Up to the challenge

Summary
• There was record attendance at the TRA AGM.
• Housebuilders are rationalising their supply chains.
• The HSE’s Trojan Horse campaign will be in evidence this year.
• Sustainability issues will become increasingly important.

This year’s Trussed Rafter Association (TRA) annual general meeting was full of positives. The first was record attendance (82), the second was the announcement of three new members and the third was that, according to outgoing chairman George Watson, “for most fabricators 2007 was a good year” and that “reasonable margins” had been maintained.

This was set against a backdrop of challenges including rising timber prices, which took time to pass on and the imminent rise of steel prices. On the latter point, with apologies to the system suppliers present, Mr Watson called on fabricators “to get together to get finger-jointed material into the market”.

Mr Watson also voiced his concern that smaller, independent fabricators could struggle to survive as housebuilders rationalised their supply chains and sought suppliers with national distribution capabilities.

Incoming chairman, Jeremy English, expressed the same fear, going on to say that membership of the TRA provided an invaluable and cost-effective support system for companies in fields as wide-ranging as codes and standards, health and safety, technical issues and publicity. “The role of the TRA is to promote the industry and represent and protect the interests of its members,” he said. “It provides a single voice – an avenue through which issues can be dealt with in our interest. Our customers need to see that we value ourselves.”

Examples of the TRA’s achievements through the year were outlined by committee chairmen, who also alerted delegates to forthcoming challenges – and opportunities.

Les Fuller, chairman of the TRA technical committee, said his year had included liaising with TRADA on Part L. He also advised members that “the next three years will be spent concentrating on the introduction of Eurocode 5 (EC5) [in March 2010] and incorporating it into TRA literature”.

That same message was picked up by TRA’s standards consultant, Dr Luke Whale, who said there was “a huge job” to do to in terms of updating software and literature and in “educating the clients” in EC5-compliant truss design.

Dr Whale also highlighted some of the eco-issues that the trussed rafter sector will have to deal with. “We’ve entered the sustainability century,” he said, adding that issues that need to be considered will include roof U-values; thermal bridging; material sourcing, emissions and recycling; PV panels and wind turbines; rainwater harvesting and run-off; green roofs (“flattening pitches, sometimes to zero”); roof orientation, pitch and configuration; and roofs as living spaces, leisure spaces or energy harvesting spaces.

“These issues have reached critical mass and it’s not a given that [your product] is the answer,” said Dr Whale. “The trussed rafter industry has a huge amount to think about in terms of how it responds and assists.”

Health and safety

Pressure on the sector also comes in the shape of health and safety campaigns and Mark Murphy, chairman of the TRA’s health and safety committee, said that 2007 had been tough for the sector, which faced pressure from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) to put systems in place and from customers, who, he said “are currently on a health and safety quest”.

The TRA has been actively involved with the HSE’s Moving Goods Safely campaign, helping to write guidance notes on handling and unloading of trusses and to field enquiries from hauliers. And this year the HSE’s Trojan Horse campaign, in which safety message labels are attached to products and vehicles, will gather momentum.

Mr Murphy also sits on the HSE’s Wood Advisory Group, which means the TRA gets an “early warning” on impending campaigns. It’s also a two-way street, said Mr Murphy, as the HSE also seeks advice from the TRA.

The committee aimed to be proactive, he said, adding that the association was planning housebuilder forums. “We need to speak to customers before they ask,” he said. “We have to see health and safety as an opportunity, not a problem. It shouldn’t be used as a reason for not doing things. We have to use it as a tool to motivate customers.”

The work of the TRA and its various committees is promoted via the association’s publicity committee. Its chairman, Neil Summers, reminded members that the TRA’s literature, website and technical handbook had all been updated (contributing to the TRA winning the TTJ Best Technical Information Support Award last year) and that the latter could be “customised”.

One of the achievements being promoted will be the TRA’s new online training course, developed with Napier University’s Centre for Timber Engineering (CTE). The “trussed rafter for design technicians” course, which was demonstrated by the CTE’s Timber Education Online project director, Peter Condon, covers industry terminology, roof and truss shapes, reading drawings, trusses as a structural form, basic structural mechanics, basic structural analysis, an introduction to engineering design and the creation of roofscapes.

Callum Henderson, group human resources manager at James Donaldson & Sons, which trialled the training course, described it as “a brilliant learning tool”, adding that the way to attract and retain quality staff was to motivate them by developing their skills.