UK MEWP hire members ‘level up’ to IPAF Rental+ standards

All rental/hire members of the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) in the UK have “levelled up” to the IPAF Rental+ minimum standard, which assures people seeking to hire mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs) that an IPAF member company will conform to the highest industry standards of safety and professionalism.

As part of the upgrade to minimum membership standards, IPAF has also launched a new feature on the www.ipaf.org website that allows anyone seeking to rent MEWP equipment to find their nearest IPAF Rental+ accredited company quickly and easily using an online map.

IPAF Rental+ is the standard for quality and safety in the MEWP rental industry. The IPAF UK Country Council mandated in 2017 that all hire/rental company members in the UK should be audited to meet the required standard within a two-year transition period, and the launch of the new geolocation function via www.ipaf.org/rental enables users to find their nearest IPAF Rental+ MEWP hire firm.

Across the past two years, all UK IPAF rental member companies have been working towards the minimum requirements, which includes Safety Systems in Procurement (SSIP) accreditation alongside IPAF criteria to improve safety in the industry. All new IPAF rental members in the UK will also need to be certificated to the IPAF Rental+ standard as of this month.

Stephanie Nolan-Byrne, IPAF’s Quality and Audit Manager, says: “Members have been excellent in their response to the requirement to meet the IPAF Rental+ standard, helping each other gain awareness, finding success in upskilling members of their staff and management teams to enable a safe environment for their business and in turn their customers.

“Anyone looking to hire a MEWP in the UK can now quickly and easily search for their nearest IPAF Rental+ accredited company, safe in the knowledge that they will be able to hire the right equipment to conduct temporary work at height safely and that their requirements will be met with excellent customer service and professionalism.

“The IPAF Quality and Audit Team has worked side-by-side with members to encourage and develop processes to achieve consistency across membership, bringing members feedback to IPAF for implementation in future developments of the standard.

“IPAF has a robust audit system which underpins its members wants and needs which enables them to grow into the new standards developed not only by IPAF but the industry, standards that members can be proud of. IPAF Rental+ will be the standard end customers will look for in the PQQ systems to ensure they have confidence in the level of service they will receive.”

Richard Whiting, IPAF’s UK & Ireland Market General Managers, comments: “IPAF has been supporting members through the process to attain IPAF Rental+ minimum standard and we thank members for the engagement and hard work shown. Those efforts are paying off and the UK Country Council’s 2017 decision to mandate IPAF Rental+ for all hirer members by September 2019 is well on course.

“IPAF Rental+ is an industry-recognised standard that confers confidence that the company will deliver safe and quality equipment, and excellent customer service.

“It’s a definite level-up for the MEWP rental industry in the UK; this fully searchable online mapping service is just one of the many benefits of the scheme to end users, such as major contractors and those delivering infrastructure projects or maintenance.”