A PAT Testing Programme

PAT Testing – What is a PAT Testing Programme?

A PAT Testing Programme is an arrangement or contract with a PAT Testing company to ensure you are always inspected appropriately, protected and covered in the worst case scenario and to ensure your appliances are reguarly checked. This doesn’t however mean high annual bills.

A good PAT Testing programme could be implemented over any time period dependant on your industry, appliances in use, use of said appliances, the environment they are used in, your own health and safety policy etc.

A PAT Testing programme will take all these areas into consideration and work with you to find the best PAT Testing programme at the right frequency for your needs.

Lets look at an example:

Company A employs 1500 people at it’s site on a business park, out of town. It operates as a Call Centre, where 1400 of the staff work at hotdesk workstations covering a shift pattern from 7am to 10pm. The other 100 staff operate in a variety of roles including reception, cleaning, management, IT, HR and a few off-site sales people.

Altogether there are 6000 electrical appliances on site including 800 computers: 800 computers is 3200 individual items, there are 130 printers which is 260 items. There are approx 300 items in the server room, 10 kitchens each with 10 items including a microwave, 6 people that reguarly leave the building with laptops and various items of cleaning equipment. Altogether 5870 items are office based, 100 kitchen appliances and 30 items for the external staff.

  1. Firstly, we have agreed the servers will be checked fully once every 4 years, with a visual inspection every other year. That’s 300 items.
  2. The main office computers, printers and other IT related items will be checked fully every 4 years, with a visual inspection every year. That’s 5250 items
  3. The items in public access rooms, such as meeting and interview rooms will be checked annually. That’s 120 items
  4. The kitchen equipment will be checked annually. That’s 100 items
  5. The equipment for the sales staff will be checked annually. That’s 36 items
  6. The equipment used by the maintenance team will be checked annually. That’s 75 items
  7. All the other electrical appliances on site will be checked every 2 years. That’s 119 items.

That’s 7 areas to the PAT Testing programme; all documented and recorded.

How does the testing take place?

  1. At the start of the programme all 6000 electrical appliances are PAT Tested
  2. After 1 year the public use items, kitchen equipment, sales staff and maintenance teams equipment will be PAT Tested (331 items), and the office equipment visually inspected (5250 items)
  3. At year 2 the above areas will be PAT Tested, plus a visual inspection on the server (300) and the office equipment (5250)
  4. At year 3; the same PAT Testing as year 1 will be done.
  5. At year 4, the cycle has gone 360 degrees so the entire project is PAT tested again.

7 areas make up a 5 stage PAT Testing Programme.

Let’s look at the finances of this: 

PAT Tester A quoted to PAT Test everything annually as 60p per item. PAT Tester B (us) quoted the above 5 stage plan at 70p per item

PAT Tester A charges £3,600 annually, that’s £18,000 over the 5 year term.

We charge £4,200 for stage 1, £2,331.17 for stage 2, £2,451.70 for stage 3, £2,331.17 for stage 4 and £4,200 for stage 5. Over the 5 year term that’s £15,514.04 in total, saving you £2,487.96 or £497.92 per year.

Which is the best deal? 

Consider this; PAT Tester A has to disrupt you every year; taking your staff off their job to turn off computers, turning off your server every year disrupting the company and charge you the same amount every year. What will that down-time cost you?

We don’t affect any of your staff at any time as we come on site when the staff leave at 10pm and we leave site before they start work at 7am. There is never any downtime for any staff so you don’t lose any money.

So not only have we saved you money on your PAT Testing invoices, but we have prevented disruption, not lost you any income due to staff down-time and done all the work at night.

If you only look at price per item when making your decisions would you have ever known this? Don’t automatically think because price per item is more expensive that the overall cost is more expensive. Our per item price may be higher but you’re getting a much better service.

We will save you money and give you a higher standard of service for PAT Testing

How will a PAT Testing Programme benefit me?

  1. A PAT Testing programme will benefit you as it provides you with the documentary evidence you need to prove that you have done everything you can to ensure your electrical appliances are safe for use, as required by the “The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998″.
  2. You have had an independent company check your electrical appliances to ensure they are safe, not damaged and not causing a risk to users. The advantage to using a PAT Testing company rather than a member of your own staff is:
  • The PAT Testing company is independent from any company procedures, or cover-ups
  • The PAT testing engineer has the experience of inspecting and testing electrical appliances every day* when an in house person doesn’t.
  • You will receive appropriate inspection report and certificate which is needed for your records, and a copy is stored by the PAT Testing company elsewhere, so should you lose yours there is always a backup.

*it could be your member of staff that does testing for you does it for 1 day, once a year – by the time he does it again he has forgotten what to do. Also experience teaches you when a Pass really is a Pass, and the same with a fail.

**prices are for example only, although for 6000 items we will happily match this price.

Do you want to find out what your PAT Testing programme will consist of? Contact us to arrange a meeting, and a viewing of your site, following which we will submit our recommendations.