Workplace Blog

Ramp Up Convenience and Safety with Workplace Utility Ramps

Posted on April 29, 2014

Workplace utility ramps are designed to provide convenience and prevent tripping accidents at your office, warehouse, workshop, departmental store, or anywhere else where you're dealing with uneven floor levels or kerbs. If you have ever tried to push a pallet truck, trolley, or wheel chair over a kerb or step, you know how hard it can be to negotiate just a few inches of height difference. Utility ramps solve the problem and make wheeled movement between uneven levels very easy. Types of Utility Ramps Apart from the broad variety of ramps available at The Workplace Depot, there may be other variants of this simple contraption that you could buy at your local hardware store. However, the utility ramps that we offer are tested and guaranteed for quality. Each utility ramp comes with specified load limits and a recommended utility height and use. From ramps for cars to those for bicycles, wheelchairs, pallet trucks, sack trucks, reel trucks, trolleys, and pedestrians, you'll...

Ahoy – Mobile Safety Steps Come Under Pressure!

Posted on April 23, 2014

The Workplace Depot manufactures safety steps and access platforms at a factory in Leicester. We offer an extensive range of mobile safety steps and access platforms and also welcome bespoke orders - additional features may include a larger platform, a safety gate and different types of wheels. We can also make them as tall as you like and in any RAL colour – The RAL colours also applies to our Fetra trucks and trolleys. Safety Steps Load Testing In February 2014 we had our safety steps and access platforms load tested by Pegasus Mechanical Lifting, a UK specialist lifting e...

Security Mirrors - Simple Surveillance Solutions for Warehouses, Shops and Offices

Posted on April 17, 2014

Security convex mirrors have universal applications when you're trying to create a safe and secure movement area or monitored space. Security mirrors work like security cameras, but they are much cheaper and need no maintenance or power supply. Moreover, they provide utility where cameras may be too complicated to use, such as blind curves and corners. Security mirrors come in all shapes and sizes for shops, warehouses, driveways, security checkpoints, and other places where you need an inexpensive "eye-in-the-sky". Security Mirrors for Warehouses The warehousing and road haulage industries reported more than 8,500 accidents in 2009–10, out of which some 1,600 caused serious injuries such as fractures or even amputations. Blind spots and corners can cause collisions between loaded trolleys or hoists, with disastrous consequences. A blind s...

Manual Handling Training - What Every Manager Should Know

Posted on April 09, 2014

Over one-third of some 439,000 work-related musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) cases reported in 2012 were caused by manual handling, which makes manual handling the most hazardous activity around the workplace. The Manual Handling Occupation Regulations (MHORs) of 1992 define manual handling as, "any transporting or supporting of a load (including the lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving thereof) by hand or bodily force.” The menacing numbers of MSD cases have forced employers to take a closer look at their manual handling operations, especially since injured employees started suing their companies for damages. Thanks to the best practices and manual handling guidelines issued and recommended by HSE and RoSPA, there has been a decrease in the incidence of MSD in the last couple of years. Employers are increasingly opting to get their handling procedures reassessed and get their employees trained for manual handling. Manual H...

London's Fashion Scene - Designers, Events, and More

Posted on March 31, 2014

London has been ranked among the top 5 fashion capitals in the Global Language Monitor rankings for many consecutive years, and rose to the top spot in 2012 and 2011. London and other leading cities such as New York, Paris and Milan are termed fashion capitals of the world because the trends that originate in these cities are followed by the whole world. The Fashion Scene in London More than half of the United Kingdom's fashion jobs are concentrated in or around London, where the fashion industry employed more than 46,000 people in 2010. Most of the fashion outlets and designers are located in the Knightsbridge district, but many of them can also be found in South Kensington and Chelsea areas. The City hosts many fashion events, with the London Fashion Week being the most notable among them. The London Fashion Week Organised by the British Fashion Council and sponsored by Vodafone, (among others), the London Fashion Week attracts more than £100 million...

The Biggest Personal Protective Equipment Myths Exposed

Posted on March 24, 2014

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is just one aspect of the health and safety regulations that the government has been attempting to push over the last few years and unsurprisingly, it’s separated into two groups. Some people will kit themselves out in every piece of equipment imaginable, while others will cut corners and subsequently be under protected. This means that countless myths have emerged over the years, with some just basic misconceptions while others are bordering on the ridiculous. In a bid to showcase the sector in its true light, here are the favourite five that we have found. Myth #1: Once I've bought PPE, my obligations are over Whether you are an employer or employee, the obligations are far from over once you fork out for your initial PPE gear. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve bought out the entire shop, this is just the tip of the iceberg and as well as obviously wearing it, you’ll also have to store and keep it appropriately. ...

Setting Up a Mail Room

Posted on March 18, 2014

Despite the phenomenal rise of email, the good old snail mail still remains a part of the everyday reality for many offices. All sorts of documents are dispatched and received via regular mail - contracts, notices, bills, greeting cards, parcels; and only the mailman can tell what else. Government offices usually have a mailroom to deal with the public mail that they receive by the truckloads, and to dispatch notices and bills, which they also send out by the same measure. Certain businesses, such as insurance companies or banks usually have mail rooms in place. For most business, however, the need for a mail room is felt when the business grows to a certain size, and usually after the mail starts getting lost. A mail room (or post room) can have two basic functions - to sort and distribute incoming mail, and to seal and dispatch outgoing mail. Additional functions such as filing or printing of envelopes and address labels may also be assigned to a mail...

Top 10 Funny, Weird and Wacky National Days

Posted on March 12, 2014

Today is National No Smoking Day - perhaps one of the best known and most worthwhile in the 'National Days' calendar. March also has many other well known 'days including Saint David's Day (1st), Pancake Day (4th), Ash Wednesday (5th), International Women's Day (8th), Saint Patrick's Day (17th), Spring Equinox day (21st) and in some years March also hosts Good Friday and Easter. There has been an explosion in recent years of not so important 'national' days - thanks to the abundance of funny, weird and downright wacky national days that the calendar might not show you, we'd thought we'd bring you a list of our top 10: 1. Festival of Sleep Day It's 3rd January and you're just back from the holidays. Weren't they exhausting! How about catching up on some sleep? Though the origins of this day could not be traced, it must have been started by some lazy desk-dozers. Sleeping at work isn't recommended (or tolerated), so take a day off and celebrate the Festival of...

Health and Safety at Musical Concerts

Posted on March 05, 2014

Fill a venue with thousands of charged-up fans, bring in their favorite band, pump up the volume, add some alcohol and crack-heads, and watch how things explode. Musical concerts are notorious for causing bizarre accidents, which sometimes lead to loss of lives and serious injuries. Take the 2010 Pearl Jam performance at the Roskilde Music Festival in Denmark, for instance, where some 50,000 spectators showed up. The rear rows could not hear their idols grunge, so they started pressing forward. Before anyone knew it, gigantic human waves had already become unstoppable, and eventually crushed 11 people to death. The unfortunate accident wasn’t the worst of its kind, as some other music venues have caused hundreds of casualties in a single night. It is not a surprise, then, that the government takes health and safety at musical concerts very seriously and strictly holds the organizers and the management accountable for any untoward incidents taking place du...

How to Start up a Business

Posted on February 25, 2014

Maybe you’re tired of your current job. Perhaps you are bored of the 9 – 5 routine. Or you could just be yearning for the freedom and flexibility that comes with running your own business. businesszone.co.uk/topic/business-trends Whatever the reason, there's a tide of workers turning their backs on traditional employment and opting to set up their own business. As many as 500,000 people opt to set up their own business in the UK every year, and that number is steadily climbing. In the last 13 years, the number of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Britain has rocketed by 29%. Although the credit crunch and double dip recession has impacted on some economic ventures, the opposite eff...

Health and Safety Essentials for Outdoor Events and Festivals

Posted on February 19, 2014

Events and festivals come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from weddings to fetes, from farmer's markets to horse shows, and from charity run to game fairs. Regardless of their nature and purpose, outdoor events always pose significant risks to life and property. The temporary nature of the activity, lack of proper planning, shortage of time, exposure to elements, open cables and electrical connections, weak structures, inadequate experience, and the crowd itself are just some of the reasons why accidents are waiting to happen at outdoor event venues. Health and safety at outdoor events is such a serious concern that the HSE has dedicated a whole portion of its website to the subject - www.hse.gov.uk. Event organizers have been made legally accountable for any and all accidents taking place during the event. The Peterborough City Council has issued elaborate guidelines for event managers and organizers...

Order Picking Trolleys - Types and Uses

Posted on February 18, 2014

As petty as it may seem, it is important to think twice before you choose a trolley for your workplace. A heavy duty trolley would seem useless in a grocery store, whereas as a shopping cart has no business whatsoever in a warehouse. With the increasing varieties of trolleys in becoming available each day, retailers should choose wisely for their own convenience. Warehouse Trolleys Warehouses are large buildings that are purpose-built for storing goods. Shipments are regularly loaded and unloaded in warehouses; hence, warehouses are generally equipped with loading docks. The frequent transfer of heavy consignments calls for firmly-built and spacious order picking trolleys. The trolleys that are usually found in warehouses are "ladder trolleys" and "heavy-duty bin trolleys". Tons of goods are brought and stored in warehouses everyday; hence, a lot of shelves are needed to store them. Ladder trolleys make it easier to carry and tack goods. Ladder trolleys are equipped...