Making Mackoy sites safer: dumper key lanyards

For our Mackoy workers and clients our SHEQ Manager David Bacon will be a familiar face on site. He’s our safety, health, environment and quality caretaker. Responsible for regularly conducting pre-arranged visits to the sites we’re working on. In fact, David’s inspections have proved vital in updating key Mackoy operating policies. As well as flushing out any issues, and maintaining the high safety standards we command of our employees.

It was during one such site visit back in January that David uncovered an unacceptable workplace practice. The key to one of our dumpers was left in a vehicle’s ignition.

Naturally this isn’t a practice we can, nor will, condone at Mackoy. We’re a first-rate civil engineering and groundworks supplier, working with some of the biggest housing providers in the UK. So on-site safety of our staff, as well as our fleet, is something we don’t take lightly (to say the least).

Which brings us back to the issue of dumper keys being left in ignitions.

While the justification for doing this makes sense from a logistics point of view (more than one driver needs to access the machinery and only one set of keys exists). This practice unfortunately doesn’t comply with the strict operating standards we expect of our site staff day to day.

So, how to get around the issue of multiple users needing to access the same vehicle, with only a single set of keys?

The answer (as it turns out) is actually quite simple. Each authorised dumper driver on site gets issued with a unique personalised key fob. Complete with a magnetic breakaway chord. The key fobs are engraved with the driver’s personal initials, before being assigned to a lanyard. Each one is then safely (and securely) held by our Site Manager overnight who alone is responsible for issuing the respective lanyard back to its owner the next day.

On the morning the dumper driver reports to the site for work his or her lanyard is handed over, and attached to their PPE/belt loop by two separate means. At the end of the day drivers simply return their lanyards to the site office accordingly, for the whole process to begin all over again.

So, does the system work?

You bet it does. Plus our staff are happy to have a viable and easy solution in place that doesn’t disrupt their daily workflow. Our Stoneham site manager, working on phase 3 of our housing development with the Highwood Group, has even custom-made this dumper lanyard board to keep tabs on each driver’s keys. If that’s not dedication to the cause we don’t know what is.

To see more of the work safety methods we abide by everyday in our civil engineering and groundworks practice visit our dedicated Health & Safety Page. If nothing else, it will make David very happy.

Categories: Health and Safety