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Weaving a safety Net
Safety distributors look to the Internet as a tool to grow sales
by Richard Vurva
The Internet is quickly becoming a trusted source for safety information, according to members of the Safety Equipment Distributors Association (SEDA). A joint survey conducted by SEDA and Progressive Distributor magazine shows that although
very few customers currently buy safety products from the Web, safety distributors are developing strategies to ensure their companies benefit from the growing interest in the Internet.
Top 10 safety violations
Helping your industrial and construction site customers avoid common safety violations can potentially save millions of dollars.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administrations annual list of most frequently violated standards showed that OSHA assessed companies more than $90 million in penalties in 1999, citing 77,196 violations.
Failure to comply with the hazard communications standard for general industry once again topped the list of most frequently violated standards. Over the years, hazcom violations usually top the list. Violations of OSHAs fall protection requirements in construction occupied the No. 2 position. Scaffolding requirements in construction (No. 2 in 1998) fell to seventh in 99.
Most dangerous worksites
Safety distributors familiar with OSHAs Web site have found it to be a valuable tool to help them target specific industries and in some cases individual companies in need of stronger safety programs.
Distributors who visit the site at www.osha.gov/oshstats can click on Frequently cited OSHA standards to determine the most frequently cited federal and state OSHA standards for a given SIC code. For example, a recent visit to the site shows the most common citation in paper mills (SIC 2621) pertained to the control of hazardous energy, lockout/tagout standards. In steel mills (SIC 3312), companies were more frequently cited for violating permit-required confined spaces standards.
Distributors with high concentrations of customers in a particular SIC code can use such information to help customers craft stronger safety programs.
Elsewhere on the OSHA Web site, visitors can download a list of worksites that OSHA has put on notice to fix workplace hazards.
This spring, OSHA notified approximately 13,000 employers to fix safety and health hazards that are driving up injury and illness rates in their workplaces. Up to 4,200 of these sites may be targeted for comprehensive safety and health inspections under OSHAs Site-Specific Targeting Plan.
OSHA identified the workplaces through employer-reported data from a 1998 survey of injury and illness rates at 80,000 worksites. A list of the 13,000 worksites is available online at www.osha-slc.gov/html/hot_5.html.
Top 10 most frequently violated OSHA standards
1) Hazard communication/general industry 2,020 violations
2) Fall protection, unprotected sides and edges 1,645 violations
3) Machine guarding, guarding methods 1,459 violations
4) Head protection, protective
helmets 1,254 violations
5) Recordkeeping, OSHA log
1,177 violations
6) General duty clause, safe and unhealthful conditions 1,116 violations
7) Scaffolds, fall protection
1,053 violations
8) Hazard communication/general industry, information and training
1,001 violations
9) Excavations, protective systems
1,000 violations
10) Medical services/first aid, drenching facilities
883 violations
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Researching safety information is the top reason customers utilize safety distributor Web sites, according to the SEDA survey. And while almost half of SEDA members say they offer product ordering capability from their Web sites, nearly three-quarters say only about 5 percent of their sales will come from the Internet in 2000.
I look at our Web site as a resource center for our customers, says Richard Smith of S.J. Smith in Davenport, Iowa.
He doesnt dream about getting rich by selling from the Internet.
For me to spend a lot of money to allow people to buy product off of my Web site through a shopping cart probably doesnt bring me the biggest bang for my buck, he says. I dont think Im going to get wealthy from selling a welding helmet to someone in Poughkeepsie.
Instead of building a Web-based order system or joining an online marketplace, Smith is investing in technology that allows customers to dial into his legacy system to place orders, check order status and other routine functions. Even so, only a handful of customers have requested such functionality.
Until customers want it, Im not going to spend the money, he says. And its got to be a pretty good sized customer.
Other distributors share Smiths hesitancy to pour money into Web-based technology until it becomes more clear whether customers will migrate toward an Internet procurement solution.
SEDA members are divided over whether the Internet is a threat or an opportunity. At least part of their uncertainty can be attributed to the fact that while customers are talking and reading about how to utilize the Internet to purchase supplies, a much smaller number have taken action.
I think certainly the Internet is going to create some dramatic change, Im just not sure in which direction, says Bill Thorne of Care Safety in Nashville, Tenn.
I think the Internet can turn a lot of distributors into facilitators, he says. What I mean by that is more of a logistics company. It could drive the smaller distributor into being a niche specialty service provider.
For Thorne, like many SEDA members, that could be good news. His company specializes in providing safety products and services, including equipment rental, to small- to medium-sized customers that have no safety director on staff and therefore rely on a local safety distributor to help them solve their problems. Thorne says its unlikely that such customers will turn to an e-procurement solution. Rather, customers who will buy off the Internet will be price shoppers.
If youre selling on price and price only, youre in trouble, he says. If your customer doesnt care that his product is being shipped from some great distance away, then price is the issue. But if customers need local service and inventories and all those things most of them want, B2B is not going to be the answer everyone is looking for.
Many safety distributors are struggling with how to best use the Internet. They want to make it easy for customers to purchase their products and services over the Net, yet they fear doing so will cheapen their status as a specialty distributor.
Its very easy to throw a bunch of products on the Internet, says Jerry Nichter, president of Orr Safety in Louisville, Ky. What if someone makes the wrong choice? What if you buy a respirator that doesnt protect you against a particulate that can kill you? Some very major players have relegated these products to a commodity bucket. We think thats not being responsible.
This article originally appeared in the July/August '00 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2000.
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