CPA Bulletin

rail plant association RAIL PLANT ASSOCIATION: 1 On 27th February 2019 the Rail Plant Association held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Nuthurst Grange in the West Midlands. This year we were lucky that the weather was mild unlike 2018 when the ‘Beast fromEast’ caused severe disruption to our proceedings. We were also lucky to have so many movers and shakers of the rail plant world in one room for the single biggest networking event of the year. Unlike the AGM events of other organisations, the Rail Plant Association has always made it a must attend meeting and this year was no exception. A cynic may say that it was the free lunch that was the attraction but there are some serious issues facing member companies and they were looking for answers. The day started with the formal meeting at which the committee were elected to serve for the next 12 months as follows: • Paul Helks A PWebb Plant Hire • Darren Matthews Readypower Rail Services • Paul Milner VolkerRail • JimNabarro Balfour Beatty • GrahamPirson Quattro Plant • David Richardson Stobart Rail • Richard Romaszko TXM Plant • Steve Wadham Total Rail Solutions As the relatively newmember of the committee, I have found that this team are an exceptional group operating in different areas of the industry and bringing together their skills and knowledge to develop the work of the association. After the formal meeting, we had a brief presentation to update the members on the work of the committee, generally highlighting existing Good Practice Guides and work in progress to provide new ones that will fill the gaps that have been identified. We then looked at the outcome of the letter sent to members in 2018 asking for their opinion of what issues are causing them concerns. These have been reported previously and work is being done to try and ameliorate the impact on our members. In concluding the presentation, we confirmed the work streams we are undertaking in conjunction with other established industry groups. Kevin Minton, the Chief Executive of the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA), then delivered a few words to explain his role and how the CPA can help the RPA in future endeavours. The principal reason for having the AGM in the particular format that we do is to be able to invite guest speakers to come and inform us of industry initiatives so we may be able to improve our practices. First we were able to welcome Catherine Baker who is a director of CIRAS (Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis Service) and she talked to us about their work and how our staff are able to access its services. As far as plant operators are concerned, Catherine said that there have been 42 reports made to them in the last two years and these were around a number of issues such as fatigue, access routes and welfare facilities. In that period there have been five plant specific reports which are relating to manual handling of small plant, overloading of cranes, plant not approved, staff competence for tool use and fumes when working with diesel plant in tunnels. Catherine discussed the importance of a strong reporting and learning culture within our organisations and her presentation was well received by the audience and thanks were given. We then welcomed Ian Morgan, Principal Engineer for Network Rail STE to bring us up to date on the Infrastructure Plant Manual NR/ L2/RMVP/0200 Issue 10, which is now in use. He explained reasons for rationalising the standards and making it clearer to use for those who need to access the document. Ian explained the hierarchy of controls in that PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) was the least effective method of reducing risk and ideally the risk should be eliminated completely by physically removing the hazard. Following a short review of some critical incidents in the industry he then went on to explain how the clauses in the new document have 72 CPA Bulletin > May 2019 www.cpa.uk.net