I dont work over there yet but having participated in this forum for a while I cannot understand why some window cleaners association or federation is not fighting the proposed ban on ladders
but I think any federation of window cleaners should first and foremost be fighting for the right of its members to work in the most efficient and safe manner they believe possible and not what insurance co,s find to be the most profitable for them
Interesting points, my call on this is that unfortunately due to the number of serious if not fatal accidents happening due to the use of laders this directive was always inevitable.
Inevitable is a very strong word to use but if you believe that then would it not also be inevitable that there would eventually be a ban on Cradle work,abseiling and Mewps which in the advent of a ladder ban will become much more commonly used by window cleaners who inevitably will take chances
Insurance companies will take a harsh look at people who wish to use ladders as there is no doubt that an accident up a ladder could prove very dangerous. Hence why they are looking and pushing for WFP options which is without doubt a safer alternative, lets not get into the results discussion, lets keep this about saftey.
Its hard to discuss a job like ours without mentioning results as results are all our customers care about but let me leave it at this
If you take all windows as being 100%(and assume that the builders clean has been done on all )then (these are not hard no,s just guesses on my part and not being in the UK ill informed guesses but insert your own no,s here)30% of windows are not suited to wfp and about 30% will have access issues(remember you cant use your pointer to stradel the back gate or your 20 footer to get onto that flat roof etc)
As far as insurance co.s are concerned then they are there to mitigate against an accident by the few which is subsidised by the many,Your 18 yr old daughter can get insurance to drive a car albeit at a higher rate and when she turns 25 that rate will be reduced as she has gained experience and has not had an accident
What grounds would you see that a FED or ASSC have to justify an argument with the WAHD or government regarding going up a ladder? Lets be honest, we have all taken risks on ladders, I know I have , it's par for the course!
When you look at the alternatives , Wfp being only one but lets use that,If every shiner in the UK is using one then ( chancers will take chances) the probability of accidents is still there. Different kinds of accidents in all honesty but accidents all the same, there is also a larger chance of RSIs as opposed to a ladder user or a wfp iser who chops and changes depending on the circumstances
At the end of the day we just have to face it, previous miss-use of ladders has resulted in accidents which have resulted in claims and government awareness as to the risks involved! Had we all been footed, tied on at the top, secured at the bottom perhaps this WAHD would never have been an issue? Guess we have ourselves to blame
If this arguement held true then it could be used to ban almost any tool used by any worker as accidents occur in all industries
If ladders are banned then it would stop anyone with a ladder and a bucket frrom becoming a window cleaner which would in the short term be a good thing for wfp users and would turn a lot of legimitate window cleaners into cowboys unless they go down the wfp path
A greater demand for WFps would inevitably increase the price of the equipment while more users would mean more competition for the percentage of work suited to wfp thus reducing prices which in the long term just benifits the WFP manufacturers and possibly the few window cleaning co,s that are large enough to swallow the start up costs of going nation wide with franchises etc(if those are anything like over here then they charge low pay their poorly trained workers low and care little for quality but with diminished competition and few alternatives {their pure water is the same as yours} the customer will go with the lower price or with a ladder climbing cowboy who does not have insurance not because he does not want it bit because he cannot get it
Trevor , this is not an arguement with you and maybe some of the points I have made are a little extreme(although I tried to e rational) but from my perspective not as extreme as banning ladders completely
Sorry that did not post the way I wished as some of my responses were included in Trevors quote