What standards and best practice models should be followed to ensure that these valuable pieces of infrastructure are not damaged en route to their final rest place? SAPPMA CEO Jan Venter confirms that as much care should go into planning the safe and responsible transportation, storage and handling of plastic pipes as has gone into the manufacturing process.
“The supply of safe and reliable pipes involves the entire supply chain – starting with the raw material suppliers on the one side and ending with installers at the final stage. In-between, transportation and logistics are two very important steps that help drive members’ businesses and ensure a seamless service to customers and end-users,” Venter explains.
Plastic pipes are durable despite their lightness. Although this makes handling the pipes much easier, it could also potentially mean that they are likely to be mistreated. According to Venter, there are certain reasonable precautions that should be taken during handling and storage to ensure that the pipes are not damaged. These include:
Storage
Supporting
Stacking
Handling
Transportation
“Plastic pipes should be synonymous with reliability and trust. Whilst SAPPMA regularly conducts audits to confirm the raw materials that have gone into the pipes and that quality processes were followed during manufacturing, it is important that this same attention to detail and care is extended to the handling and transportation of these pipes. The latter should be reliable as the pipes that our members manufacture,” Venter concludes.