Welcome to the 15 July Warehouse & Logistics News. The UK’s only fortnightly for the industry, WLN is dedicated to helping you keep your business in good shape for the recovery whenever it may come.
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Is the UK on the road to recovery? It depends who you ask. The IMF now expects the economy to expand by 0.2% next year, not shrink 0.4% as they thought before. The British Chambers of Commerce say the worst is over, but qualify it by then saying talk of a recovery is “premature.” Its report, based on a 5,600 firm census, found “welcome progress” in confidence between April-June, but BCC still expects unemployment to hit 3.2 million next year.
If the conflicting data being bandied about makes you want to swear, don’t worry. Cursing when things get too much could be a healthy strategy: it’s certainly good sense when you hurt yourself, Keele University scientists reckon. The boffins found that those human guinea pigs free to curse whenever they felt like it were able to stand pain nearly 50% longer than their straight-laced colleagues who had to keep their lip buttoned in the experiment. So now you know!
Any company that makes it through these difficult times in one piece will end up fitter and smarter than before. But it doesn’t have to be a case of learning by trial and error. You can make informed decisions abut the essential products and services for your business by reading our regular sections: in this issue, don’t miss our features on Buildings/Facilities, covering main structures and key equipment, including temporary structures, and Fork Trucks, which includes warehouse trucks, outdoor trucks and specialist machines.
Industrial injuries that involve forklifts are a subject that calls for straight talking. Look at the figures: HSE workplace transport figures show UK fork lift-related accidents last year resulted in 6 deaths, 7 amputations and 7,132 injuries causing over 7 days’ absence from work. Only 47% of accidents at work get reported, but of those that were reported last year, 32% involved forklifts.
In a move to stem the tide, Britain’s biggest forklift accident research programme to date will soon take place at the Health & Safety Laboratory in Buxton. Part of the trial will involve an evaluation of the difference made by fitting Sumo Glove, the revolutionary fork tip impact reduction system featured on our front page. Sumo is flying high after being specified by a major British airline for the new forklifts in one of its distribution centres, and has deals in place with Barloworld and Linde Sterling to supply and fit Sumo Glove to their trucks. It makes Sumo definitely a company to watch.
Happy reading.
Warehouse & Logistics News
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