They may not look stylish or even pretty to wear, but they play an important role in keeping people safe on the job, by way of enhanced visibility.
High-visibility clothing or Hi-Vis clothing as its most commonly abbreviated is a clothing piece that usually goes over the top of the regular clothes, in order to ensure higher visibility at night or when working in dangerous conditions. This article covers some of the main benefits of Hi-Vis clothing and why it’s crucial to wear them.
Benefits of Hi-Vis clothing
The most obvious benefit of wearing Hi-Vis clothing is the bright colors and reflective strips on the garment. This is useful for workers, who work in difficult and dangerous environments. The most obvious is roadside assistance workers, who may be called out to recover a vehicle on the motorway, at night.
Without Hi-Vis clothing, the worker would be in a dangerous place and may not be seen by cars, traveling at least 60 mph. Hi-Vis clothing allows for these workers to be seen, even at night, so that other drivers are aware and can proceed to pass with caution.
Safer Working Environment
When entering a construction site, employees must wear specific clothing, due to safety regulations
When entering a construction site, employees must wear specific clothing, due to safety regulations. This might include wearing a helmet, goggles, ear defenders and of course, Hi-Vis clothing.
This not only ensures visibility but also creates an environment of safety. In turn, this may aid employees working on the site to know that they’re safe and that all safety regulations are being met, so that they can carry out the job at hand, without any concerns.
A matter of life and death
Furthermore, if everyone else is wearing Hi-Vis clothing, helmets, goggles and ear defenders, and a particular employee is not issued any of these, but is still expected to turn up and do the job, not only will they be extremely worried about their safety (and at this point, they should refuse to work, as the employer is not meeting safety regulations), but a small consideration is that they may not feel a part of the team as well.
In some cases, wearing a Hi-Vis vest may be a matter of life and death. Consider lone workers, who may have a communication device, but which may have been knocked out due to an injury on the job, they can easily be spotted by a rescue vehicle, if they are wearing Hi-Vis clothing, thereby saving their life.
Hi-Vis clothing at Granite Workwear
This is just hypothetical, but already people can see how Hi-Vis clothing may indeed save lives, just because of the bright colors and reflective strips on the item itself.
From vests to trousers to jackets, Granite Workwear stocks a full range of Hi-Vis clothing in many colors, including yellow, orange and even black.