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Ladder
Repair and Maintenance: The Missing Rung
by Willis Smith
Technical Manager, Metrovision Inc. |
The cost of ladder
replacement and adherence to the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration safety standards are generally areas that technical
management has difficulty keeping track of. After concentrating
on plant electronics, vehicles and personnel, rarely do ladders
get much attention unless they are broken. Furthermore, most cable
systems are not equipped or do not have the expertise to repair
and maintain a fleet of ladders within stringent OSHA requirements.
Short Rung Cost
Typically, the primary method of ladder repair has been to purchase
a new ladder. The typical cost of a new ladder will range between
$250 and $350 -- by no means an inexpensive repair. Now let's
multiply a median price of $300 by a fleet of 50 trucks with two
ladders per truck (one small and one large):
Two ladders/truck = $600
50 trucks in fleet = X 50
Total fleet cost = 600 X 50 = $30,000
Low Rung Cost
When you also consider the life span of a fiberglass ladder that
has not been maintained will be one to three years (depending
on the installer/tech use), ladder replacement costs become even
more significant over a 10-year period. If we use a life span
of two years as an average, an entire fleet of ladders will be
replaced five times during a 10-year period:
Fleet ladder cost = $30,000
Replacement interval = X5
Cost over 10 years = 30,000 X 5 = $150,000 |
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