PEOPLE PROFILE

Ben Fitzgerald

Ben has nearly 20 years’ experience in the lifting and rigging industry and shares with us how his business Queensland Rigging Hire is committed to keeping their customers safe through quality rigging products.

Thanks for your time Ben. Can you give us a summary of your professional journey so far?

My career in the lifting and rigging industry began back in 2002 when the company I was working for started to import round and web slings to supply to our existing customers at the Port of Brisbane. I learned a lot about the Australian Standards, importing and retailing this equipment. I started as a storeman / delivery driver and after 11 years with the company, I was Queensland State Manager with 9 staff, turning over millions of dollars annually and consistently outperforming every other state in Australia. I am forever grateful to the owners and management of this company for teaching and giving me so much.

From 2012 – 2014 I started a role growing the Queensland operations for a rental company. During this time, I was heavily involved in LNG projects in Gladstone and learned a great deal about lift operations and engineered lifts. In 2014, I started in a national sales role with a lifting and rigging wholesale supply company on the Gold Coast. Here I learned a great deal about the manufacturing of lifting equipment,

Ben, Owner (pictured centre) alongside business partner and wife Jess and new team member Trey (right)

Queensland Rigging Hire

wire rope and also about synthetic ropes including dyneema and how it is starting to revolutionise the industry. These two roles allowed me to build a network with many of the lifting & rigging companies in Australia, big and small and I met a lot of good people whom I’m still close with now.

Finally, in January 2017 Queensland Rigging Hire (QRH) was born. With my wife Jess by my side, we decided to take the giant leap and go out on our own. I have been extremely blessed to have made some strong allies in my past, a number of whom assisted us in the early days as we were making our mark in the industry. QRH helps our customer base with project work, short term and last-minute equipment rental, with reliable and consistent supply, which was previously a gap in the market. We do not sell or inspect lifting equipment, we only dry hire, which puts us in a unique position to be able to service most markets directly including lifting and rigging suppliers, crane companies, construction companies and major project contractors. My motto

is “do what you do and do it well” and as a company, we do not deviate from this business model which gives us a competitive advantage as we are solely focussed on our strength: lifting and rigging equipment.

You have had a great career so far by the sound of it! What are some things that you do in your role and company to help make the industry a safer place?

The most important thing for me, is to make sure everyone goes home to their family each night safe. We work in a high-risk environment and it should never be taken for granted.

As a company owner and employer, it is our duty to make sure our staff, our customers and ourselves are always working safely. We have customers that have had life changing injuries and it opens our eyes to respect the risks involved. Queensland Rigging Hire is continually striving to increase our performance in these areas through training, toolbox talks and on the job learning. We have recently invested in new software to help us keep in control of our growing fleet, which takes care of our inspection and test certification, as well as maintenance records and service history.

Queensland Rigging Hire test everything and supply both equipment registers and inspection certification with every order dispatched, which has been well received by our customer base. We are regularly asked to supply equipment while our customers gear is being tested or repaired, which minimises downtime and loss in productivity. We also put a huge effort into ensuring our equipment is supplied according to the manufacturer’s specification and relevant Australian Standards and Codes of Practice.

Whenever we have come across something that we think could be unsafe or compromised we always work with the manufacturer or NATA accredited local lifting companies before bringing any rigging back into service. Constant inspection by all parties using lifting equipment is essential before and after use, as well as when safety concerns arise during use. If in doubt, tag it out.

How do you help to build an effective safety culture?

Continual improvement is a huge part of our business and we try extremely hard to be proactive in offering our staff and customers a safer experience. The simple things like replacing timber crates and pallets with custom modular stillages to store and transport equipment to and from site safely are particularly important to us. I believe we are judged not only by our successes but also our shortcomings and we are always on a journey of continual improvement. A highlight for me is the investment we have put into our first staff member Trey, and how much he has learned in the last 18 months with us. Having come from outside of the industry and knowing very little, Trey has forged a very good understanding of our business model and the high standard of service and safety that our customers expect with every order (big or small) and we are very proud of his achievements.