As a provider of essential services to support the utilities sector it was vital that we were able to find ways of continuing to work safely during the Coronavirus pandemic.
The suite of measures we have implemented across our back-office, management and operational workforce is based on official guidance and a series of risk assessments carried out since the start of the national lockdown in March.
To inform the risk assessment process, members of our management team completed an online training course on the Peninsula web portal to which we subscribe. Following this, our risk assessments looked carefully at our day-to-day working practices and what adjustments would need to be made to enable us to continue to provide an effective service while protecting our staff and other stakeholders from infection.
We have now implemented a range of measures which have enabled us to continue to deliver a responsive and reactive service to maintain and repair essential utility infrastructure such as power and water supply to the residents of Greater London and beyond throughout the pandemic.
These include:
- Compulsory temperature monitoring at the start of each shift
- Requiring all staff to complete screening questionnaires which are reviewed by our health and safety team
- Use of PPE (masks) and hand sanitisers
- Social distancing in the office and on-site
To bolster our social distancing procedures we have retro-fitted our fleet of 45 Mercedes 316 Sprinter vehicles with plastic screens which segregate the driver and passenger. The screens are made from 350 gsm lightweight PVC transparent material formed to the entire height and width of the inside cab of our vehicles, fixed with clear plastic inserts to 6mm Steel CNC machine moulding (CNC) Computer Numerical Control.
The divided section encloses the single passenger seat area, allowing the middle seat and dashboard controls and our 4 way CCTV screen all on the side of the driver. The drivers forward -acing visibility is not impaired as fixings to the windscreen are applied by small screen suction cups.
For safety reasons we settled on this system rather than use Perspex or Acrylic as the whole lightweight fabric is quickly removable with fixings easily be unclipped from the outer 6mm frame in cases of a serious RTA or roadside breakdown.
Alan Seyfi, Support Services Director commented: “As well as providing social distancing during travel this initiative has enable Falco to achieve a wider goal of consolidating our logistics for 2-person teams which is the core unit for our operational work,” he says, “Site teams can now travel safely to/from site in a single vehicle which has helped us to reduce costs as well as pollution and the carbon footprint of the service we provide.”
In August we participated in a virtual site audit for the recertification of our integrated management system against ISO 9001/14001/45001 which was conducted via Zoom.