TRAD UK has achieved a remarkable milestone—over one million work hours without a Lost Time Injury (LTI) across its six depots and site operations.
This achievement, reached in August 2024, highlights the company’s unwavering commitment to the health and safety of its nearly 200 employees in an industry where risks are always present.
Alan Slater, TRAD UK’s Head of Technical & Product Support, and Nick Smith, HSEQ Manager & Fleet Controller, are quick to credit this success to an improvement in the company’s already high standards in safety culture over the last five years. “This isn’t just about hitting a number—it’s about a whole new mindset,” said Alan. “We’ve made safety everyone’s business, from the top down.”
Nick Smith added that a big part of the change came from making sure the right resources were in place. “You can’t expect to improve safety without putting the proper support behind it,” he explained. “We’ve invested in more people dedicated to health and safety and made sure our depot managers have the tools and training to take charge of safety at their sites.”
One key initiative that helped drive this achievement is TRAD UK’s Personal Engagement Programme. The program focuses on regular, meaningful interactions between senior management and employees across the company, helping to create a sense of ownership regarding safety. Additionally, TRAD UK have introduced clear, visual safety standards that give workers easy-to-follow guidelines on maintaining safe environments on site.
TRAD UK also implemented a near-miss reporting system, allowing workers to anonymously flag potential hazards by simply scanning a QR code. This system has been a game-changer in encouraging an open dialogue about safety and enabling the company to fix issues before they escalate.
The company’s milestone is particularly impressive given the challenging nature of TRAD UK’s work—especially in sectors like construction, where there are daily inherent high risks present, which need to be managed correctly, or safety standards can easily slip. “We’ve worked hard to change the safety culture here,” Alan explained. “We want our teams to feel empowered to stop work if something doesn’t feel safe, and we’ve made sure they know they won’t be penalized for doing so.”
TRAD UK has rolled out banners across its depots to celebrate this achievement, with a formal event having taken place in Birmingham to mark the occasion officially.
However, Alan and Nick are clear that this is just one step in an ongoing journey. “This is something we’re incredibly proud of,” said Nick, “but it’s not the end. We’re always looking for ways to improve—whether that’s further engagement, communication or more training and development, helping us to address new challenges and existing risks more effectively as they arise.”
Colin Dobson, TRAD UK’s Managing Director added, “I am extremely proud of this achievement, and express many thanks to all of the TRAD UK Team, without their dedication and hard work this milestone would not have been possible.”
The NASC is recognised as the national trade body for access and scaffolding in the UK, producing a wide range of industry guidance for scaffolding contractors, their operatives and their clients. Members of the NASC are strictly regulated to ensure a continuous high standard of scaffolding practice.
The Scaffolding Association is the largest trade organisation in the UK scaffolding and access sector, campaigning to raise standards of safety, quality and workforce skills.
Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents – actively involved in the promotion of safety and the prevention of accidents in all areas, demonstrating our commitment to safety and providing us with operational guidelines.
ISO 9001 is the internationally recognized Quality Management System (QMS) standard that can benefit any size of organization and is designed to be a powerful business improvement tool.
TRAD UK have been audited by BSi and are accredited to ISO 9001:2015.
POLICY STATEMENT
TRAD UK are established market leaders in the scaffolding hire and sales / fall prevention solutions market sector. The company has developed plans for continued organic growth for increasing market share and a commitment to continually improve the service we provide to our loyal customers. This will be achieved by our fully trained and professional teams supplying the highest quality products and delivering the highest quality service.
TRAD UK recognises the importance of the quality of our products, operations and service to achieving our company quality objectives. Our quality objectives have been planned and established with quantified, measurable goals that drive improvement and focus on maintaining and improving customer satisfaction. TRAD UK’s Senior Management have provided the resources and funds necessary to implement this policy and to achieve its quality objectives. It is, therefore, our policy to operate a Quality Management System that fully complies with the requirements of ISO9001:2015. This policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure its relevance to the strategic direction of the organisation.
The TRAD UK Top Management Team have shown commitment to satisfying all applicable requirements and compliance with customer, regulatory and statutory requirements, with industry codes of practice and relevant product standards (BS and EN). We also commit to continually improve our Quality Management System for sustained customer satisfaction and to continually meet the requirements of all interested parties.
This policy will be communicated to all employees and organisations working for and on behalf of TRAD UK and will be made available to all interested parties upon request.
The Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) is a voluntary accreditation scheme for fleet operators which aims to raise the level of quality within fleet operations, and to demonstrate which operators are achieving exemplary levels of best practice in safety, efficiency, and environmental protection.
CHAS is established as the market leader for health and safety pre-qualification in the UK. It is available to suppliers (those who provide goods and services) and to organisations (buyers) looking for suitably competent suppliers.
Constructionline is the UK’s largest Government-owned register of contractors and consultants for the construction industry. Constructionline standards are high, all suppliers are pre-qualified to the official Government pre-qualified standard.
BuildingConfidence is recognised as the standard for supplier excellence within the industry. Major contractors are using the service to evaluate their supply chains, drive up performance and forge longer lasting relationships with key suppliers.
BM TRADA membership and subsequent annual Scaffold Board grading accreditation allows TRAD to inspect the quality of their scaffold boards both new and in service. This ensures that the quality of their scaffold boards are always measured and comply with the current BS2482 – 2009 standard.
Alcumus is trusted by the world’s most respected organisations to help them create better, more sustainable workplaces.
The Alcumus SafeContractor scheme is a market-leading health & safety accreditation system, helping contractors and organisations become healthier and safer, and gaining SafeContractor status demonstrates an organisation’s compliance with increasingly stringent legislation.
This SafeContractor certificate has been awarded for the following services…
Work Categories:
Fall Protection Safety Systems: Fall Protection Safety Systems
Supplier & Service Provider: Access Equipment Hire Provider
Industry Roles:
Construction Contractor, Supplier
Category Related Activities:
Ladders / Step Ladders, Selection & Control of Subcontractors, Working at Height
