The Future is Promising

A recent site safety visit was undertaken by our Safety Manager Tina Ambler to a clear fell harvesting operation with JM Harvesting Ltd.

• Tina’s first impression on arriving at the property and viewing from the forest road was promising in that it was obvious that all our site safety requirements were clearly in The site appeared to be tidy with the felling and forwarding having been undertaken in a controlled manner. Upon entering the worksite the contractor had clearly positioned a Site Safety Threshold sign together with the usual Tilhill Forestry signage. The operators on site had both been correctly briefed and demonstrated very professional and positive safety conscious behaviour.

The owner of the business was also on site at the time of the visit and demonstrated the site safety system that he is currently trialling. This was in the form of an App which is being developed by Calum Duffy, a contractor who is part of the FISA Steering Group and developer Stephen Hailes. The App, called ‘Safe Forestry’ enables both the contractor and operators to undertake and record daily observations and machinery checks both in writing and by inserting photographs.

Of the App, Joe McKnight from JM Harvesting Ltd commented: “Stephen and Calum have done a great job. They understand what the industry needs and have the knowledge on how to design, and most importantly implement, the Safe Forest app to a level that is realistic enough to be able to be used by all levels of users with little or no tuition.”

In addition to the safe system of work, the operators were also using an improved version of the SPOT lone working device, SPOT X which enables them to send specific text alerts both as a regular check-in and in case of emergency situations.