Skyjack reaffirms their commitment to safety

February 28, 2018; Guelph, Ontario – Linamar Corporation’s (TSX:LNR) Skyjack division has always taken a safety first approach to how they do business. Recently, they released a safety white paper to help raise awareness about Skyjack’s commitment to safety, and how new ANSI standards related to Mobile Elevating Work Platforms (MEWPs) in the North American market will affect business as usual.

This initiative stemmed from a forward-thinking step taken by Skyjack President, Brad Boehler. At the October 2017 IPAF North American Conference Boehler publicly presented trends on incidents involving Skyjack products, which is something no other MEWP manufacturer has done on a similar scale.

“As a responsible manufacturer we want to not only highlight any misuse that we see in the market, but also educate the end user on best safety practices,” says Brad Boehler, president at Skyjack.

The safety white paper outlines an industry outlook, which showcases the trends Boehler presented in October 2017. More specifically, this outlook shows that since the revisions were made to the applicable ANSI standards in 1999 in North America, there has been a downward trend for incidents involving Skyjack products.

In addition to traditional methods of distributing information, Skyjack is also taking their safety initiative online through digital media efforts. Vice President of Marketing at Skyjack Malcolm Early says, “Our marketing team will be monitoring social media content related to Skyjack, and commenting on the original post if we see any displays of misuse.” These personal outreaches will direct the audience to Skyjack’s safety precautions page, which provides a quick reference to the most common issues that arise while operating a MEWP.

Another goal that Skyjack is working towards is to deliver a suite of telematics services that offer tools to help increase safety awareness for parties involved in the operation of MEWPs. “Over time, it is our hope that, by speaking to the end user on a platform that is easily accessible, we can lead to a user base that’s more aware of safety related issues,” says Boehler.

With the OEM industry incorporating ANSI standards in new design (A92.20) and training (A92.22), Skyjack hopes that other OEMs will step forward with similar safety initiatives. “By coming together and showing all stakeholders that we as manufacturers are committed to safety, we can collectively help increase safety awareness for the industry” Boehler concludes.