Storefront Safety Protection? Bollards Have You Covered.

Storefront crash prevention solutions should be simple, easy to attain, and not cost an  arm and a leg. Spinx, a convenience store company in North and South Carolina, believes the same when it comes to storefront crash safety protection.

With 65+ convenience store locations in the Carolinas, Spinx’s mission is to fulfill customer needs in a clean, safe, and convenient environment – what every customer should expect.

Spinx wanted full facility vehicle accident prevention — effective storefront crash safety, gas pump guarding, possible theft deterrence, and everyday protection for customers and employees with solutions that wouldn’t create extra work or costly upkeep just for doing the right thing.

After strategically placing bollards in the right places and spaces for the right protection, Spinx needed a finishing touch – something unique to Spinx branding, but also staying in the focus of storefront safety.

In 2008, the decision to achieve a clean and safe appearance emerged – bollard pipes and bollard covers.

“We ultimately decided to go with bollard covers to cover our pipe posts,” says Tony Peters, Spinx Site Manager. “Bollard covers are much better than painting and stay put – what more do you need?”

Ideal Shield and its variety of product offerings provided Spinx with exactly what Spinx needed and wanted for their storefront safety.

“We chose Ideal Shield, the ONLY manufacturer that offers a variety of sizes and custom color options to blend in with our store locations. We didn’t want the covers to detract from the overall appearance, but rather blend in with the scenery. Essentially, they are there, they are protecting, but no one sees them.”

It doesn’t get more clean, safe, and convenient than that.
Many stores have found bollards and bollard covers are the best way to prevent costly storefront accident damage. In addition, insurance companies favor businesses that ensure customer and facility safety which in turn reduces rates.

Spinx’s commitment to employee and customer safety is second to none. Realizing the value in investing a little more upfront for long-term storefront protection makes them a business that’s getting it right.

Solution to Reserve Space = Portable Sign Base

TA Travel Centers of America and Ideal Shield recently teamed up to capture an unclaimed business opportunity. Founded in 1972, TA Travel Centers is the largest full service travel center company serving professional highway travelers.

With over 165 free-standing locations to service highway travelers, TA travel has proven to be a frontrunner in full-service motorist care. Due to strict restrictions the DOT enforces in the amount of hours a long haul tracker can keep their rig on the road, many of the drivers are forced to find a suitable location to rest when their time is up and are then forced to pull over and rest wherever space is available. Many times a TA Travel Center is at full capacity when a driver pulls in and has no other option for a place to rest. This is often why you see trucks lining a highway or ramps leading to and from a rest area.

TA Travel Centers came up with a plan to better service their important professional clients by offering them to reserve a spot ahead of time for a nominal fee at a TA Travel Center that the trucker will be passing through at the scheduled “off time”. This way, the driver is assured they would be in compliance with DOT regulations and not be stressed to find “no room at the inn”.

TA travel Centers worked closely with Ideal Shield in perfecting a movable sign base system with wheels that they use to reserve the spots for truckers that can then be wheeled away when the rig pulls in to park.

Ideal is proud to work with a customer orientated company as Travel Centers of America since we share the same value that the customer is king.

Asda’s Bollard Cover Advertising Campaign

Leading UK supermarket, Asda, has introduced its debut consumer Bollard Cover advertising campaign in conjunction with Kraft Foods. Developed by Asda, this is the first time the media has been rolled out to the consumer market having proved successful in the corporate sphere. The Bollard Covers promote instore offers to reach consumers at as many touch points as possible.

Kraft Foods are the first supplier to utilise the media service offered by the Asda Media Centre, following a trial campaign last month to promote a key deal on one of its flagship brands – Philadelphia, which showed a clear sales uplift.

Bollard Covers, which stand at 1.2 metres tall and are a distinctive triangular prism shape, were placed on site at 292 Asda stores out of a possible 363. These displayed advertising for Kraft Philadelphia 300g cheese tubs with a £1 price offer.

The Asda Media Centre will offer up to 12 Bollard Covers across 313 stores nationwide to help brands promote their key offers to Asda shoppers, help generate a buzz around key seasonal events or to shout about an exciting new launch.

Already proving popular with advertisers; the first eight weeks available for advertising have been taken up by eight different brands including Walkers Crisps, Ski Yogurts and Aero Biscuits.

The entire article can be found on http://www.creativematch.com

Yet Another Great Innovation from Ideal Shield

When our friends at Wal-Mart asked us to create a pivoting guardrail to act as a reinforced gate, our engineering team got right to work. The result was an extremely durable, swiveling guardrail that is cored at one end, and rides on a system of industrial casters at the other end. This new Heavy Guardrail Gate features all of the strength of our standard stationary guardrail system, with the added bonus of being able to move to one side.

Ideal Shield is proud to add the Heavy Guardrail Gate to our line of Award Winning products. This new heavy-duty gate is made of schedule 40 and 80 steel pipe sleeved in OSHA Yellow ¼” high-density polyethylene plastic.

It will never need to be painted; so how’s that for low-maintenance?

Standard or custom lengths and heights are available, and we will deliver it fully assembled to the job site. It is both water and chemical resistant, and

will withstand the most extreme conditions of temperature and weather. Your Heavy Guardrail Gate will look and perform great in all commercial and industrial plant applications.

When used in combination with Ideal Shield’s stationary guardrail system, the Heavy Guardrail Gate provides a functional entryway into your secure area.

Ideal Shield Adds Concrete Bollards to Bollard Cover Product Line

Ideal Shield has added Concrete Bollard Covers to our bollard cover product line.  These  bollards covers are designed to offer superior protection and security outside commercial and retail facilities and are a great compliment to the Ideal Shield steel post and bollard cover system

Concrete bollards are designed to easily withstand harsh weather and offer a great solution for banks, schools, office buildings, and other facilities with pedestrian traffic requiring security measures and traffic control barriers.

These formidable bollards are available in a variety of natural, earth toned finishes and architecturally pleasing styles.  With these concrete bollards customers are able to provide enhanced security and protection from accidents and acts of vandalism without sacrificing facility appearance. Read more »

New Product – Ideal Shield add the Skyline Bollard to Its Line of Decorative Bollard Covers

Ideal Shield is pleased to announce that we have added a new decorative bollard cover, the Skyline Bollard, to our popular decorative bollard product line.

This sleek, minimalistic bollard cover features a 45º angled top and smooth sides.  The skyline bollard has a modern, architecturally appealing appearance and is an excellent, cost effective alternative to stainless steel or concrete decorative bollards.

The motivation behind the design of this bollard comes from one of our customers.  We are always looking for ways to broaden our product offerings and satisfy our customer’s needs, so when one of our customers expressed interest in a bollard with this shape and style we got to work and created it.

The skyline bollard is manufactured from ¼ thick HPDE plastic, fits over any standard 6” bollard post, and is available in virtually any color.  As with all other bollard covers that we manufacture, the Skyline Bollard Cover is harsh weather and fade resistant.  The cover can be purchased and placed over existing bollard posts or purchased with steel pipe for new installations.

Including the Skyline bollard, our decorative bollard cove line includes seven styles, and one UV or Hardwired lighted bollard cover.  Decorative bollards offer stylish, architecturally appealing bollard protection and are a great option for municipalities with strict visual ordinances and non-industrial settings.

Find out more about the Skyline bollard and other decorative covers today!

OSHA Launches New Recordkeeping Advisor Interactive Web-Based Tool

In an effort to help employers better comply with its record keeping rules, OSHA has launched an interactive, online, web-based tool that can help users determine if an injury or illness is work related and recordable based on the agency rules.

The new tool “the OSHA Recordkeeping Advisor” is designed to simulate an employer’s interaction with an OSHA Recordkeeping Rules Expert. To use the tool an employer responds to questions presented by the interactive web based Recordkeeping Advisor.  The “Advisor” evaluates the employer’s responses and helps to determine:

• If an injury, illness or related event is work-related
• If an event or exposure that takes place at home or on travel is work related
• If an exception applies to the injury or illness
• If a work-related injury or illness needs to be recorded
• Which provisions of the regulations apply when recording a work-related injury or illness

All information put into the program is strictly confidential and no information is stored or recorded. Read more »

Handrail Kick-Plates: To Install or Not Install?

What is a handrail kick-plate and is it really necessary?  A kick-plate, or toe-board, is placed at the bottom of your handrail system by your toes, where your feet would kick it – hence the name.  Kick-plates, while very common, are not standard, or automatically included as part of a handrail system.  So, when are kick-plates necessary?  Do you have to put them on your handrail system?  The answer is both yes and no, depending on the situation.

The reason to install a handrail system is safety and the prevention of accidents and falls. The same is true for kick-plates; they are installed for safety and the same reasons as the handrail system itself.  If your handrail is near an edge and the potential exists for something to fall off that edge and injure someone, then a kick plate is necessary.  Consider any areas where you have installed a handrail.  Is the handrail near an edge?  Could a tool fall off this edge and hurt someone?  If the answer is yes, then a kick-plate is necessary. Read more »

Keeping Your Employees Cool During the Heat Wave

Protecting our employees’ health and well-being is a top priority.  Just like many of our customers, we have employees working in warm environments, which is concerning in the summer months, particularly when we have a heat wave, as we are now.

Heat waves affect us all.  Employees working outside, such as constructions workers, roofers, and highway repair workers, are the most obvious at risk. From extreme temps to high humidity, workers are especially at risk in urban areas where  asphalt, concrete, and steel trap the heat.  But they are not the only group at risk; employees working indoors in factories, manufacturing plants, distribution centers, even white-color office workers can suffer injuries and illness from heat stress.  Read more »

Cleanliness in Industrial Facilities

Facility cleanliness and appearance play a direct role in the health of your business.  It’s not just the look of your offices, lobbies and store fronts regularly seen by customers, but also the cleanliness and appearance of industrial areas, warehouses and manufacturing plants, not typically seen by the public.  A clean industrial facility may seem like a pie in the sky idea, but there are solid business reasons to make this a corporate goal. Read more »