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by Nick Drew  |  Tue 21 Apr 2020

Ken’s COVID-19 Cab Clean Tips

Regular Digger Man Blog reader and contributor Kenneth Hatcher has sent in his tips on what he feels operators should be doing when they return to work in terms of sanitising the cab to protect themselves from possible infection.

Ken’s COVID-19 Cab Clean Tips

Its probably fair to say that Ken is a bit of an OCD sufferer in many different ways. Over the past few weeks his obsession has become the COVID-19 corona virus which he has spent many hours researching and stressing about! My messenger inbox is jam packed full of corona virus topics which Ken has sent me, whether I wanted them or not! I jest there, but there is no doubt about it, this disease is serious stuff and we all still need to be taking it seriously, especially as I’m hearing on the grapevine, that some sites are beginning to return to work.

According to many studies, the typical car interior can contain at least 300 different kind of germs on every square inch. A leading university study found 700 types of bacteria on a steering wheel, making it dirtier than your average toilet seat! I’m confident that it would probably be the same if not worse, in your average excavator cab. I know on many occasions in the past, I have turned up on site, climbed into the cab and been confronted by the horrific sight of joysticks with a massive amount of grime on them, that always had me reaching into my bag for the wet wipes before starting the shift!

Germs are germs but the corona virus, as we have all seen over the past few weeks is deadly without a doubt. Ken is recommending that operators take the following steps when returning to work. 

Ensure you have a decent supply of anti-bacterial hand gel with you, and apply it before you reach your machine, also re-apply each time you leave and return to the cab.

Clean all exterior and interior cab grab handles using a wet wipe and copious amounts of an anti-bacterial cleaning spray which should be capable of killing 99.9% of all known germs.

As previously mentioned, the joysticks, by their very nature, are probably the dirtiest part of any machine, being constantly in contact with the operator’s hands.

Let’s face it, we’ve all seen operators jumping out to attend to the call of nature, then jump straight back in the cab and start operating again, washing of hands is simply not always possible on the big busy sites, especially if you have a big hairy arsed foreman shouting at you to crack on! As such and even more important now, its essential to clean the joysticks using the wet wipes and anti-bac spray to ensure they are properly cleaned. The same procedure should be applied to the T-Bar track lever handles, and wherever possible focus on using your feet pedals for tracking.

Arm-rests are equally important and should be cleaned in the same fashion as the joysticks and finally all the dashboards and control buttons should be cleaned on a regular basis using the anti-bac sprays.

Ken also suggests the same approach should be applied to the works van or car. 

Nobody is suggesting we all need to turn into a Howard Hughes style cleanliness obsessed freak, but a common sense approach to protect ourselves and others around us going forward will be needed.

We thank Kenneth for taking to time to provide photos and ideas for this post, Stay Safe everyone.  

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