UK – Page 2 – Construction POC

An Introduction To Construction Equipment

Posted on June 30, 2018 by blogger

Construction equipment refers to all vehicles and machinery designed for the purpose of the construction of buildings or any other man-made structure, and it performs tasks that were in the past impossible or difficult for humans alone to undertake by multiplying the input force so that the force exerted is much greater.

Hydraulics is the most common method for the transfer of power in construction equipment, which in layman’s terms is the transmission, control and distribution of energy and signals via pressurised liquid.

Types of construction equipment

Most people will have seen, and are able to identify, common types of construction machinery on building projects around the country. Construction is big business around the world and the UK is no exception. The UK has a huge amount of new-build estates and, while the recession has slowed the housing market somewhat, building sites are still a common sight as you travel around the country.

Here is an explanation of common forms of construction equipment you may have seen.

The crane

The crane is a huge lifting machine that’s used to move objects and materials vertically up or down, or horizontally across. It creates mechanical advantage allowing the movement of materials that wouldn’t be possible by human strength alone.

Cranes are commonly used in the transport industry as well as the construction industry for the loading and offloading of freight.

The first ever known cranes were invented by the Ancient Greeks and powered by humans or animals capable of bearing weight such as donkeys. During the middle ages, harbour cranes became popular to facilitate the construction of ships, and also to help load and offload their cargo.

With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, cranes were fashioned from cast iron and steel, which was much stronger than the wood they had previously been constructed of.

Excavators

These examples of construction equipment is commonly referred to as the digger, and is used to dig trenches, holes and building foundations, as well as for demolition, forestry work and heavy lifting. Colloquialism for the digger is JCB which is the name of the main manufacturer of such machinery.

There are many types of excavator including the compact excavator, the long reach excavator, the dragline excavator, the suction excavator and the power shovel.

Although well regulated nowadays, the construction industry has in the past been a dangerous one with many injuries and deaths occurring each year through dangerous practice. It’s essential that before a person used any construction equipment, he or she must undergo the correct training so as not to put anyone at risk of injury.

What You Should Know About Theft of Construction Equipment

Posted on April 8, 2018 by blogger

People often think that it’s basically impossible for construction equipment to be stolen, since it would be pretty noticeable if someone started driving a crane down the street. But, many construction equipment thefts are easy to conduct for quite a few different reasons. It’s actually really easy to get away with, and has become commonplace in countries such as the US, Canada, Japan and Europe. People should, therefore, be made aware of such thefts going on in their areas.

Because construction equipment doesn’t come with doors or locks, they are easy for burglars to break into. Thieves feel that hi-jacking construction vehicles is a piece of cake compared to most other types of vehicles. And people won’t be able to tell if the equipment being driven is being operated by a thief or construction worker. Most people wouldn’t recognize a piece of construction equipment if it was camouflaged somehow.

Thieves find it beneficial to steal this kind of equipment because it can command a high price on the black market. Forklifts alone can fetch a price of $12,000 to $50,000, and thieves could sell a generator for $150,00 a pop. Because constructions sites often have lots of these kinds of equipment, it’s easy money for clever thieves. Criminals are very fond of stealing construction vehicles for these reasons, not to mention the fact that most construction sites are unsecured and the vehicles are left out in the open with no protection.

The problem has become too severe to be ignored any longer. According to statisticians in Japan, roughly 450 pieces of construction equipment was stolen in 2008 alone. While in the united states, the National Insurance Crime Bureau found that nearly a billion dollars in construction equipment is stolen and sold each year on the black market.

To date, numerous government agencies and manufacturers of construction equipment have tried their best to prevent this theft from continuing. In the UK, construction equipment registration systems make it easier for the police and the companies who own the equipment to recover their stolen goods.

Construction & Building Site Accidents

Posted on February 11, 2018 by blogger

Summary: An informative article about Construction and Building Site Accidents and Safety at the workplace

Safety on work sites is essential, not only for the sound health of employees, but also for the smooth working of the company. It is the duty of the employer to take care of the safety and health issues of its employees that may hamper them at their work place. Legally speaking, it is also necessary on the part of the employer to report incidents or accidents at the workplace and also pay the employee a contractual or a legal sick pay in case the employee is entitled for the same or if they need some time off from work because of some accident at the workplace. Working in office is still quite a safer option, but for those who are employed in construction firms, the risk for construction and building site accidents are even more.

Work-related diseases, accidents and incidents should all be reported by the employer to the Incident Contact Centre of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Death, disease, injuries and incidents, both major and minor, if it hampers the normal working of employees is entitled to be reported for sure. A risk assessment program should be conducted by the employer so as to see what precautions and changes are required in order to ensure safety on work sites for both visitors and employees. It is also a good idea for the employers to maintain an accident book that records all accident and injuries suffered by employees at the workplace for providing the claims for the benefit of employees. This also can help the employer track down the main cause of major accidents and reduce their possibility in future by taking various preventive measures for them.

There are personal injury compensation claims that can be asked for construction and building site accidents in case the employee succeeds in providing enough evidences to prove the cause of the accident to be the negligence of the employer. These claims helps an employee get a monetary compensation for the source of income if lost by them in future due to the accident at the workplace, expenses for the treatment of injuries and other such monetary issues that relate to the accident.

Hence, safety on work sites is the right of employees and the employer is entitled to provide it, so as to avoid unnecessary accidents and compensation claims by employees in future. Therefore, it is important for everyone to be aware of all such rights so as to stand for it at the time of need.

About the Author:

Ian Hass is owner of Excalibur Solicitors, an experienced UK law firm specialising in all forms of Compensation. Excalibur Solicitors handles claims for Accident Types including Whiplash Injury, Construction and Building Site Accidents and Accidents at Work compensation claims.

The Demand For Construction Management Jobs

Posted on January 7, 2018 by blogger

It doesn’t take the intellect of the greatest economist alive to see that the demand for construction managers is huge in the UK at the moment. What might be worth explaining a little more is just why this is so for it isn’t simply to do with rising house prices or a booming market.

The first and most obvious one is that the Olympics are coming and while everyone’s desperately hoping that they won’t be the usual financial nightmare they are also hiring construction managers as fast as they can to try and make sure that it won’t be. Given that this is government work though that hope might still be in vain.

The second on is a little more subtle. We all know from the Daily Mail (and of course industry experience) that the country is awash with Polish plumbers and Czech chippies but this very expansion of a low cost workforce increases the demand for managers in two ways. The first is the obvious one that more workers means more managers. The second and less obvious is that a lowering of the costs of labour means that there’s more money to go somewhere: obviously this isn’t going to the buyers in the form of lower prices and similarly, some of it is spilling over into the hiring of those specialist managers that everyone’s always had a hankering for but could never really afford before.

The third thing driving the increased demand for construction managers is the way in which the industry is becoming ever more complex. Where health n’ safety used to mean hard hats and decent scaffolding there are now dedicated managers on every site tasked with nothing other than making sure the detailed rules are followed. Similarly, the increasing complexity of environmental regulation is meaning greater demand for such specialists. Whether such detailed rules are really needed is another matter but there can be no doubt that they’re driving up the demand for skilled managers in the construction industry.

We at Talisman also have another source of information of course. As experts in the sourcing and provision of managers to the construction industry we can see what demand is simply by monitoring what is crossing our desks. As we as recruitment specialists are, well, as you might think is obvious, recruiting people for the industry, we can see that demand is going up when our clients are tasking us with finding more such managers. The answer here is, yes, there is indeed strong demand for those looking for construction management jobs.