TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES

There you will encounter two types of pricing approaches. Companies that operate spontaneously and without thinking determine the price superficially, without some reasoning, and often ask themselves only one question: "How much price can I say, and that the client agrees?". In these cases, two things happen:

1. Price dumping – companies that approach work in this way usually do insufficiently good service (because they have to catch up with a lot of clients in order to be sustainable, and then there is a decline in quality).
2. Overestimation of service – if the client is insufficiently informed, and the commercialist is sufficiently convincing, consent to cooperate under nebulous and inflated conditions occurs.

The second approach is much better and leads companies that think about their relationship with clients and try to be priced according to the complexity of tasks and resources spent (primarily time spent, and then dependent costs). The amounts these companies state to clients are much more realistic and as one would say: "they hold water."

WHAT SHOULD BE THE BASIS OF PRICE CALCULATION?

The basis of the calculation should be the number of working hours that an authorized company must spend on a particular action. The cost of cold operation in the occupational safety industry is quite high. In order to obtain a work authorization at all, the company must have a number of qualified examiners and authorisation holders at its disposal. In the case of authorisation holders, this must be persons who have completed mechanical engineering or electrical engineering and have a certain number of years of experience in the field of occupational safety. Also, all occupational safety experts must be constantly improved. Add overhead costs, office rental, travel expenses (because first of all we are talking about field work) and everything else that is part of the finances of any other company. Net salaries of employees range approximately in the class of 1000 to 1300 euros, and for authorization holders even more. From all this, one can come to the calculation that the price of the working should now approximately be about 50 EUR + VAT.

WHAT IS THE COST OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY?

I'll look at some market price averages for the most common services you'll come across when you want to regulate occupational safety in your company.
All mentioned prices will be expressed in euros, excluding VAT.

1. What is the cost of making a risk assessment?

When making a risk assessment, the starting prices range from 190 to 250 EUR upwards, depending on the complexity of the assessment. The complexity of the assessment is influenced by the size of the company and its work processes (number of locations, number of employees, whether it is office or production processes, etc.).
The training program in its basic form (i.e. for a smaller company up to 5 employees) is most often offered for the amount of 40 EUR or more. The price of the program is influenced by the amount of different jobs and processes in a particular company. The amount for the training programme may be indicated on its own or may be incorporated into the amount for making a risk assessment.

2. What is the price for training workers to work safely?

The training of workers to work safely has a market price ranging from EUR 17 to 30, depending on how many people, in what way and for what they are trained. On larger quantities of employees, lower prices can be given as a kind of discount on quantity.

3. What is the cost for training fire protection workers?

Training workers for fire protection has the same market price as that for working in a safe manner, i.e . from 17 to 30 EUR, depending on how many people are trained and how they are trained. It is also a practice to give lower prices on larger quantities of employees as a kind of discount on quantity. It is important to emphasize that this training should be done once in a lifetime and does not have to be repeated by changing employers provided that the worker has proof – a certificate of training.

4. What is the price for training the employer or his delegate?

Training the employer or his delegate is somewhat more expensive and is usually done for the amount of 25 to 40 EUR.

PRICES OF SPACE PROCESSING

As for the technical tests and processing of the premises, they depend on the complexity, size and crowding of the workspace being tested and there are different combinations and it is difficult to express a price that will cover all options. Therefore, we will mention the example of office spaces up to approximately 150 m² in which about 10 people work. These tests most often include:

1. Testing of working environment parameters
2. Testing the correctness of electrical installations
3. Creating an evacuation plan

5. What is the cost of testing the working environment?

Testing the working environment on the market ranges from 90 to 130 EUR. This test implies going out into the field with a particularly moderate device, and an integral part of the log should be a floor plan with marked measuring points. Depending on the needs, this test examines the parameters of lighting, noise, temperature, humidity and airflow.

6. What is the cost of testing the correctness of electrical installations?

Testing the correctness of electrical installations involves two types of testing: insulation resistance and indirect touch. The prices you will encounter range from 110 to 150 EUR. This test is also carried out with a specific device and is an integral part of the test log and the floor plan with the measuring positions marked – sockets through which the test is carried out.

7. What is the cost of developing an evacuation plan?

The service of creating an evacuation plan in most cases includes the preparation of the floor plan, the preparation of the written part – the evacuation study and the delivery of accompanying signaling labels (directions of movement). Prices for making evacuation plans range from 90 EUR to more. Very often, the floor plan is delivered as plain plasticized printed paper, but companies that care more about the image of clients will deliver their plans to you in a better edition (e.g. a framed plan suitable for wall or counter mounting).

OTHER OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY PRICES

• Prices of testing of work equipment
• Prices Performing occupational safety work

8. What is the cost of testing the correctness of working equipment?

Testing of work equipment varies depending on the complexity of the equipment itself and such tests can usually be obtained for amounts of 50 - 70 EUR for simpler equipment. Most equipment fits into these amounts, and the exception is extremely complex work equipment.

9. What is the price of regulating occupational safety?

Performing safety at work is one of the most underrated or most overrated services in the industry. Clients are often unaware that they can perform this service on their own under certain conditions without the involvement of an external authorized company, so in this case any price can be considered overpriced (ergo, you pay for something that you may not have to).

If you decide to engage an external company, be aware that authorized companies have strictly defined rules that they must respect and that in addition to consulting and monitoring laws, regulations and expiration deadlines, they must regularly visit you several times on an annual basis, so they must perform supervision.
Most often we are talking about 2 to 4 annual supervisions that require additional time engagement – we are not only talking about the time spent with clients, but also the considerable amount of time that an occupational safety expert spends in writing accompanying paperwork related to supervision.

A healthy approach to determining the price of performing occupational safety and safety work would be to calculate the cost of hours on an annual basis (how much time is spent per month on tracked expirations of documentation and existing paperwork, and changes in laws and regulations to which one must react plus how much time is wasted on physical inspections).
The indicative price of individual supervision for simpler locations should range in the class of EUR 150 to EUR 200 per inspection and, at that cost , the price of the monthly lump sum for carrying out the ACTIVITIES of the ZNR should range between EUR 50 to EUR 70. Some companies invoice supervision separately by supervision, while other companies calculate how much supervision will be carried out on an annual basis when concluding the contract and allocate this amount and fit this amount into the amount of the monthly lump sum. Both approaches are correct provided that it is clearly known how much surveillance is planned to be carried out on an annual basis and that this agreement is respected.

WHAT ARE THE PRICES IN THE FIELD OF FIRE PROTECTION?

Fire-related tests are usually complex and heavily dependent on quantities and are often done at the level of the entire facility, rather than individual office space within the building itself. Clients often do not know how to tell authorized companies the exact information that is necessary for the correct calculation of the price. When contacting authorized companies, it is very useful for you and for them to know how many panic lamps you have in the space, how many fire alarm sink have detectors, how many hydrants your internal / external hydrant system counts, etc. The most common tests from fires are as follows:

• Testing panic lighting
• Testing of external and internal hydrants
• Fire alarm system testing

10. What is the cost of panic lighting test?

Testing the correctness of safety and anti-panic lighting for up to 5 measuring points (5 luminaires) would be from 45 to 70 EUR and the price is increased depending on how many additional measuring points you have in the space. This test does not necessarily have to be done on an object-wide level if panics are designed to be connected to your local electrical cabinet.

11. What is the cost of testing the safety of external and internal hydrants?

Testing of a system with 5 or fewer hydrants can be done for 90 to 150 EUR. It is important to emphasize that the only correct way to test the hydrant network is to test the entire network, and not the individual hydrant as a separate case.

12. What is the cost of testing the correctness of the fire alarm system?

For this test, it is very difficult to determine the price since it depends on parameters such as:

• Type of fire alarm
• Amount of reporters
• Type of reporter

Fire alarms can vary greatly in their complexity, but some average cost of fire alarm testing with up to 5 detectors is carried out for the amounts from 90 to 150 EUR. Fire alarm testing is always carried out at the level of the entire system and is usually provided by the owner of the entire facility.

This would be information about the prices of the most common services in the field of occupational safety and fire protection. If you overlooked the information at the beginning of the article, all the listed prices are expressed without VAT and the listed prices refer to simpler (office) companies with about 10 employees and an area of up to 150 m².

For the end – varying prices in relation to locations

Be aware that these prices vary depending on the locations because the price in Zagreb is unlikely to be the same as the price in Pleternica. Price policy is influenced not only by purchasing power in a particular area, but also by the number of competing companies (unfortunately, most companies struggle with competition exclusively through a war with prices, not through the quality of relations and services) and the fact whether you are working with a company that is local or dislocated. For example, a company located in Zagreb must also think about travel expenses if it wants to process a location in Rijeka, Split, etc. and the fact that one examiner can process 3 to 4 local locations in a day while the dislocated location takes his whole day.

Final review

You have seen for yourself that prices vary and it is clear to me that price is one of the factors according to which you choose a particular supplier. But it shouldn't be crucial. You expect an occupational safety supplier to do everything you need. However, you also want these things to be well done and that in the future you have no problems with it. Therefore, I advise you to first of all choose a supplier that inspires trust in you.