Working at Height award winners

North America’s access and rental industry celebrated its finest on the evening of 20 November, with six winners receiving top honours at the inaugural Working at Height Conference & Awards.

  • The latest addition to the Andy Access poster and Toolbox Talk series focuses on Nominated Ground Rescue Persons and the importance of their being familiar with
    the MEWP’s auxiliary/emergency lowering systems and the rescue plan that is in place.

  • The family of Roger Wickens, this year’s posthumous recipient of the Lifetime Achievement International Award for Powered Access, has been presented with a commemorative glass trophy following the virtual IAPAs ceremony earlier this year.

  • The launch of a new mobile app for operators of MEWPs and MCWPs aims to bring training certification into the digital era and reduce the environmental impact involved in issuing the IPAF PAL Card and certificate to newly qualified operators worldwide.

  • IPAF has made its worldwide accident reporting portal available in multiple languages and added a new dashboard to give members access to the latest available data to assist in setting their company’s safety strategy.

  • Member firms are being encouraged to embrace the options for in-work training to support and certify MEWP technicians via the Roadmap that was developed by IPAF, as the first wave of candidates complete their level 2 and level 3 NVQs.

  • Members of the powered access industry are invited to join a free online seminar to explore issues around the challenges and opportunities of environmental sustainability, including information about how stakeholders can lead positive changes in their sector.

  • Newly released IPAF Toolbox Talks, designed to share specific safety messages on work sites, are now available. They are two short presentations with supporting Andy Access posters covering the use and inspection of PFPE when using MEWPs.

  • The first wave of apprentices on a new route to certifying specialist MEWP technicians have been celebrated by representatives of IPAF as they embarked on their studies at North Warwickshire & South Leicestershire College.

  • A new course aimed at demonstrating how to perform a site assessment and select the correct mobile elevating work platform (MEWP) to carry out the job has been launched by IPAF, which can be completed at a Training Centre or remotely via eLearning.

  • IPAF experienced a strong end to 2020, boosting revenue by diversifying income streams and continuing careful cost control to help restore cash reserves and leave the federation in a relatively strong position after trading was significantly impacted during the early months of the Coronavirus pandemic, according to its latest Annual Report.

  • Sustainability, digitisation and adopting exciting new technologies are all key to building back better from the coronavirus pandemic, according to presenters at this year’s IPAF Summit, hosted for the first time as a virtual event owing to the global health crisis.

  • More than 900 industry professionals from no fewer than 66 different countries around the world joined the first-ever digital edition of the International Awards for Powered Access (IAPAs), with prize-winners announced during the IPAF Summit, originally planned for London in April 2020, but postponed and then moved online owing to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.

  • Tributes have been paid to two pioneers of the powered access rental industry, after Dan Kaplan and Denis Ashworth died within the past two weeks. Both were previous recipients of Lifetime Achievement Awards bestowed by IPAF, as part of previous years’ International Awards for Powered Access (IAPAs) ceremonies.

  • The next in a series of free online workshops and webinars hosted IPAF will look at the importance of selecting the correct MEWP for the job to enable work to be carried out safely and effectively. The webinar will be broadcast on 24 March at 12pm GMT.