What is Test & Tag? Do I need it + More Questions Answered | Matt Cane from EXELNetwork Pty. Ltd

Alrighties. That's the boring stuff. Over. Yay. Test and tag. Cool. All right. What is test and tag? Anyone know?

I hope everyone knows.

This is these awkward moments. This is the awkward moments. See, I can speed it up by just pressing this button here and then you can just read it. Okay. Just basically true. Basically, we've got to make sure the equipment that's in a workspace is deemed safe, so no one's going to get electrocuted. There's no fires, no anything like that. So it's all part of OH and S and due diligence and part of the OHS regulations in Queensland. Actually, all states and territories have different levels of their testing and tagging requirements, as you guys probably aware of different levels of qualification and needs. Ultimately, we want everyone to be fully trained up to do testing and tagging to the full level, to be doing the job Right. So that's test and tag and it's all to the 3760 standards. The standard did change in 2010. It's supposed to change every 10 years. Not much changed except for New Zealand. Really? If you're running a test and tag business like you guys in New Zealand, you've got to log your test results in Australia. Not yet. So a few other small changes here and there, but ultimately it's the same. Cool. How do we test and tag? Hey, look at that. I stole it from your website. Really bad quality. Guys. It's a picture of a picture, okay? We do it to prevent accidents, ensure equipment's safe. So what I mentioned before, the whole testing and tagging, why we do it is just to make sure we meet the OHS regulations. We make sure the equipment we use is safe. And I guess people these days like to, I guess, leave the responsibility to the business owner to make sure things are safe. Normally, if you pick up a drill and the wires are hanging out, you shouldn't be touching it, but if you're at work, of course you can pick it up. And that's why we test and tag, so people don't do stupid things like that. How do you test and tag? So, visual inspection. We all know that every piece of equipment, you've got to visually inspect it. Has any of your team actually done training, test and tag training? No. Okay, cool. Like visual inspection, everything. 90% of equipment that you actually test and tag fails on visual. 90%. That's basically almost everything you test. So any nicks, cuts, damaged cables, missing guards, anything like that, you literally just fail it. Don't even do electrical test You've got to identify the construction class of the equipment. Equipment's either being made as a class one or class two device. Basically how the electrical safety equipment works. Class two equipment, the equipment's wrapped in, I guess air as an insulator and plastic. You'll find a lot of, I guess basic electronic stuff like that will be class two power tools and things like that. And then you've got Class 1 equipment which are earth appliances. So when you see that earth pin, that's most of the time it's a class one device. And then you could use a PAT tester. Does anyone know what PAT stands for?

Portable imxt.

Sounds so excited. You're right. Good job. You all pass. And then you've got to use test tags. Now test tags, look, depending on the industry you're in and where you're testing, depends how long the actual tag is, I guess valid for. In a workshop, place of assembly manufacturer, it's every six months. If you're on a construction site, it's every three months. If you're in a hotel residential, it's two years. And the definition of one year is if the supply cord is subject to flexing or in normal use, it's one year. Now, there's always arguments and misinterpretations of that, but in an office environment there's also a five year test, by the way, that's where the supply cord is not subject to flexing and not in normal use. There's always a bit of an argument about equipment in an office where you've got the cables down here. If I can touch that or if a vacuum cleaner can touch it, that flex the cable that falls under a yearly test. Meanwhile, a monitor which is a mains powered monitor, not like a low voltage one that sits on the desk, that can technically be a five year test. It's not moving. But people interpret it all differently and I'm sure you guys are going to throw me questions about that later. What's the test and tag process? Visual inspection, electrical test, and then log the results. Easy. As with the electrical test, Class 1 equipment consists of an earth continuity and insulation resistance. Class 2 equipment is just a Class 2 insulation test. Now, some equipment have electronics and require energizing to create a circuit. The correct way of testing that stuff is you've got to power it up and run it. So something. A good example would be a motion sensor hand dryer. You put your hand in front of the motion sensor which is low voltage, and then the fans work to dry your hands. Something like that you really need to do a leakage test to power it up. Because if you don't, you're actually not testing the actual motor, you're actually only testing the little sensor, which is not what you want you to do the whole thing. Can anyone test and tag? Yes, to an extent. You have to be deemed competent and actually done in a structured test and tag course. Or you could be a licensed electrician or worker or D grade and then your inspector is deemed competent by testing and tagging. So that's another one where if somebody can actually deem you competent, if they've trained you, so you could get an electrician who's training up an apprentice who decides, look, I don't want to be an electrician anymore, he can deem them competent to test and tag. But the ramifications of that is the evidence to prove that it's been done. So we just tell people, do a course, it's a one day course, it's really easy. Once you've done it, there's no questions asked, no one's going to say, hey look, where do you do your qualification? If you've done the course, you've done it, there's your proof. What is required to test and tag? Training portable appliance tester by the way, there's probably about six or seven different manufacturers out there. They all do much the same, like it's comparing apples with apples. They'll do the same type of tests. They're more expensive machines, they can log results, print test tags, do invoicing. Those ones tend to be more expensive, the more basic ones tend to be basic and quicker to use. We need test tag labels, self explanatory and then a database to log your reports. The industry itself. Now one thing I have noticed being here for 16 years is it's grown massively and the biggest part of that is just awareness. When I first started, everyone just assumed you had to be an electrician to test and tag and that was it. Now with WorkSafe on TV, incidents in the workplace, oh, and S requirements has now become a thing, which is great for business. It's good for us because people are more aware because technically any single business should get their stuff tested and tagged. I say should because it's not law. They've got to get it done, but it's part of the due diligence to make sure the environment's safe so the employees aren't going to zap themselves or the place burn down. Another thing is, yep, there's the electrician thing I mentioned before construction sites and union sites, especially including mine sites, you have to test and tag, full stop, no questions asked. There's a big drive for construction these days, more houses. So those places tend to be all required to be test and tagged. Some of the union sites are really anal. Like some of them say, look, you've got to be an electrician full stop if you're going to test and tag on site. So what the staff do or the contractors do is they just go off site and get their stuff, test and tagged elsewhere and come back in again and then you've got secondhand equipment. Now this one's been pushed a lot more. So you'll find that Salvos Vinnies and those places they are testing and tagging in house now, they just tend to get volunteers to do the work. There's a big drive on secondhand equipment. Some of the governments have actually said you can't throw away electrical devices anymore into tips. So they're going to be sold off accordingly. Wa just literally put a grant through for hundreds of thousands of dollars to second hand and charity companies are selling equipment to get them upskilled and trained just so that I guess for them to sell it. Like at the moment it's so easy for us to go, hey, let's go to Kmart and buy a kettle for 10 bucks. Basically we're encouraging everyone to buy it secondhand because you know, it's reuse what we've got. All right. Oh no, one more. There you go. And oh. And it's never go away. We are wrapped up in cotton wool. Where there's a blame, there's a claim. I can't see this industry going anywhere at all. One thing I have noticed though over the space of these years is that when there's been either the financial crisis when Covid hit and things like that, when there's a tightening up, more people get into franchises, more people start doing testing and tagging as an additional add on to their business. So it's right now I can see it growing again because people are looking for extra money to be able to do to live now. Anyways, look at that. Speedrun. Ta da. Question. Yes.

Are you able to give a brief overview of the. Because I'm sure a lot of the guys don't know specifically. Okay, cool. I'll plug it into. The tester does these tests, but what does it actually do? Like what are the actual.

Brief example. Okay, so yeah, okay, so class one equipment, the earth equipment, the one with the earth pin, if there's Any electrical faults with an earth test, the fault will go to the earth pin and out the building and out to the floor. So an Earthbond test is where it puts 200 milliamps of earthbond current into the device to see if there's any break in the connection. So for example, let's just say this is my copper wire for the earth. So if there's any phrase in it, and if you put, say, that test through the device, there'll be additional resistance because there's less contacts. And if there's less resistance means there's more of a chance that electricity won't go out the earth of the building, it'll go out the person who's touching the equipment.

So basically what he's saying is a technical way of saying we're test. The first thing we're testing is to make sure that earth, that bottom wire, the green and gold one that comes out is working correctly. Because if that's not working, you do become the earth. You're the earth.

Yeah.

So that's.

That's it. That's it.

So then, okay, so that's, that's the.

Earth, that's the earth bond. Then there's the insulation resistance test where it blasts 500v DC. So not AC like it comes out of the wall, like when you're pairing up your computer and things like that, that's powered by AC current. Well, laptops are DC, but anyways it puts 500 volt DC through to basically see if there's any breakdown between the insulation within the device. So let's just say you've got your three lines of wires, your active and neutral on earth, and they're shrouded in, in I guess a rubber. If you put 500 volts down there, that 500 volts has a chance to be able to break, not break through. But if there's any cracks, touch another wire there and then you'll find out whether there's a breakage in the connections. So in a nutshell, the insulation resistance test is if, if there's a break, if there's a. Let's just say there was a fault or a dead short in the insulation, you would actually. The electricity will go through you and most likely trip the RCD afterwards, or should trip the RCD afterwards.

So if that sends that through and it doesn't receive the same amount of voltage back in.

Yeah. Then we know that there's a breakdown. So that's the second test that does.

So, okay.

And then the next one, polarity Test polarity test is making sure you're testing from an extension lead. You've got an active on one end from the plug to active to the socket, it checks to make sure that they're connected. So it's the active, neutral and earth when it does a polarity test. So it's like a power board, for example, when you're doing a test, it's making sure that each one of the pins are lined up correctly. It's actually quite common to find building like this where the sockets in the wall that they're sometimes reversed reverse polarity, which means.

And what's the danger of that?

Okay, a good example would be just say we had a lighting circuit. Don't film this because this is totally wrong. So here we go. So we got a. So we got our light switch, our light there, there's our light. Ta da. Like this. And then it goes out like that. So there's our switch. There's an on and off switch. So normally electricity would go up this way. You flick the switch, the light goes on and then electric goes out. But if it's a reverse polarity, electricity goes this way and misses the switch. So light always stays on, which means the equipment's always active, it's always live. So that's the dangers of reverse polarity. Like I said, this is very, very simple picture.

And so like RCDs and things like that won't.

No, RCD won't. Yeah, they won't pick it up. Yeah.

So if you've got a kid in a school or whatever and say you've had someone, a tech teacher, which I've seen, you know, wire up an appliance incorrectly and the polarity, the wires are around the wrong way. Then they plug that into the wall, that RCD that's protecting that won't trip.

Might not trip. Yeah, might not trip.

Depending, that kid could be electrocuted. So you get a tech teacher that thinks they know what they're doing, but they, they don't.

Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of, I guess, what's the word? I wouldn't say laziness, but people just, when they do it all the time and they just, they just get too used to doing it. Complacent. That's the word I'm looking for. Yeah, complacency. So, yeah. Okay.

Another question, frequently asked question that the guys are getting, you've answered it. But the version that they'll get all the time on a call up, do I have to get tested?

And the answer to that is the Law says, well, so basically you don't have to get your stuff test and tagged. However, it is your obligation and your due diligence to ensure that the workplace is safe. And being safe is anything from making sure the fire exits are clear, making sure that you're testing and tagging, making sure that whatever oh and S is required within the actual facility and building. It is. So another way to explain it is if there was to be the building burnt down because of electrical fault. One of the requirements for insurance companies to make sure check the records was equipment test and tagged. Like if it wasn't test and tagged, there's a chance that because the equipment wasn't checked that's why the place burnt down. It's just one more thing that should be done. It's not law to get test and tagged, but you're right up a creek if you don't get it done. And actually the business owner is fully liable for manslaughter for the whole, the whole lot. If anyone gets injured or.

And we've had those calls before when there's been an incident or whatever, or we've had actually like worksafe come out, do an order on the site and basically say your testing tag isn't done, you need to go get it done. Even though technically.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's more of that now. So. Yeah.

Anyone else?

I got one y one question we get a lot about construction, mining and demolition is like grace periods and how that all works because I think there's just some miscommunication or gray area with the guys. Yeah. A lot of them think that like it has to be done the day that the tags change. Some people seem to think it's two weeks afterwards that you've got a grace.

It's actually two weeks before and two weeks after. It's actually two weeks. And that's because it's almost impossible to get everything done in a single day. So they've actually put in. I'll find the actual extract and send it through. So you've got something in black and white.

That being said, a lot of work health and safety officers will not accept if it's one day over the change of colors. So if that's going to happen, our suggestion is always come start to edge forward rather than edge back because you.

Tell them like the week before, like make sure that you like on the advance.

We get the same question about colors as well. Yeah, it's like, can I put this color on now? Even though it's not due for two weeks well, don't just say put a color on now. Since it's due in one month, that's outside the grace period. You can't, you've got to do it within the period. It's too bad, so sad. Unfortunately we had that the other day.

Technicians like a month before and they were trying to get them to do it and they just have to do it twice.

Yeah, they got it done again. Yeah.

Or don't bring that, that item on.

The side until it's due. Until. Yeah, until you're using it. Yeah.

I have a question. New Zealand training is there now in like face to face training in New Zealand or is it still only online?

No, it's face to face. Yeah.

Just in Auckland or.

No, we got it North Island, South Island. So we've got Auckland definitely. And I know we fly our trainers in and out of different areas. So yeah.

Oh easy.

I can get that information through to you guys too.

So anyone else?

Well, maybe more for the franchise onboarding team. What is the benefits of joining the test and tag industry? Like, you know there's lots of different service based industries out there. Why would someone want to specifically go for test and tag?

Why would they? Look, I think good side is there is plenty of work out there but you have to go for it. Work never falls on your lap. We see people, there's a, I guess we see people come and say, hey look, I can do a one day course for 500 bucks, I can get my insurance, I can do this. But if you don't actually do the work to get the work, you got no chance. Being in a franchise, you've got the support of franchise who have got contacts, leads, marketing. So going in with a company will give you more chance of getting extra work. And there's plenty of work out there. Like you have to get it.

The clients are very sticky.

That's what I find.

So yeah, this is a great thing once you've got it. But when you don't have it and you're trying to crack into.

Trying to crack into, it's always difficult. Difficult. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But once you're in, you're in.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely beautiful. Hopefully everyone got something out of that. I know I did. Cool.

No thanks guys.

Right, now we'll hit you up for a podcast.

Hey, all the same questions.