Around 100 delegates were in attendance for the inaugural IPAF MEWP Safety & Standards Conference on 16 May 2019 alongside the Changsha International Construction Machinery Exhibition, Hunan Province, China. The first IPAF Chinese PDS for training instructors was hosted to coincide with the new standards conference.

The MEWP rental market is still booming, with the worldwide rental fleet nearing 1.5 million units, according to the latest award-winning market analysis from IPAF.

Jean Harrison is entering retirement, with 23 May 2019 being her last day with IPAF, where she has worked across a variety of roles over 27 years’ distinguished service.

Booking is open and the first speakers have been announced for Europlatform 2019, to be held at the Hotel Le Negresco in Nice, France, on 3 October. Europlatform is the essential annual event for senior professionals in the powered access rental industry, and this year Olivier Colleau, President, of Kiloutou, will give the morning keynote address and Angus Kennard, CEO, Kennards Hire the afternoon keynote address.

A save-the-date notice has been issued to all training instructors and managers for a newly formatted annual Professional Development Seminar by IPAF. The 2019 UK PDS will be held at the Holiday Inn Birmingham M6 J7 on 17 September.

More than 50 delegates attended the first ever IPAF workshop on training and safety standards to be held in Oman, answering demand in the country to establish robust standards to improve operator safety and technical inspections of MEWP machines.

Leading manufacturers have signed a pledge to ensure that all operators of boom-type MEWPs are provided with a full-body harness and correct lanyard at a special event hosted by IPAF during the BICES event in Beijing, China.

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.

Tony Groat, North America Regional Manager for IPAF, has been honoured as Person of the Year at the ALH Awards 2019 in San Diego, California, for his work to promote MEWP safety and training and in developing new US and Canadian standards.

Dan Moss has been appointed by IPAF as Global Technical Standards Development Expert to help develop new MEWP safety standards and update existing ones.

Elevation 2019 saw almost 150 attendees converge on the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, Coventry, as the event launched by IPAF last year made a successful return.

New members have been seconded to the IPAF Board, Ben Hirst and Julie Houston Smyth both stepping up, joining Riwal CEO Pedro Torres, who was seconded in June.

A new online shop has been launched by IPAF, offering the chance to order safety and technical guidance leaflets, stickers or decals, training materials, as well as key magazine publications including IPAF Informa in Italian and IPAF-Journal in German.

Global automotive manufacturer Renault is working to address global site safety concerns and has been raising awareness with a number of events aimed at management and safety employees, with assistance from IPAF representatives.

Booking is now open for IPAF’s popular Elevation open meeting, conference and gala dinner, which is being reprised in 2019, at the same venue as last year, the DoubleTree by Hilton, Coventry, on 27 November, as the event line-up takes shape.

IPAF is pleased to again support UK Associations Week (17-21 June), which offers a chance for all British trade and membership organisations to celebrate the work they do, having been established in 2017 by the Institute of Association Leadership (IAL).

Attendees from all levels of the powered access industry participated in the second annual IPAF Innovate workshop, presentation & award event in Chicago, IL, which benefitted from a change in location and date from last year’s inaugural event.

More than 300 delegates attended the IPAF Asia Conference and Showcase, held for the second time in Hangzhou, capital of China’s Zhejiang province, on 17 July 2019.

All valid PAL Cards issued by IPAF to operators of MEWP or MCWPs worldwide are now Smart cards. PAL Cards must be renewed every five years; every PAL Card issued since 1 January 2015 has featured Smart technology to assist in preventing fraud and unauthorised machine use.

All Conexpo delegates who visit IPAF’s stand can learn how to select a MEWP, why they must have a safe-use plan, and why to train both operators and supervisors to improve workplace safety by complying with new ANSI standards. IPAF will also offer free supervisor training in the two days prior to the March 10-14 event.