Solent Stevedores Ltd commenced operations in the Port of Southampton in February 2000, since then the company has built up an excellent reputation as a proficient and professional cargo handling operator.
Outside of Southampton, Solent Stevedores was the preferred bidder in January 2008 for the contract to unload over 1.2 million tonnes of raw cane sugar per annum at the Tate & Lyle Sugars sugar refinery at Silvertown, London. Within the terms of this contract Solent Stevedores also provide the loading shovels, fork lift trucks and a team of twenty staff 24 hours a day to unload the raw sugar from the storage shed into the refinery. Vessels delivering raw cane sugar to Tate & Lyle are the largest cargo ships to berth in London.
Corrosion and rapid wear of factory equipment are widely recognised as major cause of production costs and quality problems in the sugar industry. When wet, sugar is a highly abrasive and corrosive material. Any Materials Handling Equipment working with sugar must be part of a strict maintenance regime and frequent cleaning program. SG World provide Solent Stevedores with the inspection systems for their fleet of fork lift trucks and loading shovels.
Safe-INSPECT is a multi-part system incorporating a handy cheque book sized pad of inspection checklists tailored to the specific piece of equipment and its governing safety regulations. Completing a slip creates a carbon copy for records as well as a complete local inspection history.
Emma Wilson, SG World Account Manager said: “Solent look after a fleet of five forklift trucks and two loading shovels. SG World already have an established inspection system for fork lift trucks – it’s one of our top sellers. We also offer a free customisation for any equipment not already in our portfolio so we worked with Solent to design an inspection pad to cover Solent’s loading shovels.”
Solent originally used a home-grown system of A4 “tick lists” to manage the inspection procedures. Martin Hiscock, Solent Stevedores London Operations Manager said, “The old system worked fairly well but the necessary paperwork wasn’t always in order. We liked SG World’s Safe-INSPECT system mainly because the individual slips were numbered making it easy to see when a shift inspection log hadn’t been completed.”
Tate & Lyle’s Health and Safety policy makes clear that there is no higher priority than safety. The policy states:
“We will not make, handle, use, transport or dispose of any product unless we can do it safely. It’s a way of life for us, and we extend that to everyone who comes to our sites – not just employees and contractors, but customers and other visitors also. Just one accident or injury is one too many. Our target is zero. Day in, day out, we focus on safety performance and the elimination of risks.”
The commitment to Health and Safety is obvious from the moment a visitor enters the Silvertown site. At reception the visitor signs in completing a health and safety declaration and watches a looped safety video on a large LCD, the site walls are lined with information on health and safety procedures.
“As a contractor working in a challenging dockside environment, we must demonstrate the same focus on Health and Safety as our clients – Tate and Lyle is no exception.” Hiscock said. “SG World’s Safe INSPECT inspection system forms part of our six monthly internal audit. It demonstrates that our drivers are performing daily safety checks and communicating any issues.”
