waste disposal

Used brake fluid disposal: most brake fluid is made from polyglycol which is water soluble and can be considered hazardous if it has absorbed metals from the brake system. Wasted brake fluid should be only recycled in a container clearly marked to indicate that it is designated for that purpose. It should never be mixed with used engine oil. The waste oil collection container is placed in the workshop. Once the container is full all you need to do is to call the number. The company will arrange a time to come to collect the waste oil for free. used oil filters contain used engine oil that may be hazardous. Before an oil filter is placed into the rubbish bin, it must be drained thoroughly.coolant is a mixture of antifreeze and water. New antifreeze is not considered to be hazardous even though it can cause death if ingested. Used antifreeze may be hazardous due to dissolved metal from the engine and other components of the cooling system. It is a common practice in NZ, used coolant is recycled into the waste oil container. Since conventional ethylene glycol based antifreeze is attractive to pets and animals because its sweet taste. Ethylene glycol is fatal to any animal if swallowed, so any spill should be cleaned quickly. Spend battery disposal: a spend battery must be placed in the designed storage area of the workshop, from where it will be collected and recycled. The lead, sulphuric acid and plastic contained in batteries can cause damage to the environment if not properly disposed of.All the spend batteries are kept on a bench in the workshop waiting for the battery company to come and collect them.

Used tire disposal: used tires are an environmental concern because of the following several reasons:

l  In a landfill, they tend to float up through the other trash and rise to the surface

l  The inside of tires traps and holds rain water, which is a breeding ground for mosquitoes

l  Used tires present a fire hazard and when burned create a large amount of black smoke that contaminates the air

For other parts such as alternators and starters they can be sold to the second-hand parts companies for reconditioning.

week 8

I noticed a few times customers were freely walking around the working area sometimes even under the hoists without any warning from the technicians or employer. It is absolutely dangerous and if anything happens to them, the employer has full responsibility for the accident.

Since the door leads to the reception office is very close to the main entrance Sometimes the customers would take the main entrance to go to the office. As the vehicle moves in and out the workshop it will increase the risk to the safety of the customers.

Petrol and diesel containers are mixed together with other fluid containers without any highly flammable warning sign on it. And also other common workshop safety signs are not available in this workshop such as warning signs for the following situation:

good working environment

In every single day, technicians communicate with each other quite a lot. Therefore to keep friendly and happy working environment is absolute important. Because it is quite normal that at times technicians may be required to work together on a task or share specialist equipment between them. Members of staff who disturb or threaten the friendly atmosphere will find it difficult to get the cooperation. At Takapuna brakes you will readily notice that the working environment is so peasant. Greeting to each other is their first thing in the workshop when they start to work. After work, they always say ‘have a good night’ to each other’. Since Tony is good at trouble-shooting related to electrical and electronic problems, and Ray is good at trouble-shooting related to mechanical problems. You can always see them consult to each other to pinpoint some hard-to-find vehicle problems. Since they both are quite funny and like to make jokes, so you can always hear loud laugh cross the workshop. When the workshop is busy, even after the working hour everyone is happy to stay behind until the job is finished.

a typical day on the toos

Using the most suitable tool to carry out a job really saves you a lot of time and makes the job much easier. Ray told me that know how to select the right tool for a job depends on your working experience. That is so true because when I worked as an apprentice the most struggling thing was trying to use all the tools I thought was right to get the job done which was really frustrating.

The above picture was taken at 10am in quite a typical working day. As you can see after a few jobs, the tools and oil containers scattered everywhere on the bench and the trolley. Sometimes you would notice that the technicians are looking for a tool all around in the workshop. The only time to clean the tools and put them away is at the end of the day. However Ray told me it is nerve a good practice to put the tools away after each job because most of the tools are used repeatedly. But in my opinion it is also not a good practice leaving the tools like this. At least the oil containers should always be put back to the fluid supply station for other technician to use as well as avoid oil transfer onto the tools. And for the tools used on the common jobs should also be put on the bench or the trolley in order.