Heavy Equipment Safety Saves Money And Lifts Morale

While legislators have been grappling with rules and regulations aimed at making workplaces safer, employers have been busy doing just that. When it comes to heavy equipment, accidents can have a wide range of effects, and from a business point of view, none of them positive. With this in mind, many employers have made heavy equipment safety their number one priority.

If you consider the effects of an accident on a work site, you’ll understand why. Here is a small list of some of the effects of a work place accident:

• Insurance – The more accidents associated with a business, the higher their insurance premiums. A safe workplace will result in lower insurance premiums.
• Repairs – Every time a heavy equipment vehicle has an accident, there are repair bills. Sometimes, rather than repairing that vehicle, the damage is such that the vehicle requires an expensive replacement.
• Down Time – Accidents often bring a work site to a standstill. Down time costs money since workers are still being employed, but their is no productivity. To add insult to the injury, many construction contracts have penalty clauses for late completions.
• Morale – Perhaps one of the biggest hidden costs is that of low morale that always follows an accident, especially if an individual is seriously injured or killed. Low morale can lead to low productivity and further accidents.

One simple accident can have a flow on affect that costs a business tens of thousands of dollars. That cost could have been saved if everyone had undertaken basic workplace safety training. Today, that’s exactly what is happening. Most employers now expect their new heavy equipment operators to have undertaken some form of heavy equipment safety training – if they haven’t, they generally won’t employ them.

If you are considering training for a career as a heavy equipment operator, make sure your training is through a well respected training organization, and that their training includes a module on heavy equipment safety.