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PostPosted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 11:06 
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Last night, that top rated technical expertise of the Redspeed company was being tested at Ings on the A591.
They had coned off the Windermere bound side of the dualled stretch, and a set of traffic lights :trafficlight: was set up to control the traffic along the Kendal bound lane. :dighole:

When I arrived, there were lights on red - seemingly in both directions, :doh: so I turned left around the back of the Watermill, along the tiny narrow twisty lane with the 40mph limit (try 4mph for safety!!). :scratchchin:

It appeared that by the time I got to the other end, the lights had failed altogether, and traffic was being controlled manually, by three Redspeed fellows, bellowing the length of the road to each other to allow traffic to pass each way... just a few cars at a time!! :drive1:

Even an attempt to use a mobile phone failed, as the user had no network coverage! :headbash:

Meanwhile two other employees were attempting to get the traffic lights working to no avail - it seemed that their generator would not start! :whip: . :hehe:

Image
Of course, the distance they were having to shout to each other led to some raised voices, and the inevitable chaos of directions being miss heard! :lostatsea:
As a result of turning up unprepared, the clowns from Redspeed :jester: were causing hindrance to the road users, and not getting much work done on the speed sensors!
What I wish to know, is if they cannot get a generator motor working, are they suitably qualified to be installing, testing, and calibrating sensitive equipment, and which people's licences might depend?

I couldn't see much evidence of ISO 9001 quality standards last night! :hehe:

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 14:46 
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I don't suppose you can expect anything else, correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't it the local SCP who even doctored the redspeed calibration certificates? I've still got the certificates I improved for them as they couldn't even do a proper job of that if I remember rightly. :lol: and how many people must have fallen for them.

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Dixie
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 00:08 
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Ernest Marsh wrote:
What I wish to know, is if they cannot get a generator motor working, are they suitably qualified to be installing, testing, and calibrating sensitive equipment, and which people's licences might depend?

I couldn't see much evidence of ISO 9001 quality standards last night! :hehe:


A little unfair, would you expect a watchmaker to to repair a gas boiler?

9001 is about paperwork, having procedures and recording work for traceability, it does not prove the procedures are correct or that the work was carried out to a high standard. UKAS accreditation on the other hand is rather different.

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PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 01:00 
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toltec wrote:

9001 is about paperwork, having procedures and recording work for traceability, it does not prove the procedures are correct or that the work was carried out to a high standard. UKAS accreditation on the other hand is rather different.



Seem to remember something about perfect planning preventing p**s poor performance - thought that was what ISO ETC was suppossed to prevent . And again ,if you're organising work that's safety related - something like a gene failing is always to be on the list of possibilities .

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PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 02:31 
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I wonder if they tried a simple approach like - place a few cones around the section they were working on - narrowing the road to a single lane if that would work - thus reducing the length of road under 'works' and let the traffic work things out with a few helpful workman controls if this may not have helped on this particular occasion. The need to over control and over influence sometimes over looks the most obvious.
A road works on the W Coast of Scotland with moorland all about (some yrs ago) which had only passing places, all worked like clockwork and there were just warning signs up - not that it wasn't obvious. When people have to work things out it can bring out the best in people.

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PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 02:37 
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Ernest, did you ask them if you could see their risk assessment/method statements, you know all that paper work we all have to produce, wasting thousands of pounds on, only to be thrown away because if we followed some of the crap written on them, we wouldn’t get the job done on time and under budget. :lol:

I'm sure if they had, they would no doubt come to a conclusion that they would have to close the road all together, all in the name of safety of course.

(by the way, this is no disrespect to our resident safety engineer)

Take care
Dixie
:)

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 00:20 
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toltec wrote:
Ernest Marsh wrote:
What I wish to know, is if they cannot get a generator motor working, are they suitably qualified to be installing, testing, and calibrating sensitive equipment, and which people's licences might depend?

I couldn't see much evidence of ISO 9001 quality standards last night! :hehe:


A little unfair, would you expect a watchmaker to to repair a gas boiler?

9001 is about paperwork, having procedures and recording work for traceability, it does not prove the procedures are correct or that the work was carried out to a high standard. UKAS accreditation on the other hand is rather different.

Traffic light generators are a lot simpler than gas boilers!

REDSPEED have an ISO 9001 award - they used to display it on their calibration certificates, until I pointed it out to UKAS who ordered them to cease the practice.

I wonder how many magistrates were taken in because they did not know the difference!
They really must be desperate for jobs... I don't suppose you ever considered it...? No, forget I asked!! :wink:

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