Estates Management Policy on Charging in relation to Heavy Squad/Portering Services
The differentiation between work carried out by the Portering Services that should be charged to departments
and work that should be funded by the Estates Management Department has not previously been specified, resulting
in Estates funding circa £52k per annum for works that should be funded by CAS and academic departments. As a
result Estates Management has created policy guidelines, as below, detailing which works should and should not be
charged, in order to provide clear direction for Estates Management staff and more importantly our customers.
Estates Management therefore proposes that a charge for Portering Services will be levied against departments
for the following:
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Provision and removal of their skips and completion of relevant duty of care documentation
Removal of their rubbish and equipment outwith the normal collection arrangements
Removal and disposal of their rubbish and equipment which falls outwith the normal daily Council
refuse collection service, and including full recovery of all landfill fees
Removal and disposal of old furniture
Skip hire
Transportation of departmental goods/furniture/boxes etc from one location to another
Transportation of artworks, musical instruments etc,
Setting down of CPT rooms to accommodate non teaching or directly teaching related activities
Wedding and events set ups in the Barony Hall
Removals and office moves (these should normally be funded under the relevant project)
Provision and rental of boxes/crates for office moves
Rearranging of furniture within departments/offices
Estates Management proposes that NO CHARGE for Portering Services will be levied for the following:
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Collection of recycling items, including toner cartridges
Set up and set down of CPT rooms for teaching or other core activities
Exams set ups
Graduations set ups
University Day set ups
Delivery of cleaning materials
Supply of prospectuses
Bulk deliveries to the mailroom
Charges
The hourly rate to be charged for Portering Services staff is currently set at an average of £9.65.
However where insufficient resources are available to meet the timescales set by customers due to existing
workloads (e.g. exam set-ups, which are a critical University activity,) it is standard practice to employ the services
of an external company to meet any temporary shortfall in staff. Although every attempt is made to supplement the
squad from other Handy-Person sections it is often unavoidable that the services of an external company are used.
In such cases the cost to be charged is in the region of £13 per hour plus on costs. Under the new guidelines
customers will be advised in advance that the services of a contractor will be used and that this will be likely
to significantly increase the normal charges. It will then be at the discretion of the department requesting the work
as to whether the request is sufficiently urgent for them to agree to pay the additional cost or wait for Portering
Services’ resources to become available.
Safety
Where heavy furniture/equipment etc. are to be relocated, customers are asked to provide relevant information on
the load in advance and also to ensure that they properly pack items.
Also, if a department has manual handling tasks to carry out and the staff within the department have not been
appropriately trained, Portering Services should be contacted to provide that service.
Departments should refer to Safety Services’ web site on http://www.strath.ac.uk/safetyservices/ for further
information.