This is a goods lift that can be installed easily and quickly. Installation work by builders’ is minimal and the structure can be erected almost anywhere. The structure more or less supports itself and does not require excessive top motor room for winding machinery. It does not need a deep pit at base level either. Ideally it should be installed in a pit of 150 millimetres depth, but can sit at floor level and operate by means of a ramp that raises access machinery such as forklifts by 150 millimetres.

There is no dedicated lift shaft required. This is a significant consideration. It represents savings in time and expense. The lift does not require a load bearing wall either, which means even more savings to the company. Delivery can take place in a matter of a week or so, and a brand new lift can be installed in a matter of days. It can have two-way entry on each floor and it is completely safe, conforming to all the necessary and expected regulations.

Each floor will need to have an opening of the right size that the Goodsmaster goods lift can stop at to provide entry and exit access. The electrical power supply will need to be 415 volts, and all the work performed by the builder must comply with and conform to the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992. The goods lift company will arrive onsite after the installation work is completed in order to test the lift and, if successful, CE mark it.

The lift range is limited really only by the number of floors in the place where in is used. Usually this is not over four or five floors, but it can be flexible within reason. This is an extremely efficient lift with few essential requirements. The specification is robust and hard wearing. It will serve a long time, lifting loads safely and efficiently, giving many good reliable working years of quality life.

Goods lift solutions can tackle heavy loads such as large machine parts or palletised goods, or light loads such as fresh food, files and documents or books, between floors in all kinds of places. The lifts can be large and spacious, or very small, depending on the particular requirements. With goods lifts designed for larger loads it is extremely important that proper handling procedures are observed.

If heavy loads that can be lifted by a worker are not lifted in a proper and safe manner, musculoskeletal disorders may result. These are injuries causing strain. They can result from many types of activities, among them is the improper lifting of goods. For this reason it is vital that all members of the workforce undergo suitable training in line with regulations in the loading and unloading of a heavy duty goods lift.

With palletised goods the problem doesn’t really exist as all heavy duty goods are contained on a pallet, which can be moved into and out of a lift by means of a forklift machine. This degree of mechanised handling has certainly been partly responsible for the reduction in strain injuries among the workforce. Apart from the obvious benefit to workers, it also has the effect of dramatically reducing injury related costs for the business involved.

The Manual Handling Operations Regulation, 1992 requires employers to comply with a range of regulations that govern the handling of goods. The installation of goods lifts in work premises greatly helps companies to comply. Even the much smaller dumb waiter lift, small service lifts used commonly in restaurants and offices, helps in reducing lifting and carrying related injury.

Small service lifts operating between floors, carrying food or documents, means that workers do not have to physically run up and down flights of stairs. This reduces through traffic and the risk of injury, while increasing efficiency considerably.

Lifts dedicated to the transportation of goods can be specifically designed for special situations to suit any company’s particular needs. They install easily and quickly in existing premises too, and their maintenance is neither time consuming or difficult, making goods lifts an almost essential part of any business premises where goods require vertical movement between floors.

Lift services that travel long vertical distances, and therefore require longer times for travelling, as in tall skyscrapers, may even have a seating cushion lining the sides of the installation where there are no doors, for even greater comfort. In countries where it can get hot in summer there may be air conditioning installed, or a fan system to circulate air. However, possibly the most important feature found in public passenger lifts is a means to convey information to someone externally who is in a position of authority should the lift break down between floors.

The lift design should cater to all users. Disabled users in a wheelchair are not normally able to reach high up, and for this reason all buttons should be low enough for them to reach easily, but not so low that able bodied passengers have to stoop low to access them. A stop button for halting the lift in an emergency situation is a good safety feature, but it should not be so designed that it can be accidentally activated. Should this happen, the passengers may not be aware of why the lift has stopped.

Lifts are usually located within a building, often in a set of shafts near the centre of the structure. This generally works well for goods lifts and service lifts as well as for those designed for people to use. This is largely so because all rooms and sections of the building are then within easy reach of the lift service being more or less equidistant from it. However, being in the middle of a building does mean that it is windowless inside, which may be a major problem for anyone suffering from claustrophobia.

By contrast, glass lifts located on the outside of a building allow light to enter. They provide the public travelling on them to see a wonderful panoramic view of the surrounding area while they are moving vertically up or down. Lift maintenance and servicing is not compromised through this design either, though there may be some additional engineering considerations to overcome. The passenger lift services industry is constantly staying ahead of its requirements and maintaining its high standards in every way.

Smaller versions of goods lifts are used in catering premises, restaurants, pubs and hotels. These are often called service lifts. They are also called dumbwaiter lifts. These lifts are quite small and can even be hand operated, though more usually today they are electrically operated. The dumbwaiter lift became popular around 100 years ago as a way to lessen the need for dozens of servants to be scurrying up and down flights of stairs carrying food when serving people in stately homes, or in hotels and restaurants.

The big benefit of using goods lifts in the work place is the lessening of injury to workers who would otherwise have done the physical lifting. Musculoskeletal disorders are caused when people lift heavy objects in the wrong way. The resulting injuries can be long term and extremely disabling.

Employers can sometimes be faced with lawsuits from injured workers claiming that proper training or safety measure were not in place. Workers are forced to take time off work and live of sickness benefits, which can cause financial difficulties. Businesses may have to train new workers taken in to replace the ones forced to be off through injury. Having machinery in the form of goods lifts do all the heavy lifting, while the workers simply push buttons to operate the machinery, can eliminate all this at one stroke.

Goods lifts do not carry people. Because of this they are not held under such stringent regulations as the health and safety of workers is not so likely to be at risk. They do have to be in good condition and operating safely, of course, as workers do have to manoeuvre goods in and out of the lifts at entry and exit points.

The smaller goods lifts, or service lifts, are the most loved by the health ands safety inspectors. The little dumbwaiter lifts are usually far too small for anyone to physically enter, so injury to personnel is at an absolute minimum with these lifts. They also have a simple and efficient operation that rarely causes problems, carrying food stuffs or documents from one floor to another. Dumbwaiter lifts are perhaps the perfect form that goods lifts can take.

A different situation occurs in old buildings that were built without passenger lifts as part of their design. Either the building owners put up with the situation and provide a good staircase connecting every floor, or they think about installing a platform lift. They could, of course, install passenger lifts by ripping out the interior of the building and creating a lift shaft with an upper housing for the lift mechanism and a basement area as well, but in most cases, installing a free standing platform lift will do the job just fine.

There are many old buildings where a free standing platform lift is already in place. The work required to install the structure was minimal and the disruption time minimal too. The idea works well for solving the problem of disabled access, for example, or just to provide the convenience of passenger lifts for the general public. The structure does not need a basement area. Direct same level access from floor level can be achieved by digging a shallow basement area of just 50 millimetres. Even that can be dispensed with, though a ramp would then be required for wheelchair access.

Platform lifts used as standard passenger lifts do not require an upper machinery area either. The free standing structure has everything within it that it needs to function fully. It can be run from a standard three-phase, or even a single phase power supply. Platform lifts can extend up to around 13 metres in height, which may not be enough for very tall buildings, but is often enough for old buildings that were not designed with passenger lifts in mind in the first place.

Many old buildings are spacious. In some cities they are now used to house local government staff, or perform some other public function. Their spacious nature can often make them quite suitable for the installation of a free standing platform lift system. This can be strictly for disabled access, but can serve the purpose of passenger lifts for use by the general public as well. The free standing structure can be designed to be surprisingly unobtrusive amid the general setting of an old building, combining elements of the old and the new in a pleasing manner.

Today’s dumbwaiter lift is usually called a service lift. It performs more or less the same function as the original dumbwaiters did, and it operates in a broadly similar way. They are not nearly as common as goods lifts or passenger lifts, or indeed any other kind of lift, but they definitely have their place. They are commonly used in restaurants where food has to be moved from one floor to another, perhaps from a basement kitchen to the dining area. They are also commonly used in an office environment to move documents and files from one floor to another, between different departments perhaps.

The dumbwaiter lift was probably so called because it could do the work of a waiter, but without getting fatigued or irritated. It could just go on working hour after hour, day after day and week after week in a dumb, non complaining fashion. The nickname is also probably an affectionate one rather than a derogatory one. The dumbwaiter saved a lot of time and effort compared with the situation before its invention.

Health and safety inspectors can be the bane of any industry, but they love the little dumbwaiter lifts. The lifts are too small for people, too small for heavy goods, and therefore easy to manage and very little ever goes wrong with them that involves injury to people. In short, they are the perfect kind of lift from the health and safety inspectors’ point of view. They replace the need for people having to climb up and down flights of stairs carrying documents or food trays. This limits the possibility of accidents and mishaps.

The installation of a dumbwaiter lift does require some careful consideration in a building that has not had one installed from scratch. The shaft of the lift, like most lifts, is vertical. This means that every floor where the lift will operate needs to have an area in more or less the same place set aside for the lift entrance doors. This need not be difficult, but it does need to be properly planned.

The call has come during a fringe meeting in which Passenger Transport Executive campaigners where permitted to voice their concerns and wishes to see members of Parliament and officials play more a part in changing Britain’s approach to accessibility for the disabled on public transport.

Its somewhat crazy when you consider that as far back as 1966 Barbara Castle wrote an entire white paper on the need to introduce an all in one integrated public transport system that delivered a quality service to both the able bodied and disabled community in which we live. 43 years later we are still campaigning for such access, and it really does highlight have slow progression can sometimes be.

One of the key areas of concern is still the inability for wheelchairs and mobility scooters to board day to day public transport. Quoting figures of over 72,000 public buses on the UK roads representatives of the public transport system state this is a marathon task to deliver however when you consider Barbara Castles white paper outlining the problems was produced over 43 years ago, one can only suggest that consideration clearly hasn’t been on the agenda when most of these modern buses were constructed.

It does leave a feeling of utter frustration with many that wheelchair access is still an issue in the 21st century and one has to question when the ‘issue’ will stop being an issue.

The development of this amazing new structure will be conducted and undertaken by Scandinavia’s biggest developer GC Rieber and will form a major part of the current regeneration project being undertaken in the Solheimsviken area which also includes massive developments in connecting to local transport facilities.

The Hotel development itself will consist of the most modern and up to date facilities a five star hotel can offer including of course access facilities for all guests including the disabled with the inclusion of quality passenger lifts and access facilities. The hotel will also include two hundred and forty rooms within its incredible thirty thousand square foot enclosure.

The location of the hotel will ensure waterfront views and boardwalk public access to a wealth of bars and cafes to be build alongside the hotel.
The impressive conference and exhibition area will encompass six thousand square feet and include office facilities within its massive construction including facilities such as passenger platform lifts in order for workers and quests to gain access to the industrial scale construction which is being constructed to emulate the former shipbuilding units.

UK based architects and planners Metropolitan Workshop are reported to be proposing an impressive canal system between the hotel and conference centre.

The International Development Agency and the Action on Disability and Development were highly pro-active in organising arrangements for the disability convention.

The event was made even more high profile with the appearance of the Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina and finally put an end to a era where the disabled in society were pretty much being ignored and effectively excluded from normal day to day living activities.

The convention bought together over eighteen hundred disabled people, high profile politicians, civil service delegates and of course the Prime Minister himself.

The event was themed on the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and will a heavy emphasis on Article 32 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The overall result of the convention will deliver a much needed starting block to help the disabled become more recognised and accepted within society and also ensure their access and accessibility requirements are engaged.

The need for platform lifts, entry accesses and facilities much of the modern world takes for granted will now start to play and important part in the development of Bangladeshi society

Gerry Buckle, director for Adrian Flux car insurance outlined its own companies dismay that some insurance companies were simply refusing to offer vehicle insurance to people with cars modified to take wheelchairs. He also outlined how appalling it was that despite the fact these motorists, according to their experience, were extremely good risks, they could not even get some companies to offer quotes from the outset.

This puts an extremely frustrating edge on equality and requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) where such actions are deemed unfair and unacceptable. Whilst many companies and organisations attempt to accommodate requirements under the DDA there is clearly an issue with some areas of business including high profile requirements such as vehicle insurance. Recent reports show that changes to the DDA made in 2004 still require attention and this clear discrimination against disabled drivers by top insurance companies shows that even the most high profile of organisations are simply flaunting their responsibilities.

Wheelchair users and carers who transport wheelchairs and disabled people are, in the minds of many sensible people ideal candidates for role model safe drivers and the discrimination they are suffering from the many vehicle insurance companies turning there backs on them leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of many. It seems Britain still has a lot of lessons to learn in becoming world leaders in equality.