Don’t skimp, trust is the essential factor in confined space rescue

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In the world of confined space rescue, there are many options available to facilities that are seeking a supplier for rescue training and/or rescue standby services.

Maybe you have an outfit that you have been using for some time, or perhaps you are on the hunt for an organization to fulfill your rescue needs. Regardless, now is the time to perform an assessment of who is currently providing your rescue services or those who are on your short list as a potential supplier.

The purpose of this assessment is to take an objective look at your rescue provider or potential supplier and determine if they are just another organization trying to make a sale or if they are a true rescue partner. There is a definite difference between a vendor and a trusted partner. This distinction is important because rescue is a life-safety skill. If a vendor does a poor job at, say, cleaning bunker gear, you may be momentarily annoyed until you find a replacement vendor. But if someone gets rescued wrong, either in training or on a standby job, people could die.

There are many organizations that masquerade as partners but when you take a deep and thorough look, do you really trust them to train your personnel adequately or retrieve an injured worker from a confined space? If you do your homework and ask the right questions you will be able to separate the posers from the true professionals in the confined space rescue world. Better yet, have them perform a hands-on rescue drill. During an emergency is not the time to find out so you want to make sure you know what you are getting.

Vendor versus a true rescue partner for rescue training

If your facility has made the decision to form an in-house rescue team, you are probably aware of the equipment and training requirements entailed in its development and maintenance. If you are unsure of the requirements, you really need a rescue partner. But if you are cognizant of the requirements and have selected a training supplier, now is a good time to see how they stack up against a trusted rescue partner. If your current or potential supplier is not checking the boxes addressed here, then you are probably dealing with a vendor instead of a real partner.

Staffing and credentials

A rescue training partner has a cadre of instructors on staff who are all rescue-technician qualified and have been in industrial circles year after year. While all organizations experience turnover, it’s not as prevalent with some companies. Additionally, a partner’s staff possesses qualifications well above the minimum standards. Aside from everyone being a certified rescue technician, they routinely field personnel with advanced medical qualifications; OSHA outreach training to include OSHA-30, OSHA-510 and OSHA-511; and value-added credentials such as Certified Occupational Safety Specialist (COSS) to assist with real-world risk analyses and making valid safety observations.

Body of work

A reputable rescue partner has decades of experience delivering high-quality rescue training with an impeccable safety record. They can provide pages of references that include the big names in the industrial arena. A quality rescue partner offers a catalog of courses that can be customized to meet your needs, owns the rescue training space and is often the standard by which other training outfits are judged. If you are serious about providing top-notch rescue training for your personnel, then why choose anything less than a gold-standard organization?

Training facilities

This is where you can really separate the wheat from the chaff. There are many organizations that will show up with gear bags in the back of a truck to teach your rescue class at the plant. However, there is a distinct value when your training partner has invested in a world-class training facility that is designed for confined space rescue. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with training at your facility, being away from the noise and often hectic worksite affords a safe and controlled learning environment.

A true rescue partner will realize the value of having a training center that can be endlessly modified to create an almost infinite number of training scenarios. A training partner takes the time to understand the confined space types in your facility and tailors the training field to grow your team’s competencies in an incremental fashion. This way they are always building off of success, but with each scenario, the level of difficulty also increases incrementally.

Training materials

A rescue partner knows that students do read training materials and often refer to them as a resource after the course. When your crew takes a course from a true rescue partner, they will be given a professionally printed and assembled manual that undergoes regular revisions to ensure its currency, including a resource library of instructive videos. In addition, your partner maintains an extensive website with technical bulletins and timely blogs. And if you cannot find the answer to your question, your trusted partner is willing to spend the time necessary to get your issue sorted out and leave you with a solid plan.

Vendor versus a high-quality rescue partner for rescue standbys

Just as with rescue training, there are numerous options to choose from if your facility has elected to outsource its rescue standby requirements as opposed to forming an in-house team. Making the water a bit muddier to navigate is the fact that there may be more and different types of vendors competing for your standby business.

In the rescue standby world, you will encounter a number of smaller outfits that transit in and out of the rescue field while performing rescue standbys along the way. Then you have the organizations that qualify as rescue partners because they have been successfully supplying rescue standby services for decades throughout the industrial corridors across the globe.

Also inhabiting the standby world are the big industrial safety and equipment houses. These firms may be good partners for you in the arena of staging equipment or providing basic safety services but they often try to entice you to let them “throw in” rescue standby since you’re already contracting with them. These offers sound appealing at the onset from a budget standpoint, but if workers suffer because of inadequate rescue services, saving on the rescue standby fee will probably not look so enticing later.

These offers sound appealing at the onset from a budget standpoint, but if workers suffer because of inadequate rescue services, saving on the rescue standby fee will probably not look so enticing later.

So, just as with rescue training, make sure you know what you are getting. Examine safety records and make sure they can back up their services with proven safety performance. Let’s take a look at what a valued rescue partner for standby looks like versus the smaller rescue outfits or the behemoth equipment and safety houses.

Company focus

A true and genuine rescue partner focuses on rescue. They may address multiple facets of rescue — such as trench and high angle along with confined space — but the point is, they are rescue specialists. They do not try to be anything else, nor do they want to, because again … they own the rescue space.

If providing rescue standby services is one of hundreds of services a company offers, you should wonder how much emphasis they can really place on it. You should be wary of any offers that give the appearance that rescue standby services are a freebie or afterthought. In these cases, you should be alert that this role may not be staffed with their top performers. A rescue partner, on the other hand, is prepared to make a professional rescue at a moment’s notice.

Portfolio of work and references

When assessing standby providers, it’s important to get a feel for how they conduct business in the standby role. The best way is to ask for a list of references you can contact and then reach out to at least three of them to receive a firsthand account of how well their service was delivered. With the smaller rescue companies and the giant industrial supply vendors, you will likely get a variety of responses. The smaller company has a limited customer list, while the supply house has worked with everyone.

A true rescue partner encourages this type of query. They will provide more references than you will ever call, and moreover, they want you to call them. They are good at what they do, they know it, and their clients know it. As with many who have been in the rescue standby business for decades, they have worked with all of the big names in the industry and on any given day have a team or teams out in the field on standby jobs. But even with a known and stellar reputation, these folks genuinely want you to call their references because they want you to be 100% confident in your selection of their services.

You should be especially inquisitive about how many personnel they fielded, how they conducted themselves, and how prepared to make an actual rescue their standby personnel seemed to be. If the reference can say little more than, “They showed up, stood by, and left after the entry was over.” A real rescue partner, on the other hand, brings value-added attributes which will exceed your expectations. A rescue partner always does more than just tick the box.

Staffing for rescue standby

A true rescue partner will have been performing rescue standbys for many years. Through hard-won experience, this partner will know that at least three highly trained rescue professionals are needed for most confined space rescue standbys. They will be able to provide more if needed, such as with certain IDLH scenarios, but they are confident in their rescue technicians.

With rescue vendors, staffing also can be a mixed bag. They may try to get by with two rescuers, or they may send over extra personnel to give the appearance of a show of force. Regardless of how many they send out on the job, you should be looking at the credentials of those that will be staffing your standby job. If you are not seeing extensive training conducted by organizations you know and respect, you may be queuing up for a catastrophe if someone gets into trouble while working in one of your confined spaces.

Stage a simulated rescue drill

A proven rescue partner will also be eager to show off their skills and capabilities. Have the vendor’s rescue personnel conduct a realistic confined space and high-angle rescue drill that is relevant to your facility. This is an excellent way to find out if they can “walk” their rescue talk. Can they conduct a simulated rescue in a safe, effective and timely manner? If not, now’s the time to find out. It’s important to evaluate their competencies and safety practices in preparing and preplanning for confined-space rescue.

Turnkey packages

With a true and valued rescue partner, you will find they prefer turnkey business as this is the way they have done it successfully for decades. A small vendor may not have the resources or connections required to offer a complete turnkey package but you often don’t learn of this fact until you have already awarded the contract, complicating matters more since now you have to track down the vendor’s equipment needs.

The big equipment houses prefer turnkey packages, however, rescue standby jobs are not the most lucrative piece of the turnaround package so they are often motivated to control costs on the job by sending their lower skilled but more affordable entry-level personnel.

You have many choices when it comes to selecting a supplier for your rescue needs — whether it be training or standby jobs. By comparing what a trusted and true rescue partner looks like with one of the many vendors out there, you will understand the difference. When you have done your due diligence and carefully selected a rescue partner rather than a vendor, you have instantly set your crews up for success.

Download a rescue training and services checklist.

For more information on how Roco Rescue may be the right rescue partner for you, call (800) 647-7626 or visit RocoRescue.com.

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