You may have a construction project in another state or have sold construction equipment to a customer far from you. Regardless of your situation, you need to know how to transport these pieces of equipment properly so they may get to their respective destinations in one piece. The safe transportation of construction equipment is a serious business. When handling some of the most gigantic and heaviest pieces of machinery built by humankind, thorough planning and a set of protocols is a must for an accident-free hauling.   This article shares basic guidelines on how to move your construction equipment safely to another state. Read on to know them. Perform A Risk Assessment In terms of heavy equipment liability, construction businesses have the responsibility to pay a great deal of attention to the details of transporting their construction equipment. A documented risk assessment shows proactive compliance and allows you to prove how comprehensive your fleet management processes are.   So, make sure to create one for your construction equipment transfer preparation. A supervisor or a senior manager can be in charge of this protocol. It should contain the complete transportation timeline and operation, weight loads, relevant risks, and what can be done to address such risks.   Choose The Right Trailer The next thing you need to do is choose the right type of trailer for your construction equipment for safe and stress-free transport.  The most common trailers used for heavy hauling include: Lowboy Trailer As its name implies, this type of trailer is close to the ground. It makes it easy to transport tall and large equipment such as cranes.  Flatbed Trailers Flatbed trucks are one of the most common trailers used to haul large equipment since they can easily handle heavy loads. These are open trailers attached to larger trucks and have a level service that makes loading and unloading easier.   Step-Deck Trailers Step-deck trailer is similar to a flatbed but with two levels— a top and a bottom deck. Step decks can hold heavy and tall equipment such as bulldozers that may not fit in a standard flatbed trailer.    Gooseneck Trailers This trailer is available in various designs, such as removable, fixed, mechanical, or hydraulic types. Regardless of the structure design, the trailer works by letting you attach it to the hauling.  Plan Your Route And Choose Experienced Drivers Planning your route can help minimize safety risks and problems during transport. You need to consider road widths, bridges, and other road structures, particularly in rural areas, and ensure that your heavy cargo can safely pass through.  Also, you want to avoid the busy roads that tend to have heavy traffic and roads under construction. Also, check for overall traffic and weather reports to identify any potential issues that might affect your transport. In general, the least amount of bridges, turns, stops, and rough terrain to be encountered by the driver, the better. Speaking of drivers, transporting heavy machinery is a difficult job. You want someone behind the wheel experienced in transporting heavy construction equipment and who knows how to load and unload it safely.    Prep Machines For Transport Before loading your equipment into a trailer, you need to take the time to prep it for transportation. Here are some things to consider: Immobilize the wheel components of the machine. You need to apply the parking brake and use chocks or wedges against the wheels to secure them in place and prevent them from rolling on deck.   Remove or secure loose parts such as doors to prevent them from opening and flapping around during transport.  Cover vulnerable areas that you don’t want to be exposed to the elements. Also, it’s crucial to cover vulnerable extruding parts or attachments such as gear shifts, knobs, and mirrors to protect from protruding objects along the road.   Empty all fluids, including fuel and other liquid hazards. It helps reduce the risk of leaks that can damage the machine and pose a fire hazard.   Disconnect its batteries and alarm system since this can accidentally set off during transport.   Use The Right Securing Devices In securing your heavy construction equipment to a trailer, there’s no such thing as ‘too much.’ You want to use a suitable securing device, and you’ll need enough of these.   Transporting heavy machines requires using at least four tie-downs or more, depending on the size of your equipment. Make sure to attach your tie-downs using clamps or hooks which can’t come loose during transport.  When strapping down heavy construction equipment, you can also use chains and steel strapping if needed. In addition to strapping and chains, bracing and blocking can also help secure heavy equipment. You can use edge protection if there’s a risk of the machinery component cutting the tie-downs.  Meanwhile, construction machinery with metal tracks such as excavators tends to have low friction when placed on a hauler. In this case, you can use friction mats and other friction devices to prevent it from sliding.   Take Away The shipment of heavy construction equipment requires careful planning. One minor oversight and things can instantly become a nightmare, jeopardizing your workers’ and the equipment’s safety. So, ensure to follow the above guidelines for safely hauling your construction equipment to your next project or customer.  

Regardless of the size of your manufacturing and production plant or business, there’s one thing that stays at the forefront of operations: efficiency. Businesses today are living under so much pressure to do more, produce more, do better, and compete higher, without spending any more additional time and resources than are necessary. Efficiency is, therefore, relative to the capital investment your business puts in. The pursuit of having a competitive edge is never complete without that all-important goal to be more efficient. When you consider each step or process of your production, it’s easy also to see how achieving efficiency may not necessarily be so straightforward. There’s much more that needs to be done, tweak, and learn, to achieve that point for your business. Read on for some of the best ideas on how you can significantly improve your business’ manufacturing and production efficiency. Identify And Eliminate Waste One of the top hindrances to efficiency is waste. If you don’t study every step of your manufacturing and production processes closely, you may be missing out on how much waste is actually generated in every step. The waste being referred to here doesn’t just pertain to the materials, but also time and other resources as well. To start, here are some ways to help you identify and eliminate waste: Create less waste in the long-term by using new operational processes and equipment, like new cutting tools. Say, you’re still stuck using old and inefficient materials and equipment. It’s time to bid those a good farewell by switching to newer, faster, more efficient equipment. Go through each process in manufacturing and production to successfully identify which steps are producing the most waste. Take A Multifaceted Approach In Measuring Data Data is one of the key drivers of making good decisions in manufacturing and production. However, avoid focusing only on one specific point in your manufacturing and production process, without thinking about all others. Simply measuring one type of data won’t give you a complete picture of what needs to be done to improve manufacturing and production. Try to pinpoint some problem areas in efficiency. But rather than measuring multiple factors like labor, capital utilization, and materials, you might have only measured the output per labor hour. In effect, you might unknowingly increase costs elsewhere, like in automated equipment and capital expenditure. A good tip to apply for a successful multifaceted approach is to integrate the software you’re using in manufacturing and production systems with all the other software in all branches or departments of your business. By doing so, you can have a clearer picture as to what productivity looks like in your business. Always Incorporate A Team Approach While it’s upper management that makes the most important decisions, this isn’t to say that a team approach can’t be taken for better goal achievement. Remember that you have to start first by identifying where the bottlenecks exist. Once that’s done, you can proceed with assigning specific teams and members to help address each of those bottlenecks. To make this process more effective and doable, start first with tackling the most expensive bottlenecks. Implement changes in your manufacturing process gradually, to avoid any significant disruptions in your manufacturing and production process. Then, have a sense of accountability to communicate with your teams regularly and check if the changes you’ve implemented were all effective. Improve Training For Employees Having a thorough and rigorous training process upon hiring and onboarding isn’t reason enough to skip training employees regularly. As a matter of fact, you should prioritize continuous employee development. All the more this should be done when you have new equipment in your manufacturing and production line. Remember that the machines aren’t going to do all the work by themselves. No matter how advanced they may be, there still needs to be that element of control done by human beings. Poorly-trained staff can damage the machines. Maintain Your Equipment Whether you’ve modernized all your equipment, or you’re waiting for more resources to be able to replace your machines, you need to keep a keen eye on maintenance. Set aside a budget and come up with a plan for the maintenance of your equipment. The preventive approach, of course, should work best.  Conclusion Manufacturing and production comprise of repetitive processes. One delay or bottleneck in any step affects the others. The next thing you know, the entire efficiency of the operations is severely affected. While it’s a lot of work to master, perfecting efficiency in operations is a must for businesses. Doing so factors total output, customer satisfaction, profitability, and many more. Let the strategies above lead you toward achieving better efficiency.

It may sound obvious, but building materials need to meet certain criteria to be deemed fire safe. Whether you are a construction company focusing on residential properties, office blocks or civic buildings (or working within all these fields) or a doer upper renovating a property, the bottom line is the same. A workable floor plan, appealing aesthetics and keeping within budget are important, but sound structure and safety are of paramount importance. Within this, fire safety should, rightly, be a top priority. Whatever your business, ensuring the materials you use are fire safe is essential for both your reputation and conscience. Below is a brief reminder of the current legal requirements within the US and how to ensure you are compliant. Regulations The safety of building materials was international news following the tragic fire at London’s Grenfell Tower apartment block in June 2017. Seventy-two people died because of the fire, which an inquiry stated spread rapidly due to the recent addition of highly flammable aluminum and polyethylene external cladding. Combustible materials were also said to have been used in the building’s windows. The fire led to an overhaul of the laws surrounding construction in the United Kingdom and impacted on global research into the dangers of using combustible construction materials. Safety regulations in the US have been led by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) who developed the model codes adopted by many states and these, along with compliance building codes published by The International Code Council (ICC), provide the framework for ensuring new buildings are fire safe, boasting their model building codes and standards provide ‘the highest level of safety in the world’. Safety First Having established the importance of being compliant with building safety regulations, finding reliable suppliers and the best quality fire safe resources is key. Contractors will need to know any materials used are fit for purpose and meet necessary guidance so having confidence in your materials is necessary. Research products to find those that are well-regarded and follow up recommendations to ensure compliance. The whole construction industry is built around one key foundation stone – primarily, buildings must be safe. Building Materials You Can Trust Safer building materials are continually being developed, with long-standing companies establishing they are front-runners within the composite field. Rather than rely on their history, brands such as Atkore FRE composites are proving their commitment to bettering the materials available within the trade through production of fire-safe industrial fiberglass. The future of construction is changing at pace with the safety of materials being at the heart of the developments. Ensuring structures are safe is critical and building codes are there to minimize risk. Fire safety is a vital component of the safety codes, there to protect the public and provide them with the amenities they need. When undertaking your research to decide on the best possible materials for your project, make sure the first thing you check is that they are fire safe. You can’t afford not to. Author Bio: The author Allan Smith is a professional finance writer specializing in personal finance. He has worked in the finance sector for a long time. He believes that everyone’s economic and life situation is isolated, and he keeps this fact in mind while providing personal finance advice in his blog Day to Day Finance. All the people seeking financial guidance are in different stages of life. Allan loves to explore every possible angle of personal finance so that anybody can get help.

Every human needs to embrace a sustainable lifestyle to lessen the adverse effects of global warming successfully. Influencers and researchers presented different ways to live more sustainably and eco-friendly: one of these is becoming carbon neutral. Carbon neutrality When you achieve net-zero neutrality after reducing your greenhouse gas contribution to your efforts of offsetting your carbon emissions, you become carbon neutral. Tracking everything you’ll use and do and the amount of waste you’ll produce after doing them is a good start. And then, you have to find ways to neutralise your waste by doing activities like planting trees, driving less, etc. It may seem like an elaborate task at first, but you’ll be surprised to learn that there are many simple and affordable ways to reduce your carbon emissions. Many people and companies have raised concerns about carbon neutrality’s practicality and feasibility. However, more and more people, organisations, and companies are embracing this trend. So before hiring any company, you can first find out if they commit to conserving and preserving the environment. Check out companies like valleytrading.co.uk, so you don’t have to worry about your carbon footprint. Carbon footprint Your impact as an individual on the environment is defined as your carbon footprint. This is measured in terms of the amount of greenhouse gasses (like carbon dioxide and methane) you produce in a year which you can check using a carbon footprint calculator. It will simplify identifying parts of your lifestyle that result in high carbon emissions. Ways to reduce carbon footprint The easiest part of reducing your carbon emissions is using fewer things since everything you use has an environmental footprint. Avoid buying single-use items, and include recycling and upcycling in your lifestyle. In addition, embracing simple habits like using reusable shopping bags instead of plastics or reusable straws can positively affect the environment. Changing how you move from one place to another can reduce your carbon footprint. If possible, use public transportations more often instead of using your vehicle, or you can ask a friend for a ride if you are going to the same place. This can lower the carbon you contribute to the atmosphere, and it is an excellent way to conserve gas. In addition, walking and biking when going to nearby places are good for the environment and your health. Your choice of food has a massive impact on the environment. You can consider modifying your diet (you don’t have to be a vegan or vegetarian) by eating less meat and animal products. Since meat production is one of the significant contributors to carbon emissions, a slight reduction in meat consumption decreases your carbon footprint significantly. Also, try to incorporate plant-based recipes into your meal menus once in a while. Aside from these, there are many more ways to reduce your carbon footprint that involve the most mundane tasks like laundry and shopping. So now that you know about carbon neutrality, you can start modifying your lifestyle bit by bit to lower your carbon emissions and do your part in fighting global warming.