Poor sleep hygiene can have serious consequences for construction workers – from physical and cognitive health to alertness and mood, sleep impacts almost every aspect of our lives. That means poor sleep can lead not just to serious health and safety issues, but increased absenteeism, reduced productivity and bad onsite morale.

World Sleep Awareness Day is all about drawing attention to the importance of sleep for our collective wellbeing. So in this article, we’re going to look at a few key ways construction sites rely on alert, well-rested workers – as well as providing some advice to improve your own sleep.

THREE WAYS SLEEP IMPACTS YOUR SITE

1. Health and safety

Operating vehicle mounted access platforms, like those we provide at Access Hire, requires proper focus. On a busy site or a public road, with co-workers and the general public around you, not being fully alert can result in serious accidents or injury.  

Given that sleep deprivation directly impacts cognitive functioning, proper sleep is therefore essential for any worker who is operating such access vehicles – or any machinery. 
So while sleep deprivation can be difficult to gauge, its impact isn’t: according to The Health and Safety Executive, fatigue is implicated in 20% of all major road accidents, and costs the UK up to £240 million in work accidents.

2. Productivity and morale

Analysis suggests that the UK loses over 200,000 working days and just shy of 2% of annual GDP to poor sleep. This is in part because sleep disrupts individual productivity, impairing cognitive performance and increasing risk of illness. But the problem goes even further when you consider how poor sleep impacts team morale. 

Anybody who’s worked as part of a team knows the subtle ways individual moods impact the overarching ‘team morale’. And recent research has provided proof of this intuition: our moods are contagious. 

When you consider that poor sleep makes individuals less positive and more irritable, it’s not hard to see how a single bad night’s sleep can spread negativity throughout the entire workforce, lowering both morale and productivity.

3. Decision making

A single night’s poor sleep has been found to negatively impact decision making and mental flexibility. Without the alertness and focus proper sleep provides, decisions are slower and produce less successful outcomes.

Given that studies suggest one third of decisions on construction sites are made within an hour, and a further 40% are made on the same day, this has disastrous implications for the quality of site management and strategy.

So given the vital importance of good quality sleep, what can we do to achieve it?

There are various ways you might encourage your workers to sleep better and stay safe when operating their access vehicles – everything from healthier eating to regularity in a daily schedule has been shown to contribute positively to sleep hygiene.

But for more specific advice, we should always defer to the experts. So here are the ten top tips from the World Sleep Society:

10 STEPS FOR HEALTHY SLEEP

1. Fix a bedtime and an awakening time.
2. If you are in the habit of taking a nap, do not exceed 45 minutes of daytime sleep.
3.  Avoid excessive alcohol ingestion 4 hours before bedtime and do not smoke.
4. Avoid caffeine 6 hours before bedtime. This includes coffee, tea and many sodas, as well as chocolate.
5.  Avoid heavy, spicy, or sugary foods 4 hours before bedtime. A light snack before bed is acceptable.
6.  Exercise regularly, but not right before bed.
7. Use comfortable bedding.
8.  Find a comfortable temperature setting for sleeping and keep the room well ventilated.
9. Block out all distracting noise and eliminate as much light as possible.
10.  Reserve the bed for sleep and sex. Don’t use the bed as an office, workroom or recreation room.

Staff welfare has become a real priority for the construction sector, and the introduction of Mobile Welfare Units on site, have been paramount in order to allow staff somewhere to rest and take a break, indoors and away from the bustle of the site. Read more on this in our blog on Five Ways Eco-Friendly Mobile Welfare Units Will Improve Your Construction Site.

Leasing access vehicles can provide a variety of benefits, from increased flexibility to 24/7 support. You get access to market-leading vehicle mounted access platforms, pole erection units and other specialist vehicles, without the painful upfront investment or mounting maintenance costs.

One of the most popular benefits is the control leasing gives businesses and contractors over their finances. By establishing a fixed cost over numerous months, you can plan for the long-term, unlocking far greater financial efficiency. But in order to achieve this, you must plan your budget properly.

Here are six steps you should take when budgeting to lease an access vehicle.

1. Establish your requirements 

Your first step should be to establish your requirements: what kind of vehicles do you need, and how many? How long do you need to lease them for? This should be done in consultation with project management, to ensure you get the timings exactly right and don’t overlook any specific technical needs.

2. Determine your available monthly budget

Next, you need to establish how much you can afford to pay each month for your access vehicles. This should be based on actual cash flow, so that you are certain you will be able to fulfil payment on time each month.

Many businesses find it beneficial to be conservative here: committing all available finances to a lease may cause complications if unexpected costs are flagged elsewhere on the project. So be sure to build in contingency funds.

3. Choose the right products

Choosing the right access vehicle is clearly vital, so take the time to consider the full budgetary implications of the access vehicles you choose.

Ideally, you should choose vehicles that will produce the best overall return on your investment. That is, considering the monthly cost of the product against the total value it will add to your projects.

Market-leading products, for example, may be slightly more costly. But ultimately, they often offer a greater return on investment by vastly improving the productivity and efficiency of jobs.

4. Determine an ideal deposit

When leasing, you can decide what deposit you would like to pay. The higher the deposit, the lower monthly repayments.

This means you have two options: pay more upfront, in order to establish a lower monthly payment for your access vehicle. Or pay a lower deposit, and retain cash flow for other necessary expenses.

Try to choose an amount which gives you the most overall financial efficiency, based on your project’s other budgetary considerations.

5. Account for running costs

Your budget must account not just for leasing the vehicles themselves, but also running them effectively. This means your budget should, for example, also include an estimate of fuel costs and insurance.

With Access Lease, many of your running costs – like maintenance and service – are actually included within the cost of the lease which is one of the key advantages.

6. Plan your taxes

One of the great benefits of leasing access vehicles is the potential for tax write offs. You should consult an accountant to determine whether your prospective lease could be fully deducted from your taxable income, or whether you might be able to claim capital allowances.

This will give you a clearer sense of the overarching financial cost of your lease contract, and help you better plan your long-term finances.

Get in touch with our team to discuss the benefits of leasing access vehicles, such as VMAP’s with our team today.

For many organisations, buying access vehicles is simply inefficient: the cost of maintenance grows rapidly over time, and the hefty investment makes it financially challenging to upgrade to new vehicles when the moment comes. 

An alternative you may not have considered could be to lease your access vehicles, giving you the best combination of quality, flexibility and long-term security possible, whilst spreading the vehicle cost over time.

However, not everybody realises they can lease essential products like vehicle mounted access platforms or pole erection units. So we’ve put together this short guide to help you understand how leasing with Access Lease works and what benefits you can expect.

How leasing works

Leasing access vehicles is similar to short-term hire, but spans a longer period and is typically at a lower average monthly cost. You decide what deposit you would like to initially pay, followed by regular monthly payments throughout the term of the lease. At the end of your contract, you simply return your vehicles and decide whether you’d like to upgrade to a newer model.

This is ideal for those who currently own their vehicles and want to replace them, but find the cost commitment of brand new vehicles out of reach.  It’s also great for those who are used to short-term hiring and wish to get more control over their long-term finances.

Here are three key benefits our clients see when leasing access vehicles from us:

Three key benefits of leasing from Access Hire

1.  Get the best products cost effectively

The best vehicle mounted access platforms can be expensive, especially if you are borrowing to fund, or using cash reserves which could be alternatively used to help grow your business.  This can lead to many organisations having to settle for second best. Leasing enables you to access the most up-to-date, modern  products, without the cost barriers associated with buying. You get the quality you need for a price you can manage.

This also means you can upgrade to a new model when your contract is done, without any excessive balloon payments to worry about. So, you will never risk missing out on exciting new technologies or falling behind the competition. 

2.  Manage your money more easily

Leasing allows you to spread the cost of your access vehicles , ensuring your income always keeps up with your payments. This provides you with the stability to do long-term budget planning, and ultimately make your operation run more smoothly.

Many of our clients also find they are able to deduct the full lease rental cost from their taxable income or claim capital allowances on the asset cost. Such savings pile up across a full fleet, unlocking the potential for far greater financial efficiency.

3.  Fully inclusive safety and maintenance support

At Access Lease, our lease contracts include full maintenance coverage, meaning we ensure your products are fully compliant with all regulation and safety standards. We also provide 24/7 support to ensure you are never left waiting around for help or the technical assistance you require.

Not having to worry about booking inspections or critical work means you can simply focus on your projects, freeing up valuable time and resources in your business, taking pressure off your management team whilst providing you with peace of mind.  This makes leasing vehicles from Access Lease a major time and cost saver for your business.

So don’t delay, get in touch today. Our team are ready to discuss your needs and design a bespoke plan to best suit your specific requirements.

Contact: Martin Whitehead, Sales Director on 07976 436 254 or martin.whitehead@accesshirenationwide.com