Improved service to meet regulatory requirements: Bristol Uniforms has made several changes to its working practices to help its customers comply with recent developments in PPE regulations - Protecting The Firefighter - Brief Article

Legislation has increased employers' responsibility for the ongoing `fitness-for-purpose' of personal protective equipment (PPE).

One of the aspects of the advent of European PPE regulations in 1992 was to ensure that certain basic duties governing the provision and use of PPE are applied.

One part of the regulation demands that all equipment remains fit-for-purpose throughout its working life and this has heightened the need for UK workwear suppliers to deliver a high quality, ongoing maintenance service with appropriate tracking reports, as well as the garments themselves.

Jamie Lumsden, the company's Managing Director says: "We can offer our customers a full partnership contract, combining the supply of firefighting equipment with after sales care and performance warranties."

Bristol Uniforms manages more than just the ongoing supply of PPE. The company now provides routine inspections of garments, repairs or replacements for defective items, schedules for ongoing maintenance and up-to-date reports tracking the use and maintenance history of each item.

Bristol Care has enabled Bristol Uniforms to automatically monitor the life of its garments, providing routine tracking of the condition of each garment and advice on its continued use. When a garment has been issued to a customer the information is automatically stored on the system. Each time that garment returns to Bristol Uniforms for a clean or maintenance check, the firefighter using the garment and its location is logged, together with its condition, any repairs that take place and the cost of each inspection.

This type of reporting gives Bristol Uniforms' customers the ability to budget for protective clothing year-on-year and helps to identify abuse to garments, excessive costs and excessive use.

COPYRIGHT 2002 DMG World Media Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group