions. Our Brandsafe turnkey EV charging point package includes ImpactSAFE Bollards, a Wheel Stop and, if requested, Armco Safety Barriers.

Bespoke Systems to Protect Electric Vehicle Charging Points

The above options to protect EV charging stations at workplaces are designed to be easy to install and a reliable solution for many UK businesses.

However, we know that many companies have unique site layouts and challenges when considering how to protect EV charge points at their premises. We would be delighted to help design and install a safety system that keeps your equipment protected, and your vehicles energised and ready for action.

Also, if you need help protecting domestic electric vehicle charging equipment, or you are a public sector body installing EV charge points in public car parks, Brandsafe has the solution. Get in touch to discuss your impact protection requirements further with our team of product specialists.

We are delighted to announce that the parent company of Brandsafe, IWS Group (The Industrial Workspace Specialists), has acquired The Rack Group – a leading provider of pallet racking safety, inspection, repair and maintenance solutions.

Established for over 40 years as the UK’s leading pallet racking safety specialist, The Rack Group provides a unique combination of services – including inspection, repair, maintenance and training – and innovative products and solutions that guard, secure and maintain racking.

The Rack Group is reputable for its unique ability to deliver high quality and speedy service to some of the largest brands in the warehousing, storage, logistics and retail sectors. Its racking protection product, Rack Armour, is used extensively throughout warehouses and distribution centres across the globe.

What does this mean for Brandsafe and its customers?

Brandsafe and the wider IWS Group family is continuing to grow. The addition of The Rack Group to our family of specialist businesses further strengthens our resource, infrastructure and capability to provide our customers with the highest standards of service, customer care and innovation. It will also enable us to provide our valued customers with a wider breadth of service and product solutions.

The future

We are all excited about the future, and we’re particularly keen to explore opportunities to introduce complementary services, solutions and products to our customers from our new sister company within IWS Group.

More about IWS Group

IWS Group, the Industrial Workspace Specialists, is a growing family of market-leading product brands, manufacturers and service companies, providing essential services and supplies to the logistics, material handling and other industrial sectors across Europe and beyond. Find out more at www.iws.group

Brandsafe’s sister companies in the IWS Group are Beaverswood and The Rack Group.

Beaverswood designs and manufactures innovative products that improve the safety, efficiency and sustainability of the physical workplace. The range includes site safety products, labelling and signage, 5S visual communication and waste segregation solutions. Visit: www.beaverswood.co.uk

The Rack Group is a well-established market leader of pallet racking safety services, including inspection, repair and maintenance. Its racking protection product Rack Armour is the market’s most popular upright racking leg protector and is used across the logistics, warehousing and material handling industry globally. Visit: www.therackgroup.com

For more information about Brandsafe and IWS Group, please feel free to get in touch with our team.

Safety bollards are a simple but effective solution for traffic management and H&S compliance. With a wide variety to choose from, in this article, we take a look at five different types of safety bollards and their functions.

Commercial premises where off-road and on-road vehicles operate all have their own individual risk points and challenges. Whether that’s areas in which pedestrians and vehicles both feature or where a collision could cause serious structural damage.

Badly managed site traffic can obviously put people in dangerous situations and attract heavy Health and Safety penalties if and when the worst happens. You could also find that even a minor collision interrupts your business day, and results in costly repairs to the vehicle and/or your building.

Strategically placed safety bollards offset these risks significantly. Primarily by alerting both drivers and pedestrians to risks. Modern versions can also serve more purposes, as the following five types of safety bollards illustrate.

1. EV Charging Point Protection

With the growing use of electric vehicles, workplaces are making provisions for easily accessible charging ports in public and commercial parking areas.

This can leave you with a new area of vulnerability though, as vehicles bumping into or even scuffing your charging points can mean expensive repairs or replacements.

Brandsafe offers an effective solution to this modern-day problem; in the form of safety bollards specifically designed to guard your electric vehicle charging equipment. They can be quickly and easily installed to shield EV charging points.

These products also help to flag up your facilities for electric car, van and truck charging, as well as guiding drivers to the best parking positions to use them.

As standard, we offer product packages that will cover either light, medium or heavy-duty impact risks. Alongside our standard options, we can also offer bespoke solutions that are made-to-measure to provide the best possible protection for your site’s EV charging points.

2. Flexible Bollards & Delineators

The role safety bollards play in alerting site users to risks is well illustrated with our range of bollards and accessories to mark out traffic routes. It’s hard to miss a strategically placed array of flexible bollards and delineators in high-vis colours.

However, one of the advantages of this product range is that if something does hit these safety bollards at low speeds, they bend and move, before taking up their original shape and configuration.

This means that if vehicles do make contact, there’s no damage done. As they are relatively low-cost, you can use flexible bollards extensively for temporary and permanent traffic management.

3. Flexible Delineator – Parking Bay Signage

This addition to our versatile and long-lasting flexible bollard range will help businesses to manage traffic flows with agility and confidence. Flexible delineators to indicate parking bays will become an increasingly popular safety solution as staff return to the workplace and more in-person site meetings take place.

Collisions in parking areas are not the only problem that can be solved with this type of safety bollard though. You can also solve a lot of confusion for visitors to your site, and make sure that drivers park logically and neatly.

Flexible delineators that feature parking bay indicators currently include options to mark out either Disabled or Electric Vehicle Parking Bays.

This product is easy to spot, but unlike permanent parking signage, you can move it around when needed. If vehicles do make contact, the materials and design avoid structural damage to the vehicle and the bollard itself.

4. Bollard Cover Kits

This is undoubtedly one of the most cost-effective types of safety bollard options, that still manages to play a role in keeping vehicles flowing safely and sites incident-free.

These snap-fit, polymer moulded bollard cover kits turn your existing posts into an easy-to-spot safety structure. The kits come in various high-vis colours, so you can categorise your posts. They are also available in a range of sizes, all fitted with reflective bands to increase visibility in poor light.

As they require little-to-no maintenance, they are an ideal all-weather, 24-hour system to guide traffic and make your site posts more obvious.

5. Demountable Drop Core Bollards

Like all the safety bollards outlined here, demountable drop core bollard options are easy and quick to install, as well as being highly cost-efficient.

As the name suggests, Demountable Drop Core Bollards can also be swiftly relocated as your site traffic needs change. They are not flimsy though. Made from steel and polyethylene, these safety bollards are designed to highlight and protect high-risk areas. This includes warehouse loading bays and external site entrances / exits.

The five colours all feature 50mm reflective strips to improve visibility in lower light.

Which Safety Bollards Do I Need?

With such an extensive range of safety bollards available, it can sometimes be difficult to know if you have the correct systems to meet current and changing site requirements. Contact Brandsafe for free advice on traffic management and safety features in your workplace.

In a warehouse, safety is paramount. But how can you make your warehouse a safer place for everyone? Here we will look at introducing safety barriers and how installing these can keep your warehouse more secure.

Pedestrian Safety Barriers (SEG+)

In a warehouse setting, there is often a combination of foot traffic and forklifts, or other machinery, all working in the same space at once. This is why it is so vital to create a safe space for pedestrian access, as well as a clear route for all important vehicular access – this way, everyone can work safely without concern.

A fantastic way to create this delineation is with Pedestrian Safety Barriers. These barriers are perfect for zoning off separate areas, coming in your choice of black or yellow. If you need to restrict pedestrian access to IT and LV units, available with pedestrian sprung return gates so that equipment can be easily accessed and maintained, as well as demountable shoe plate options.

Each Pedestrian Safety Barrier is created to meet your bespoke needs, including the corner post, end post, mid-post and post centres, with a unit height of 1100mm. Made from high-quality materials, these safety barriers can withstand impact and keep your pedestrian workers safe at all times.

Guardrail Systems (MHE / PIT)

In some warehouse environments, it is essential to have more heavy-duty protection for every member of your workforce. Our guardrail systems are ideal for creating space and clear segregation between forklifts and other equipment from pedestrianised routes within your warehouse.

Available in yellow for clear visibility, these guardrail systems can also be adapted to custom colours in order to suit your warehouse environment. Made from heavy-duty steel, these guardrails are durable and sturdy enough to suit most environments, while still being able to integrate pedestrian gates for improved ease of access.

Concerned about cleanliness in an increasingly safety-conscious world? These systems have foam gaskets under the base rails so that there is less chance of dirt building up or debris collecting. Meanwhile, the closed-cell construction keeps your guardrails free from corrosion even during deep cleans – this means that you will not have to replace your guardrail system as frequently.

Coming with de-stacker extensions, the guardrails can stand at roughly 3000mm, creating a perfect separation from areas with stacked materials or larger pieces of equipment. Available with fittings supplied and all parts included, it is easy to create a safer space within your warehouse.

Pedestrian Handrail Systems (HR50)

Whether inside or outside, your warehouse environment usually requires secure pedestrian walkways. This pedestrian handrail system comes in a choice of yellow or black and is perfect for setting up safe zones within your warehouse setting.

Ideal for factory settings where pedestrian workers need to be separated from conveyor systems, it reduces the likelihood of pedestrian workers straying into areas where they are likely to encounter limb clash or head clash with equipment.

Restricting pedestrian access to safe areas is an essential part of improving worker retention and security – mainly because it results in fewer workplace accidents and injuries.

The pedestrian handrail system has steel boots and you can invest in a low-level barrier rail for added safety. With pedestrian sprung return gates as an option, your equipment will still be easy to access and perform maintenance on, without allowing accidental access.

With all components coming included in your bespoke quote, the system stands at 1100mm, the ideal height for pedestrians and blocking off forklifts and lower height equipment.

Sturdy and long-lasting, you can opt to add demountable shoe plate options for an even higher level of access, while still creating safe and secure walkways for all your workers, whether they are on foot or in a vehicle.

As you can see, installing the correct safety barriers for warehouse environments is a vital step in making certain everyone in your workforce. Whether you are looking for barriers to protect your pedestrian staff and forklift drivers, require a more heavy-duty barrier system for your environment, or need to provide handrails for pedestrians, there are options for your warehouse.

If you are ready to improve the safety in your warehouse, then get in touch with Brandsafe. We can help you to kit out your warehouse, from quote to installation.

Many companies are investing in electric vehicle charging stations at their premises. With commercial units costing well over £1,000, we want to help you avoid EV charging point damage with inexpensive existing products. The deadline for all cars to be electric is approaching fast. So, any venture which operates a fleet or manages logistics is exploring the most cost-effective way to provide EV charging points and the price for installing EV stations can vary enormously.

Then there is the issue of damage to be considered. When electric cars or autonomous vehicles hit a charging point instead of sliding effectively alongside it, the repercussions are considerable. We offer a range of products that will protect these charging points from impact damage; ensuring that your significant investment in this technology is looked after.

How likely is EV charging station damage?

If you don’t protect these new structures, you could face the problem of being unable to charge commercial vehicles that should be out on the road. You also face the need for costly repairs or even a complete replacement. Grants are available for initial installation, but not for when your equipment gets scuffed, clipped or reversed into.

Well-designed EV charging stations are compact and unobtrusive, housing communication and automatic data management systems in their structure, along with either a tethered charging lead or a charging socket. The irony is, the more streamlined your model is, the more likely it is that the complex circuitry and specially designed housing are in peril. Particularly when you initially install the EV points, and driver awareness is low.

Brandsafe provides three standard packages (or a bespoke solution if needed) to shield your EV stations from impact. The one you choose depends on the number of EV points you have, the layout of your site, the volume of likely usage and the size of vehicles operating on the site.

Light Duty Protection

Ideal for private and small public car parks where domestic vehicles are the primary source of traffic, our standard Light Duty Protection package consists of 2 No. ImpactSAFE Protection Posts that are highly visible to pedestrians and drivers. They provide strong and robust impact protection for this type of application.

Medium Duty Protection

For industrial and larger public car parks, we provide 2 No. ImpactSAFE Protection Posts and a Wheel Stop for added coverage. We recommend this package as a solution when there is a medium-to-high risk of impact damage and where light industrial vehicles (such as electric vans) are going to be using these charging points.

Heavy Duty Protection

When there are larger industrial vehicles (such as HLGVs and HGVs), we utilise 2 No. ImpactSAFE Bollards and a Wheel Stop. Brandsafe can also offer Armco Safety Barriers as an additional part of this package, the ideal layout of which we can advise on due to our extensive experience with designing and installing these systems.

Bespoke Solutions

We have the capability and flexibility to create custom solutions to suit the exact requirements of your projects. This can range from non-standard colours to suit clients’ branding, to additional signage and protection for surrounding sign / lamp posts, etc. Brandsafe’s team of Product Specialists are on-hand to advise you.

Site surveys for EV charging points

In commercial settings – such as industrial parks, HGV service yards and fulfilment and logistics bases – protecting your EV charging stations requires more detailed planning. When evaluating where to put EV charging stations – or operating existing ones – don’t forget to consider the repercussions for pedestrians, as well as the level of traffic movement involved.

For example, if your EV point is a section of your car park that’s been used as a short cut by staff, you need to erect warning tapes, impact protection posts and other safety measures. Consider whether wraps for existing lamp or sign posts and rail ends are needed to reduce the risks created as vehicles approach and leave your new EV charging points. This could also be a great time to review your speed bumps and other traffic calming measures.

Speak with our team to discuss your requirements in more detail.

Column wraps, skirts or guards can be sourced cheaply, installed quickly and serve a vital role in warehouse H&S. The potential for column protectors to save you time and money is outlined here.

A momentary distraction or misjudgement in your warehouse could end up costing you dearly. Especially if it results in staff injuries or structural damage that makes your building unsafe. Not to mention lost productivity and repair bills.

One of the most common incidents in warehouse operations is a forklift truck, pallet jack or other machinery and vehicles hitting support columns or racking. In many businesses, it’s often the same edge or corner that gets repeatedly scuffed or reversed in to.

This is a daily risk, no matter how well trained your team are, and no matter how logically you have laid out your warehouse.

Clearly, it represents a serious problem for the driver or operator, or anyone standing nearby if it brings a structure down. Even the slightest knock or graze on an unwieldy surface can dent your high-value equipment. It also has the potential to lead to a visit from a structural engineer to assess potential hidden damage to concrete supports.

Downtime and lost productivity can be an inevitable and unfortunate result.

Many of these issues become far less of a concern by simply fitting low-cost column protection products. Especially ones that are heavy duty and made of the right impact-resistant polymer materials.

The engineering principles of column protection

PolyWRAP Column Protectors are incredibly lightweight and easy to slot into place and secure to any protruding structures. Yet their efficiency in absorbing impact is unparalleled.

Buying these vital warehouse safety produces from Brandsafe also means you benefit from a recyclable polyethene protection system.

We sell a range of standard sizes, which can create a heavy-duty guard on columns from 152mm x 152mm up to 914mm x 305mm in size. However, we can also provide custom-fit column protectors for the ultimate structural shield.

This range is stackable, and due to its clamshell design and ratchet straps, it can be fitted and secured in minutes.

The recessed feature covers the base plate and studs up to 500mm x 500mm, avoiding trip hazards in warehouses too.

It will start having a positive effect from minute one. The bright colours act as alert to the presence of supports in the path of moving machinery. However, the true test comes when the first impact occurs. The quality polyethene material absorbs the kinetic energy, minimising the damage to both the machine and column.

Don’t forget PolyWRAP Column Protectors are ideal for outdoor use too, to keep the approach to your warehouse safer and less prone to damage.

Additional forklift impact protection

In areas where forklift activity is particularly high, we recommend considering the addition of PolyWRAP Forklift Impact Skirting may be useful. It creates a barrier 140mm high at the base of the column protector and can safely absorb the low-level impacts from forklift truck forks and pallets.

It shares many of the advantages of PolyWRAP Column Protectors, as it needs no mechanical placement or fixing, and can be slotted securely around vulnerable structures swiftly and inexpensively.

Impact protection in modern day warehouses is not a static issue

Once you have installed safety products at loading bay doors, around racking and to protect major columns, there could still be more risks to shield against. Mapping out your warehouse to replace or add extra barriers, guides and column protectors should be a continuous process.

You could well find that your operations shift and change over time, so your building’s vulnerabilities alter too. Or, new staff or visiting drivers ‘hit’ on places you have inadvertently left exposed.

Buying quality column protectors and other easy to fit safety products means you can replace and relocate them with minimum fuss. Though buying the right column protectors ensures you won’t need to buy new ones too often!

Modern warehouse safety product manufacturers have got creative and used their design and engineering knowledge to create a superb range of inexpensive aids for H&S compliance in warehouses. To chat through the solutions to your needs, and benefit from our safety advice and product recommendations, give us a call.

One aspect of Healthy and Safety compliance with no room for ambiguity or corner-cutting is shielding staff and visitors from site traffic and machinery. We drill down on the best impact protection options, and traffic management and pedestrian protection products.

Traffic and safety control on commercial premises comes down to one central theme. You must think ahead and try to predict what sort of problems humans and machinery can throw up! Which is no easy matter.

Risk assessments must take account of human nature, and the possibilities of inadvertent slip-ups, as well as deliberate recklessness. Then, you need to find the best impact protection options to keep people, machines and structures well out of each other’s way!

Fortunately, safety product manufacturers have covered all the same considerations, designing and engineering a diverse range of items to slot into place to meet your H&S obligations brilliantly.

This includes both permanent and semi-permanent fixtures and low-cost products that serve vital traffic and safety management purposes. Such as the following site ‘must-haves’.

Combination of flexible and heavy-duty bollards

Both fixed and relocatable bollards and delineators come in many shapes and forms these days, include bollard covers to boost the effectiveness of existing structures.

The goal is always to choose a high-vis product that alerts drivers of off-road and visiting vehicles to areas of risk.

Then, the best bollards are made from good quality impact-absorbing materials, springing back to shape from lighter blows or grazes.

Such versatile products as ImpactSAFE Protection Posts are also a wise investment. They zone off and shield internal fixtures and expensive equipment, from forklift trucks, pallet jacks and other moving machinery.

Parking and loading bay guards and guides

Bollards and other traffic safety measures are particularly crucial in commercial car parks, for fleet management or around busy loading bays.

There are plenty of choices for HGV landing plates and wheel guides, but also products that mark out parking spaces and keep pedestrians and cars apart. Commercial speed bumps are also cost-effective and quick to install in workplace environments.

Flexible delineator posts and chains can be moved into place to manage parking in a versatile way too.

More systems to separate pedestrians and moving machinery

There are other ways to keep staff and visitors safe from impact too.

Including highly affordable and easy to install pedestrian safety barriers and sprung return gates. These high-vis polymer segregation systems enable you to clearly identify pedestrian walkways on your premises.

Demountable shoe plate options make this product category another ‘lean’ choice, as the barriers can be relocated and reused at will.

Or, opt for heavy-duty guardrail systems from Brandsafe, to keep moving machinery carefully segregated.

Impact Protection from protruding structures and roof beams

Another example of the best impact protection products is Brandsafe EdgeWRAP. It’s a light-duty foam to cheaply and swiftly slot on to edges and corners, including any low laying structures and exposed metal. This greatly reduces the chances of staff or visitors sustaining an injury to their head, limbs or clothing!

CornerWRAP is a similarly low cost, high-quality safety solution sold by Brandsafe. It’s a Medium Duty foam, with the added benefit of chevron reflective strips for improved night visibility.

When it’s slotted on to steel, brick, or concrete walls and posts, it reduces the potential for human injury but also protects your building from damage.

Column protectors

PolyWRAP column protectors are another multi-faceted impact management product. With their clamshell design and easy fasten straps, you can install and stack column protectors both indoors and externally.

They absorb impact brilliantly, to keep your structure sound, but also to minimise impact injuries for your workforce.

You could also highlight and guard internal structures using SoftWRAP i-Beam, which you Velcro on to columns for rapid protection.

Modern materials and design for impact protection options

The invention of polyurethane revolutionised the safety product industry. It led to the invention of resilient products with incredible tensile strength, that could absorb impact and then return to their shape instantly. It also led to a new breed of durable workplace protection products with a low unit cost.

In the hands of designers and manufacturers who understand modern safety and traffic management priorities, you can now find a product for every situation and location!

To find your way through the various product ranges and plan the best impact protection options for your workplace, please feel free to get in touch.

If you’re not already among the many commercial sites using Armco barriers, this guide will demonstrate why this brand leads the sector. It will also answer questions about where you can buy accessories for warehouse Armco barriers.

Car parks, loading bays and a diverse range of other warehouse areas need traffic guides and guards to meet safety compliance, and for highly practical reasons too.

Replacing a section of safety barrier is a lot less disastrous than dealing with an injured worker or visitor, paying H&S non-compliance penalties or rebuilding a damaged structure.

However, simply erecting cheap barriers or walls is not sufficient. This can lead to two extremes. A barrier that folds or shatters on impact, or a solid surface that seriously damages the vehicle and puts the driver at risk.

For many companies, the best solution is to install Armco Crash Barriers. This leading brand offers a cost-effective and reliable off-road barrier system, that deflects and absorbs low-speed, low-impact kinetic force from vehicles.

Why Armco?

This steel barrier company has earned its reputation by supplying structures used on UK motorways, roadsides and even race circuits. Its production systems meet BS 4872 industry standards.

The company also manufacturers protective barriers commonly installed in busy warehouse operations, as well as being a brand respected enough to specify for many public thoroughfares, including pedestrian shopping areas and local authority car parks.

A review of Armco Barriers for warehouses shows that the sections are made from highly durable and strong corrugated steel. They are referred to as untensioned corrugated beams, meaning they are manufactured in an iconic W shape. This helps absorb impact, and they can potentially even hold their shape from a lighter blow from many off-road commercial vehicles.

Clearly, Armco Barriers for warehouses can deflect a lot of the force from forklift trucks and cars, but may also protect your staff and structures from HGVs travelling at slower speeds on your premise.

When galvanised and finished off correctly – including properly fitted Armco pedestrian safety ends and post caps – these barrier systems are also moisture resistant and long-lasting. Making them a sound investment, and ideal for external traffic management.

The range is also highly versatile, with various heights and shapes to create different protective abilities according to the layout of your warehouse. Including offering enough scope to engineer internal guards in warehouses too.

Tips to avoid mistakes in specifying warehouse Armco barriers

It’s important to buy direct, or from suppliers with reliable insights into the configurations that serve the best purpose. The same applies to accessories for warehouse Armco barriers. Make sure you buy genuine parts to finish off your barriers, from Brandsafe. Buying industry experience -as well as quality products – matters!

This especially relates to covering off sharp or protruding edges. We stock Armco Post Caps which quickly push into place, increasing visibility and safety.

Also, make sure you map out your protective barriers for your warehouse operations – or other commercial sites – accurately. Your risk assessment needs to take account of any irregular shapes you may need to create an effective barrier system. To help you measure your Armco crash barriers spec, the company has an excellent free calculator on its website.

How to erect warehouse Armco barriers

As well as buying the correct posts, lengths and curves, make sure you find a supplier of accessories for Armco crash barriers who is knowledgeable and quick to respond. Especially as you may find you need additional components once the installation is underway.

Bolt-together the components, then attach the main beam sections together. These are usually 3mm thick and pre-drilled for fixing in place. When you have concreted your support posts into the ground or used base plates, you should find that the pre-drilled holes on these posts line up with the ones in the beams and curves.

Move gradually down the posts, attaching the beams as you go, making sure to slot on Armco pedestrian safety ends and post caps to smooth out transitions, gaps and edges. Use at least two posts to support a corner section.

Warehouse Armco Barrier Accessories

Brandsafe has everything you to need finish off your warehouse Armco barriers, or to retrofit protectors on sharp edges and intersections. Our safety edges and post caps for Armco barriers are either yellow or black, with diamond grade reflectors for increased visibility.

We’re lifting the lid on the subject of safety barriers, and vital factors that can’t be overlooked. Not least because incorrectly engineered or placed barriers can be more dangerous than not having any at all.

Strategically-placed barriers without a doubt go a long way to reducing the number of accidents around your building. They are vital in warehouses and logistics businesses, and on construction sites, or anywhere else that vehicles and people operate closely together.

This is an issue you can never be complacent about

The wrong kind of barriers – or incorrectly installed or outdated ones – can leave you badly exposed to serious incidents. Putting staff, visitors, vehicles and the fabric of your building at risk.

Failure to map out the best places for safety barriers can also cause business interruption, costly repairs, heavy fines and a serious (if not permanent) dent in your company’s reputation.

Safety barriers on private property

If this makes you doubt the reasons for installing safety barriers in and around your premises, then please be assured they do serve a vital purpose. In fact, if you own a commercial site where vehicles operate, you have a regulatory and ethical duty to install suitable safety measures. Including methods of segregating pedestrians and forklift trucks, for instance.

The focus needs to be on getting your specifications right, buying quality products and installing well-designed barriers correctly.

What to look for in reliable safety barriers

First and foremost, you need a supplier able to prove the integrity and impact-values of the safety barriers you buy. This is one time when the cheapest is not necessarily best. Something that looks the part, can prove to be entirely cosmetic and a risk mitigation failure.

There are even cases of companies buying highly visible lightweight products to alert drivers to danger, missing one of the most important purposes of these products. The best kind of barrier is a warning but also offers shock absorbency, minimising the damage caused by impact.

And you don’t need to pay high prices for outstanding safety barriers that that are both highly visible and durable. Brandsafe keeps prices highly competitive, while still offering safety products that are thoroughly tested and verified.

All of our safety barriers are tested to withstand the force of maximum capacity vehicles, travelling at maximum speed.

There’s a snapshot of some of the impact testing work we do on our website, as we put our reputation on the line with every safety product we endorse and sell.

Watch our impact testing video 

Also, if you are going to invest in robust traffic management solutions, your safety barriers and bollards need to be low maintenance, built to last and fixed down properly. (Unless you want a versatile demountable safety barrier than you can relocate as risk factors change.)

Finding the best safety barriers for your site

If you have a workplace where vehicles operate, the best safety solution has to be versatile enough to adapt to your layout. That includes safety barriers and guardrails that can be installed quickly, but which create an authentic obstacle.

For example, our Pedestrian Safety Barriers (SEG+) are engineered from an advanced polymer and strong steel boots. The range includes corner, end and mid posts, post centres, demountable options and Sprung Return Gates. So, instead of working around a prefabricated safety barrier, you simply create your own pedestrian segregation solution. One that keeps your traffic flowing uninterrupted, but with the assurance of sound risk management.

We also sell heavy duty Guardrail Systems (MHE / PIT), with de-stacker extensions. You can build up to around 3000mm high, making this a great way to separate vehicles and pedestrians in places where tall pallets or equipment create a restricted view.

These are just two examples of Brandsafe products that you can depend on.

Putting traffic control in safe hands

Location is fundamental to the value of having safety barriers installed. They also need to be an unmissable warning system and a genuine layer of protection between vehicles and people. Impact absorption capacity matters far more than appearance, though the best-made safety barriers look reassuring strong and effective.

If you are ready to pin down locations for safety barriers and your product requirements, give us a call.

Regularly reviewing warehouse site safety – and sourcing products that fulfil your ‘duty of care’ – serves multiple purposes. Including keeping you operational and avoiding heavy Health and Safety related fines.

The likely cost of breaching your duty to employees and site visitors – enshrined in Section 33 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 – could run into tens of thousands of pounds. If not more. In some cases, it also leads to criminal charges and imprisonment.

In 2017, a UK high street retailer paid a hefty fine of £1m for having chaotic working conditions in its warehouse and storeroom operations. Clearly, safety measures are something that no firm should allow themselves to become complacent about.

How a lack of awareness or time can trip companies up when it comes to warehouse safety

Obviously, ‘intentionally breaching or flagrantly disregarding the law’ is the most serious accusation you could face under Health and Safety legislation. Though you’re also culpable if you show a lack of foresight or ‘willful blindness’ to risks. There are even hefty penalties for offences committed by ‘acts or omissions’ reducing the reasonable care you take of people on your premises.

To keep your warehouse operations on the right side of ethical and legal obligations, we offer a range of low cost, easy to install safety measures, including these five crucial (but often overlooked) products for warehouse safety.

So, which five warehouse safety measures should you be considering here?

1. Edge WRAP

Shielding sharp edges and protruding structures within your premises is basic common sense. The trick is to use a product that genuinely acts as both a warning and a damage limitation measure. Some companies buy cheap high-vis products which don’t actually physically protect pedestrians from injury.

The five shape options offered by our quality Edge Wrap can be matched to diverse sharp edges and low steelwork for example. It is high calibre Edge Wrap with excellent Light Duty foam impact absorbency. It is also inexpensive and quick to install, as it is self-adhesive.

2. HGV Landing Plates

Positioning HGVs correctly and quickly saves time but also avoids accidents. Fitting manoeuvring aids is another occasion when safety products must tick multiple boxes though. Inferior landing plates can lead to a whole new set of risks, including tripping up your workforce or visiting drivers.

Our high molecular grade polymer HGV landing plates are highly visible but also constructed with chamfered edges and countersunk anchors to fix them in place. Giving pedestrians and vehicles a smooth passage across them.

Having these HGV landing plates installed is a great way to reduce damage and wear and tear to your loading bay surface too. An added economic bonus.

3. Pedestrian Handrail Systems

As slips, trips and falls are a major contributor to workplace accidents, simple and inexpensive handrails make your warehouse a much safer place. Apart from giving pedestrians support as they walk up and down steps or along raised walkways, the correct handrails manage pedestrian traffic to avoid clashes in tight spaces or encroachment into high-risk areas.

Our Pedestrian Handrail Systems – which have Sprung Return Gates and Demountable Shoe Plate Options – are also a great way to guide people away from parts of your premises prone to accidental damage.

4. Speed Humps

Another easy win in the battle to protect employees and visitors is to fit traffic calming measures within warehouse operations. Our speed bump kits are ideal for this, helping to highlight where vehicles are likely to pass and providing drivers with a strong incentive to slow down.

These speed reduction products are quick to install on concrete or tarmac and feature diamond grade reflectors for improved visibility in poor light.

5. Drop Core Bollards

Another quick solution for safety improvements in warehouses is heavy-duty, multi-purpose demountable bollards. You can fix them down and then relocate them as your field of operations alters, or as new risks crop up.

Brandsafe’s come in five colour options to flag up fire hazards, caution areas and high-risk locations for example. As they are polymer covered, they require no repainting, and they are designed to be both an effective warning system and an impact management tool.

Mapping safety product needs

Bringing in expert help to evaluate your warehouse safety requirements can connect you to cost-effective and durable systems, that boost your safety record significantly. It also gives you one less headache, as your Health and Safety at Work compliance is more assured, making inspections a lot less stressful.

Give us a call to discuss updating your safety product profile.

Our UK Strategic Account Manager for Brandsafe, Paul Roehricht, considers the critical role aftersales care and partnership plays in delivering the highest standards of safety and protection in the warehouse and logistics environment. 

It should really go without saying that taking care of your customers once you have provided and installed products is best practice and the number one priority for any supplier. But too often in the scramble to deliver and look for new customers, it can be to easy to fail to follow through or appreciate that active aftercare can be beneficial for business.

Indeed, aftersales care and support reflects a genuine insight into customer needs as well as an opportunity for a supplier to secure additional business in future: it’s been estimated that margins generated by post-sales activities can be several times higher than those of initial product sales.

Good customer service does not stop once a purchase has been made, installed and your team has left the building. It’s only right that customers investing significant sums in safety and impact protection systems – indeed, any products – deserve the highest quality service, fast and effective resolution of problems or queries, as well as a touch of added value.

Understanding demand and managing the supply chain efficiently to secure product stock levels, supported by the deployment to customer sites of skilled, well resourced service teams, who understand the nuances and critical issues on the ground when it comes to onsite installation of systems and products, are key ingredients in a recipe for getting things right first time, every time. For example, if you cannot supply customers with the right part or product when they need it, and then install properly, they will go elsewhere.

Positive experience

Customers will be far more satisfied if they see your demonstrable focus on service and aftercare support, too. They’re more likely to purchase from you in the future if they have a positive experience of your company and project management capabilities – they may even recommend the brand to other potential customers as a result. For most companies, better service and aftersales support boosts revenue, delivers greater profitability and inevitably creates a powerful competitive advantage for the brand. Simply put, it’s good business.

Undoubtedly, the current pandemic is re-shaping the way many organisations conduct business. And this can be reflected in the role partnership plays in areas such as project management – and how sector suppliers such as Brandsafe go the extra mile.

Suppliers and customers who adopt a partnership approach can see rewards and reap significant benefits; particularly in the warehouse and logistics industry, which has been prone to accusations of unwillingness to share best practice and engage collaboratively on safety matters to drive wholesale improvements for the benefit of all sector operators.

Supply chain collaboration has a lot to offer. Relying on your supply partner to effectively project manage critical installations, for example, can reduce costs while improving quality and service levels.  As we see online sales surge as a result of the pandemic seemingly without end, many retailers and distributors are peddling fast to re-organise and invest to either upgrade or redevelop existing warehouse infrastructures, or build new multi-complexes and international distribution hubs to accommodate strategic growth and expansion.

Operators may be rightly concerned about investing at a time when managing the bottom line is crucial but, with so much current change in consumer behaviour and purchasing decisions, there is no time for businesses to rest on their laurels.

Indeed, online sales in 2020 are expected to grow 19% year-on-year, up from pre-pandemic estimates of 11%, rising from a total of £66bn in 2019 to almost £80bn this year. Some forecasters suggest UK e-commerce will grow in value by as much as £5.3bn by the end of the year. Supermarket supply chains are also seeing big surges in demand, placing additional pressure on their distribution and supply chain infrastructure. 

Partnership delivers

Skilled labour, which should be utilised effectively, is a resource in short supply, whose use must be effectively deployed. Many businesses in the warehouse and logistics sector might not be able attract or retain all the skills they require to support their capital investment and redevelopment plans, or may need these skills on a more flexible basis. Working in partnership with your supplier, who will have the requisite experience and expertise in place and available for use, will add even more supply chain value and allow people to benefit from skilled resources.

Innovative approaches can be shared throughout our sector, opening up advantages and delivering benefits for all. Partnership can make things a lot easier, quicker and cheaper, helping to support your health and safety commitments as you move into new geographical areas, expand operations or enter markets to access new customers and opportunities.

It will unquestionably facilitate new dynamics in the supplier/customer relationship, paving the way to mutually beneficial commercial and operational advantages. So in a sector that constantly evolves to meet the ebb and flow of changing consumer tastes and faces challenges around keeping people safe and secure while maximising productivity, surely there’s no better time to explore partnership with your suppliers and the role it plays in delivering the highest standards of protection?

About Brandsafe

Brandsafe specialises in bespoke designed impact protection systems and solutions for distribution centres, warehouses, and manufacturing and production facilities. The company’s innovative product range combines the versatility of polymer with the inherent strength and cost-effectiveness of steel. Brandsafe prides itself on its unmatched project and consulting expertise, which provides an unrivalled solution for companies who put safety first. Contact our expert team to see how we can help you on your project.

When it comes to HGV protection, one of the most important ways to manage the risk of accidents is to closely examine the potential blind spots around your site. Where are they likely to be, how can drivers manage them and what safety products can companies use to reduce the risks.

Thanks to the investment companies make in driver training – and creating logical and safe access points at their premises – accidents involving HGVs are thankfully infrequent. However, when they do happen, they can be catastrophic.

Even within the confines of business premises, HGVs have the capacity to cause serious injury or to kill a pedestrian or driver. They can also create major structural damage, resulting in significant business interruption and cost. Having the contents of a lorry written off – or bodywork repairs to commission – can be the least of your concerns when a vehicle backs into a loading bay pillar or fails to manoeuvre around a height-restricted structure.

This demands that any sites where HGVs operate must regularly assess their risks, including the less obvious ones. What potential is there for blind spots which could hamper even the most advanced HGV driver? Then, you need to install impact safety products that protect HGV drivers, pedestrians and your buildings.

Industry reaction to the perils of blind spots

Of course, this is not an issue solely of concern to companies with large vehicles entering and leaving their premises. There is a growing awareness nationwide that more steps are needed to manage HGV safety on UK roads

This has resulted in some manufacturers and operators fitting vehicles with the latest technologies, including sensor systems with driver alerts, camera monitoring systems, Class V and VI mirrors and audible left-turn warnings, for example.

In London, drivers now need HGV Safety Permits to avoid a ban from the capital’s roads. These permits are only issued if vehicles meet a list of attributes designed to keep both pedestrians and cyclists safe.

The primary source of HGV blind spots is, of course, the visibility restrictions created by their own bodywork. This can leave larger lorries unable to see small cars that are right alongside them, let alone cyclists, people on foot and low-lying structures.

Even technology can’t solve all the problems this creates. The emphasis often needs to be on aids that help commercial vehicles manoeuvre and park smoothly.

Low-cost products that mitigate HGV blind spots

When it comes to HGV protection and keeping your staff safe on your premises, the Brandsafe products that can assist you are inexpensive to buy, and easy to install.

Some of our products are designed to act as shock absorbers, reducing the potential for vehicles to damage structures or their own wheels and bodywork, such as column wraps and bollards.

Others are simple but clever ways to manage HGV blind spots, at the same time as speeding up vehicle maneuvering, which makes delivery and loading swifter.

For example:

HGV Cranked Wheel Dock Guides

HGV Cranked Dock Wheel Guides

This is a contemporary innovation, based on traditional systems to guide HGVs into place on raised level loading docks. Available in two different lengths, our high-vis cranked guides are also a great way to protect vehicle wheel rims from costly damage.

HGV Straight Wheel Dock Guides

HGV Straight Dock Wheel Guides

These galvanised HGV wheel guides are also available in two sizes. They help drivers reverse or drive forwards on to raised level loading docks more intuitively.

HGV Wheel Stops

HGV Wheel Stops (Rubber)

A great parking aid for HGVs is our high-vis wheel stops, engineered from recycled truck tyres. Having these installed also helps pedestrians to see where HGVs, buses and other commercial vehicles will be manoeuvring. Our durable moulded wheel stops come with all the fixing items needed to create clear stopping points on your concrete or tarmac.

Illuminating your site’s blind spots

Getting your HGVs into place efficiently is important to keeping productivity up, and accident rates down. Having impact safety products from our range installed will definitely be welcomed by drivers too. They will be able to do their job in a more assured manner.

Get in touch with the team at Brandsafe for more information about HGV protection and related products, impact deterrents and manoeuvring guides, to manage workplace risks on your site.

There are many good reasons why we recommend Armco products for cross-site safety in diverse warehouse operations in the UK. It’s a brand with a stellar reputation in its field and it has our 100% trust rating. Here’s why.

Warehouse accident prevention – protecting people, structures and machinery from harm – calls for wholehearted commitment and continuous evaluation. Including finding the best safety products to manage risks right across your site geography.

For us, Armco leads the field on this, offering tailored warehouse safety products at highly competitive prices. Why do we have such faith in this brand and recommend the range to so many of our warehouse customers?

Safety product integrity

Any review of Armco safety products for warehouse sites must mention the level of design excellence invested in creating the ideal barriers and accessories.

The dimensions and tensile properties of the sections can be optimised to cope with a wide range of collision risks – according to height and other trajectory factors.

Also, the materials used to create Armco products have a proven ability to absorb impact, limiting the damage done when vehicles make contact with crash barriers.

As our reputation rests on the safety record of our customers, we know that recommending, engineering and installing Armco barriers offers the best line of defence.

Are the best barriers for warehouse sites, the most expensive?

The cost of accident prevention measures in warehouses can be a critical factor when fitting out a new build or upgrading or refitting an existing site.

The cheapest solution is not always the best one when it comes to managing traffic and workforce safety. However, too often companies waste money on overly complex or unnecessary safety measures.

One of the reasons Armco offers the leading off-road barrier systems is that the price of supply and installation can be relatively low.

Without compromising the integrity or effectiveness of this vital warehouse safety measure.

These products also last, withstanding environmental factors and a substantial amount of ‘wear and tear’.

Armco is versatile and quick to install

The Armco range offers something to suit any off-road location. From loading bay approaches used by large wagons and busy company car parks, to the internal areas of your warehouse where forklift trucks manoeuvre.

This versatility is echoed by the way Armco barriers can be configured to meet specific site needs. For instance, you could protect commercial vehicles operating on your site by installing Armco 760HR Safety Barriers, which come ready fitted with a pedestrian handrail on one side. It separates traffic from people brilliantly.

Apart from choosing from various Armco barrier design and size options, the way they are fixed down can be bespoke to your site.

For example, Armco Wall Mounted Safety Barriers are a great way to manage the risk of vehicles clipping structures around entrances or the sides of your buildings.

Advanced accessories for warehouse safety

The safety barriers themselves are engineered to reduce and manage impact damage, but importantly, you can also specify various features that further improve traffic and pedestrian safety.

A great example of this is the Armco Fishtail Safety End. Not only does it absorb contact with vehicles on your site, but it’s also highly visible, preventing collisions from happening in the first place. You can retrofit this flexible polymer safety end on any Armco steel barrier or rail.

The range offers you ways to pay strict attention to detail when it comes to accident prevention.

Such as simple but effective high-vis protective post caps to smooth out sharp rail edges, or push-fit kits to add polymer ends to barrier lengths.

Any barrier corners can be topped off with unmissably bright Armco Safety Corners.

This ingenious range has covered all the risks, so you can cover all your safety obligations!

How to know which Armco product is ‘best fit’

The Armco range is understandably popular within warehouse operations, or for any site which needs to prevent accidents and manage vehicles operating continuously.

Reducing risks and minimising collision damage keeps people safer, but also avoids repair costs and loss of productivity.

The trick though is getting your Armco barriers, rails and accessories to match your site layout and specific safety risks.

Brandsafe provides in-depth, tailored advice as a standard feature of its Armco safety barrier supply and installation service.

Contact our team to discuss your Armco safety barrier and impact protection requirements.

As an employer, meeting Health & Safety obligations must always be your top priority. Knowing where to go for expert help and quality safety products can help enormously, which is why understanding what we do at Brandsafe is so important.

Finding a supplier of versatile and reliable safety products for your premises – inside and out – can mean sifting through a myriad of different companies.

Then, making sense of the different terminology they use for what they sell to find the right size and type of product to prevent accidents on your site.

For many companies, it is far better to save time and gain peace of mind by approaching Brandsafe for expert help.

It can also be the ideal way to keep to a tight budget while still confidently shopping for all your site-specific safety products.

Why Brandsafe?

We have invested a great deal of time in understanding the safety needs of modern businesses and industrial premises – from supermarkets to warehouse operations, and from office car parks to factory floors.

Our product research and innovation are also highly advanced. We avidly follow safety prevention trends and the latest product development, to understand the best way to protect structures, machinery and of course people.

From wheel stops and protection posts to substantial safety barriers, we have the ultimate know-how.

We don’t just sell safety products. We provide consultation and site survey and accident prevention support.

The reason we take our job so seriously is that Brandsafe doesn’t ‘just’ sell safety products. We work with customers to sell the RIGHT safety products; items that authentically and completely dovetail with their risks.

This ensures you don’t overspend on unnecessary or overcomplex items. Or, worse still, find you have inadvertently left your site exposed to preventable Health & Safety hazards.

Our reputation rests firmly on your safety record when you use us to map out and install traffic, pedestrian, and workplace accident prevention solutions.

How is Brandsafe’s assured safety product service delivered?

Brandsafe applies its unique insights and expertise to meet the risk needs of each specific customer. It starts with getting a thorough brief and doing a site survey.

We then provide a free quote for safety product supply and installation. This can even mean engineering bespoke items that keep our customers properly protected during their daily business operations.

We provide a free quote for safety product supply and installation.

The alternative for you is buying safety products ‘off-the-shelf’ and hoping that they are correct, easy to fit and serve their purpose reliably.

For many companies, such DIY safety measures are not worth the risk or the potential to spend money unnecessarily.

Also, we understand that your site could be ever-changing, which amends and alters your safety ‘hot spots’ and risk levels.

So, we always look for versatile cross-site safety solutions, that can keep pace with your business development.

What sort of safety products can we supply?

Choosing the best safety products means relying on companies with a strong track record for manufacturing durable items made from quality materials, which have been tested thoroughly.

It’s not a purchasing area were taking shortcuts and buying cheap should ever be a consideration.

Brandsafe knows the manufacturers who tick all the right boxes, at the best prices. This includes Armco, well known for its ability to create trustworthy and keenly priced warehouse safety products.

Our partnership with them provides our customers with a tangible advantage.

Safety product consultancy recommendations

Though each site has its own accident prevention needs, case studies and safety product testimonials from satisfied clients can help you to choose the best supplier.

So, who do Brandsafe work with?

Our end clients include global businesses such as Amazon, Marks & Spencer and Jaguar Land Rover. Finding scalable safety solutions for often complex and multi-faceted sites like these keeps our team fully on their toes.

However, we are equally attentive and invested when a customer has a far simpler need for safety product supply and installation.

Do you need site accident prevention support?

Whatever the size of your company or site, we can map out and recommend genuinely appropriate ways to manage a workforce, traffic and pedestrian safety measures.

Once our product recommendations are accepted, we can install, upgrade or refit safety products swiftly and efficiently to minimise disruption.

Whether you are an architect creating new business premises, a facilities, H&S or site manager improving safety measures, a contractor or a company owner/manager, we are here to help. Get in touch to discuss your site safety risks and tap into our in-depth knowledge of this crucial business field.

Common accidents in the industrial workplace and how to avoid them. One wrong move in your workplace could result in an employee being injured, and your production schedule going off course. These leading accident prevention products could greatly reduce your biggest daily risks in the workplace.

Every industrial business has an ethical and regulatory duty to consistently keep its workforce safe. If you’re thinking you’ve got this covered, there are some sobering statistics that show there is no room for complacency. Especially the fact that every year there are 1.4 million work-related accidents in Britain. In 2018/19, that figure included 147 workers who died.

That’s the crux of this vitally important topic, but accidents don’t just damage individual members of staff either. They cause a drop in productivity or even costly downtime. In fact, work-related accidents lead to 28.2 million lost working days each year and cost an estimated £15 billion!

Many incidents have the potential to cause immeasurable damage to your reputation as an employer and could imply to customers that you don’t take your responsibilities seriously.

All good reasons – if you need them – to regularly review your safety procedures, policies and equipment. It’s not just a way of staying compliant but also a vital business priority. That must include assessing common workplace risks and the accident prevention products that best match your specific layout, type of operations and hazard hot spots.

As fuel for thought, here are three top industrial accident causes, and key safety products to help you guard against them.

1. Crashes And Collisions

The HSE particularly focuses on the way industrial companies control the flow of vehicles on site and the measures used to shield operators and pedestrians from impact. Alongside falls from height, physical harm from vehicles is the leading cause of workplace deaths.

An effective and low-cost way to mitigate the risk of vehicle collisions in and around your building is to fit impact-absorbent materials around pillars and other structures. PolyWRAP Fork Impact skirts for example. They are designed and manufactured to reduce the damage done by both industrial vehicles and pallets. PolyWRAP column protectors – available in different sizes – can be quickly slotted into place, building a protective surface at whatever height works best for your operations.

2. Walking Into Objects

It’s not just forklift truck drivers crashing into hard surfaces that boosts the numbers of vehicle accidents in industry. Pedestrians in and around factories walk into their path.

Staff and visitors also have other slip, trip, chemical and electrical hazards to navigate passed as they move around your site. If you don’t take robust steps, you could contribute to a large number of workplace accidents due to people walking into danger!

Putting up permanent walls and fences can be difficult in an ever-changing industrial environment. Fortunately, you can source versatile pedestrian safety barriers made from polymer, which can be fixed quickly to the floor with a robust steel boot.

The innovative range of accident prevention barriers we sell even includes Pedestrian Sprung Return Gates and Demountable Shoe Plates. Making it an even more logical and responsive way to zone off high-risk areas. It’s the ideal way to keep employees and site visitors away from vehicles and other workplace hazards and can be adjusted to cope with changing hot zones.

3. Other Vehicle-Related Accidents

Vehicle collision and pedestrian encroachment prevention products should head up your H&S must-have list. However, there is something else you can do to reduce the chance of accidents caused by trucks and other vehicles moving around your site. Look up!

A moment of distraction, misjudgement or unfamiliarity with your layout can result in a driver crashing into a doorway, low ceiling or overhanging structure. This puts them – and anyone working nearby – in danger. That’s on top of the likelihood of serious structural damage or vehicles out for repair.

Yet the solution can be surprisingly simple. Height restriction clatter bars. The range we stock can be specified in two lengths, in a complete fix kit, for easy application to diverse structures. The galvanised chain length and wording on the polymer clatter bar can be bespoke to your site.

Saving Lives, And Companies

Over the past five years, almost 50% of fatal workplace accidents were linked to two preventable risks; falling from height and collision with a moving vehicle. Remember too, that even non-fatal accidents can result in life-changing injuries. For some of the businesses involved, a safety oversight also ended their future.

Contact us to discuss your specific safety product shopping list and the best ways to prevent accidents on your site.