The costly reality of stuck manhole covers

Stuck and seized manhole and access covers are adversely impacting your bottom line! It’s a common problem that affects organisations in the drainage, telecoms and utilities sectors.

Some of the ways that stuck covers impact organisations are obvious: delays, the need to reschedule or potentially cancel jobs, dissatisfied customers and more. There are also other, less obvious ways, by which they can affect companies’ bottom lines.

In this blog, we’ll outline how stuck covers can lead to lost revenue. More importantly, we’ll discuss an economical, effective and fast solution to this problem.

Why stuck covers cost your organisation money

Labour

Moving an access cover is rarely a worker’s primary goal. Rather, they are required to access whatever is beneath the cover to complete their objective. Workers who need to move covers are therefore not engaging in the most efficient action possible. Their actions are necessary, but are only a part of the assigned task, resulting in additional spend.

This issue is worsened by a lack of clear, uniform process. Workers do not know how long they should spend attempting to open a cover. Nor do they know which tools and techniques they should use. This can lead to workers spending excessive amounts of time trying to move a cover and potentially even calling colleagues for support, resulting in further wasted spend.

Injury

Access covers and manholes are often heavy. Unsafe practices such as leveraging covers open with crowbars, screwdrivers or other tools are also commonplace. Workers will also need to bend down to try and move covers, increasing the risk of musculoskeletal injuries. Not only can this lead to employees needing to take time off work, but also litigation and financial loss.

Damage and replacement

The average cost to replace a manhole and inspection chamber totals £680 according to Checkatrade.com. And with workers regularly relying on blunt and brute force applied in the wrong direction when trying to move covers, damage to the lid and/or frame is commonly reported.

Additional equipment

Cranes, secondary vehicles and more can be utilised in attempts to shift stuck covers, all of which contribute to further costs. Specialist equipment may also be hired at even greater expense.

These tools – and all the resources discussed above – may not be required. Instead, any unnecessary costs could be avoided by simply adding one tool – the CoverUp Key – to your workers’ inventories and working methods.

How the CoverUp Key saves organisations money

Greater efficiency and optimised spend

As the only tool developed solely to release stuck and seized manholes and access covers, the CoverUp Key utilises a unique, patented slide-hammer action. This allows the key to deliver temporary and repeated upward impact force to the underside of covers. This type of force, known as cyclical impact, is proven to be more effective than a single, simple applied force due to greater energy efficiency: less energy is lost to friction. Also known as dynamic loosening, this phenomenon has been studied in bolted joints and other mechanical systems – it’s the same theory which has popularised impact drivers.

Because of this, the key allows workers to release covers far more quickly, resulting in higher efficiency. As the key is designed to move stuck covers, workers can easily determine whether additional equipment or support is needed to move the cover, ensuring that extra costs are only accrued where necessary.

Fewer injuries

Weighing in at approximately 6kg, the key is lightweight enough to be used by the average worker. Its ergonomic design features two sets of handles allowing users of varying heights to use the key without stooping or bending, minimising the risk of musculoskeletal and back injuries. This can result in fewer injury-based absences and a significantly reduced risk of litigation.

Rapidly recoup outlay

The CoverUp Key and a single tip can be purchased from around £150, whereas industry/geography-specific kits with several tips can be purchased from around £215. These economical prices mean that the key can pay for itself very quickly with just a single use likely to recoup most of your investment. Indeed, with the key regularly preventing covers suffering damage, from requiring additional support or hiring equipment, the savings it generates can exceed its cost with just a single use.

Easy to implement and scale

Economically priced, the key can be added to workforces with relatively little outlay. No formal training or certification is required before workers can use the key, meaning that standard processes can be implemented with ease.

Without a process in place, workers who encounter stuck covers are likely to resort to ad hoc and unapproved methods, such as the use of hand tools as levers, hammering at the edge of the cover, etc., increasing the likelihood of injury. Implementing best practice also ensures operatives know precisely what to do when faced with a stuck cover, ensuring that they are as productive and safe as possible.

Conclusion

An investment made in the CoverUp Key will be recouped rapidly. Following this, its ability to minimise injuries, improve productivity and efficiency will contribute to your company’s profits.

By calculating how many hours and how much of your budget is wasted on stuck covers per annum, you can begin to see how to reduce losses by providing your workers with CoverUp Keys.

For a detailed scientific explanation of what makes our key so effective, you can download a copy of our whitepaper ‘How to raise manhole and inspection covers safely’ here. We can also demonstrate the key and help you deploy a pilot programme with your organisation, providing you with the opportunity to track the positive change the key delivers on a small scale before you implement the key companywide.