SUEZ recycling & recovery UK
Sep 3 2021
SUEZ recycling & recovery UK – User Trials of Stop’N’Go Gloves
SUEZ recycling & recovery UK were one of the first major organisations in the waste industry to extensively trial and evaluate the Stop’N’Go range.
They had collaborated with us to create the concept and range and wanted to determine how effective it was. They wanted to look initially at whether the concept helped assistants provide clear and concise signals. Visibility and clarity of the signal were the main objective required. They also wanted to check that the range was suitable for the general day-today tasks carried out by their teams.
Throughout this whole process it was important to both SUEZ and the Stop’N’Go team that we used an approach that placed an emphasis on collaboration, cooperation with front-line workforces and effective communication with all stakeholders.
Trials were carried out by teams carrying out domestic municipal collections. To ensure the feedback was conclusive we included teams operating kerbside sorting and standard bin/bag collections. For both teams reversing assistants are up to 60 feet away from the driver when providing the signal, hence the importance for SUEZ of improving the signal visibility and clarity.
We ran the trials over a month to ensure that each user got the opportunity to use and evaluate the gloves they were provided with.
On completion of the trials, we asked the users to provide ratings comparing the SNG gloves they used to the gloves they originally used on the following categories:
- Signal visibility
- Overall performance
- Dry grip
- Wet grip
- Dexterity
- Flexibility
- Comfort
- Fit
- Cut resistance
- Puncture resistance
- Liquid resistance
- Heat protection
- Cold protection
Users were asked to compare the Stop’N’Go gloves to the gloves that were already in use as approved by SUEZ’s Health & Safety team. They were asked to mark the Stop’N’Go glove they were using as Superior, Better, Equal or Inferior to the gloves they usually used.
They were also asked for the durations of the Stop’N’Go gloves and original products and to state which their preferred model was (Stop’N’Go or the original selection).
On average the Stop’N’Go gloves lasted 3 working days longer, giving SUEZ the opportunity to make significant budget savings.
75% of all users chose Stop’N’Go as their preferred hand protection option.
Signal visibility was improved for 89% of the workforce.
For each of the other categories over 50% of the operatives surveyed felt that the SNG glove they used was either Superior or Better.
In the words of Chris Beddoes GCGI AIEMA CMIOSH (Regional Health & Safety Manager):
H&S is a critical success factor for SUEZ UK and creating innovative solutions to improve the health, safety and welfare of our employees and those we work with or around us is continuous. It is this that initiated the challenge to deliver a low-tech solution that would supplement the existing suite of driver technical aids, that in turn would provide drivers with enhanced visual assistance and the confidence to carry out reversing manoeuvres safely.
SUEZ are very satisfied with the collaboration and efforts from all parties to get the Stop’N’Go gloves from conception to production, employee feedback has been pivotal to the final product design resulting in an employee endorsed, cost-effective, longer lasting solution – which means our communities, bottom line, and the planet are all that bit better off.