Erkinningsregeling does not translate very satisfactorily into English. Erkinning is defined in the dictionary as acknowledgement, admission or recognition, and regeling means arrangement. But ‘recognition arrangement’ does not quite fit the bill.

The true definition of Erkinningsregeling was given in a presentation at the recent Crane Safety & Management 2005 by Lion Verhagen, director of VVT, the Dutch Vertical Transport Association.

VVT has 183 member companies, and represents 55% of mobile crane users in the Netherlands as well as 75% of rental companies.

Lost in translation

Such is the difficulty in translating Erkinningsregeling into English, Verhagen joked that it may become only the second Dutch word to enter the English language (the first was apartheid).

The VVT Erkinningsregeling is a new scheme developed by VVT members as a voluntary programme for self-regulation to help them provide a better service to their customers. It is a kind of quality assurance certification scheme. The intention, Verhagen explained, is to be “not a government, but a strong and leading conscience”.

The scheme replaces a previous quality assurance programme run by the VVT called SCK, which was overtaken by ISO 9000 and by the VCA safety system that the Dutch construction industry has increasingly imported from subcontractors in the chemical industry.

In late 2003, VVT decided to end the SCK scheme and move to a new one. While the SCK scheme, like ISO, involved a national board of accreditation, annual audits and formal certification, the VVT Erkinningsregeling is much simpler, Verhagen explained, with minimum paperwork. It is designed to supplement ISO 9000 and VCA rather than compete or overlap with them.

Companies that choose to sign up to the scheme pay a fee based on the number of cranes they operate, so the larger the company, the higher the fee. Participating companies are subject to unannounced visits at job sites by VVT experts who not only know about all the laws and regulations, but also understand the needs of VVT members.

Financial penalties

VVT auditors carry a checklist that includes all the requirements of Dutch workplace health and safety regulations. The Dutch law itself has a checklist, with a list of financial penalties for transgressions next to each item.

Effectively, the VVT auditors do exactly what government labour inspectors do, but instead of issuing tickets, they offer support and advice. In this way, the new scheme is different from the VVT’s old SCK scheme. Under SCK, the VVT auditors were only allowed to make a report on the problems that they found; it was not part of their job to give advice.

Gino Koster, quality and safety manager with Mammoet, said that this makes the new scheme better than the previous one. VVT auditors offering advice helps crane companies know how they can improve, and so raise safety levels, he said.

“It is a good scheme because it helps to raise the safety level of the lifting industry in a simple way,” Koster added.

Verhagen told the conference that not only does the scheme help the individual member company inspected, but it also helps the VVT learn more about general shortcomings across the industry.

During the first year of the scheme, which was 2004, the VVT encountered the following issues:

* Risk assessments were often rather informal, based on experience

* Sometime rules and regulations conflicted, and guidance is required on how to deal with such situations

* Crane drivers had a high skill level but not always good knowledge of developments

* The planning function is crucial, and particular attention needs to be paid to conveying the plan to the crane operator

* Legal crane inspections were often not properly registered

* Regulations concerning road blocks and road markings was not always clear

* Equipment manuals were often unavailable or not in Dutch

The VVT also found that further education and training was required in certain areas, such as how to handle more than one ring in a crane hook, the inspection of wire rope, and the use of outriggers and outrigger plates.

Armed with experience from the pilot year, in 2005 VVT’s auditors have been focusing on many of these issues, in particular:

* The availability and use of manuals

* Safety checks of lifting equipment

* Road blocks and road markings

* Working at height

* Risk assessment and supervision of work.

Verhagen said that goal of the VVT Erkinningsregeling is to have a single safety system for the crane sector, with all VVT members participating voluntarily to achieve continuous improvement of safety and skill levels.