Electronic parcel lockers are all around us, whether we’ve started using them or not. With the rise of e-commerce, many consumers are looking for a secure, convenient pickup location for their orders. The parcel locker fills that niche. These units are much more than simple secure storage. They provide a simple way for recipients to pick up orders 24/7, without… Continue Reading
Parcel lockers are bulkstorage units with multiple lockable compartments, designed to facilitate delivery and collection of orders at any time of the day or night. This 24/7 accessibility makes parcel lockers a powerful tool in an era of increasing e-commerce. A customer can order an item online, for instance, and travel to a nearby parcel locker to retrieve their order…. Continue Reading
Before the advent of Building Information Modeling, electrical contractors built their electrical materials lists by hand. It was a common practice to overshoot just a little to prevent delays on an important construction project. But even with these safety adjustments, minor errors could quickly lead to headaches for electrical distributors. Like most supply chain issues, this problem is exacerbated by… Continue Reading
It’s exceedingly common for construction crews to move materials, tools, and equipment to upper floors, both in new constructions and rehab projects. Between January and June 2017, for instance, the average number of floors in a U.S. residential home was 2.12. Meanwhile, the floor space in commercial buildings has grown by 70 percent since 1979, and much of that extra… Continue Reading
Where do you store electrical materials during a construction project? As just one contractor sharing space with all the other trades, electrical firms can quickly run into storage limitations. Add to that the challenge of sharing elevators, navigating narrow aisles, and the multiple trips usually required, and the scope of the material-handling challenge becomes apparent. You don’t want access to… Continue Reading
In a 2001 standard interpretation letter, Russell Swanson, then-director of OSHA’s Directorate of Construction, made it clear that self-employed workers are not subject to OSHA’s construction safety standards. “If a construction worker is truly self-employed — is not an employee — and has no employees working for him or her, OSHA has no authority to require that individual to abide by OSHA construction requirements,” Swanson wrote. That seems simple enough. After all, the construction safety standards devised and enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were built to protect employees. Independent contractors aren’t employees, as any tax professional will tell you. But what about subcontractors working under a general contractor? What about equal partners on the same job site?… Continue Reading
During the course of a long, complex electrical installation, the fastest, easiest way to store tools and building materials is to pile them up on the floor. It may be messy, but you can’t argue with the efficiency…or can you? In fact, stacks of conduit, connectors, circuit breakers, light fixtures, and other electrical products may do more harm than you… Continue Reading
Construction professionals are probably familiar with gas-powered rough-terrain forklifts, but electric counterbalance lift trucks are often the best option for indoor applications like a firm’s materials warehouse. Electric forklifts offer many advantages over the construction industry’s standard rough-terrain lift truck, at least when operating in a strict material-handling capacity on warehouse floors designed for such traffic. The benefits of going… Continue Reading
While OSHA’s confined space standards have been on the books since 1913, it wasn’t until 2015 that the Administration issued such rules specifically for the construction industry. Construction workers encounter many risks you won’t find in other industries, particularly when workers enter tight, limited or restricted spaces.
Gas cylinders present obvious dangers for welders, but fortunately, proper equipment — and strict adherence to OSHA guidelines — can mitigate the risks. Whether you’re working with gas cylinders for the first time or you’re simply looking to ensure full compliance in your facility, this overview should help you understand OSHA requirements for storing gas cylinders safely. The good news… Continue Reading
