More than 170 representatives from over 50 member companies of the NFDC came together on the weekend of 27th to 29th August for the NFDC’s Annual Convention, held this year in Marbella, Spain and sponsored by Finning CAT.
Held at the beautiful Hotel Villa Padierna Palace and hosted by NFDC President Martin Wilson, the annual convention included the NFDC’s half yearly business meeting and networking and social opportunities designed to reinforce the importance of NFDC members working together as an industry.
Presenting at the meeting Caterpillar Industrial and Waste Specialist Eddie Donald previewed new machines coming to market from Caterpillar in both October and January and said the new launches marked an important return to purpose built Demolition Products for Caterpillar.
Speaking about one – the 340F UHD, an ultra high demolition machine which will include a new active stability monitoring system – Eddie Donald commented that the new innovations marked an important move forward in Demolition Safety. “The new system is unique to Caterpillar and will be launched in January – then we will show this to the world,” he said.
With safety as key a focus for the Demolition Industry as ever, NDFC president Martin Wilson talked in his address about the importance of those in the industry choosing NFDC members for their projects since such members are audited and work within the best practise guidelines of the NFDC. Mr Wilson commented “It gives me no greater pleasure when clients endorse their pre-qualification statements confirming and I quote from one “We can confirm it is a strict requirement that contractors must hold NFDC membership in order to bid for this tender”.
The NFDC is currently working on a number of joint venture guidance notes that will further help improve safety, including Temporary Works, Resource Protocol, Crisis Management, and the use of Controlled Explosives all to be published shortly.
Improved professionalism is being supported by better training and qualifications for the Demolition Industry with NFDC’s partner, the National Demolition Training Group (NDTG) now boasting a full-time training manager. This is also supported by the launch on 3st August of a new NDTG CCDO Smart Card Scheme which NFDC chief executive Howard Button previewed at the convention.
The scheme can be used by contractors to check Demolition Operative’s qualifications and training records. “There are a lot of facilities in this scheme that I aim to make maximum use of,” he said. Howard Button also revealed that the NDTG is looking to extend the scheme to include Demolition Plant.
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