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Jonsey1983HGL  
#1 Posted : 05 December 2018 16:10:01(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Jonsey1983HGL

Afternoon all,

Wondering if someone can advise me on the following?

I'm assisting a landscape gardening company, improving their H&S policies. As a company they carry out regular garden maintenance and one off landscaping jobs. Some of our regular customers have large gardens and their own extensice garden power tools and equipment. On some jobs employees are using customers ride on mowers, power tools etc. I want to ensure our staff are working safely, can anyone advise on best practice in this situation? We maintain and service our own equipment regulary and keep records but im not sure how we can do this with customer equipment. I'm also worried about liability and finger pointing if any expensive customer equipment is damaged while we are using it. Fact is that it would be hard for us to work at some of these locations and bring all our own tools but at the same time I don't want to risk an accident happening or a dispute.

Any help would be much appreciated

Kind regards

Trevor

Jonsey1983HGL  
#2 Posted : 07 December 2018 10:53:11(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Jonsey1983HGL

Hey Guys, anyone have any good advice?

Blackburn31728  
#3 Posted : 07 December 2018 10:57:24(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Blackburn31728

First off i dont think they should do this on a wing and a pray they need a contract with the company indicating who has what responsibility for the equipment for use, servicing etc or they need to use there own equipment this need sorting before we get into the realms of liability. make it clear to all for there duties its a business at the end of the day.

Jonsey1983HGL  
#4 Posted : 09 January 2019 08:56:08(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Jonsey1983HGL

Many thanks for the response.

I will need to look at drawing something up. This is only a small company and we are only talking about lawn mowers, hedge cutters etc, but obviously these items can be dangerous.

My thoughts are as follows; 

It's our responsibility to

Ensure employees use the equipment in line with manufacturers instructions

Report any safety issues, defects or problems we see with the equipment straight away.Visual inspections should be carried out before and after use and any issues reported straight away to the customer.

Customers Responsbilities

The responsibility to report any issues found with equipment within a resonsable time limit. I.e we can't take responsbility for faults with equipment if they are not reported to us outside an agreed limit after they were used i.e. 1 week.

Question

If we are using customer powor tools, mowers etc regulary at a customers home. Is it our or their responsbility to ensure they are services regulary?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Kind regards

Trevor

jwk  
#5 Posted : 09 January 2019 09:34:46(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
jwk

Hi Trevor,

As the employer your client has the duty to ensure that equipment is safe for use at work. Servicing should fall to the owner, but it's up to your client to seek assurance that this has been done. So they would need to see evidence of servicing and maintenance, nothing too onerous, just enough to satisfy themselves that the equipment is being properly maintained. If there are any doubts about the servicing or maintenance regime or the customer's capacity to get this done, then your client needs to do it themselves and recharge for it, or walk away from the job,

John

Edited by user 09 January 2019 09:41:12(UTC)  | Reason: Typo

Bigmac1  
#6 Posted : 09 January 2019 09:38:36(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Bigmac1

I would advocate steering clear of using customers equipment.

If you were using fellow companies work equipment, thats different, you would insist on maintenance, guarding etc. You can be assured that they meet any British standards. For example Pruning bushes, you would need to ensure that ladders conformed to BS 131 i.e none domestic. There are loads of examples where your client could be liable if they had an accident.

I would suggest using their own or hired in equipment, then they are in control of their own destiny. 

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