Heathrow Airport

It is essential that Heathrow remains compliant, safe and operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This becomes even more of a necessity during the winter months. OUTCO delivers 24/7 winter gritting and snow clearance service to Heathrow each winter season.

The Challenge

As a vital part of Britain’s infrastructure, Heathrow must always remain open and operational during winter. To ensure the distribution of goods and safe passage of people are unaffected, passengers and cargo must be unhindered by snow and ice.

Heathrow knew it needed to bring in the services of a specialist winter gritting provider, to protect against the financial and physical risks of adverse weather.

Scope

In 2013, Heathrow engaged the services of OUTCO, the UK’s leading winter risk management specialist, to manage several key on-site locations. OUTCO delivers manual gritting to paths and entrances using pedestrian spreaders, as well as mechanical and manual snow clearance and mechanical removal for snowfall over 5cm.

• Mechanical gritting of car parks and delivery areas
• Manual gritting to paths and entrances using pedestrian spreaders
• Procoat low corrosive solution for external metal stairs
• Mechanical snow clearance for snowfall over 5cm
• Manual snow gritting using pedestrian spreaders.

Daily pre-service and post-service reports are emailed to Heathrow representatives, as are monthly attendance/activity reports. Services are delivered 24/7 between November and March.

Road Surface Temperature Activation

Zero degrees Celsius

Performance

Services are delivered 24 hours a day between November and March. OUTCO’s outstanding KPI performance is a direct consequence of operators’ site familiarity and access requirements, excellent training, duty of care compliance, and client relationship. Through OUTCO, Heathrow is assured that a full audit trail of the gritting which took place was stored on file.

Winter 2020/2021 – 100% performance from activated and reactive visits
Winter 2019/2020 – 100% performance from activated and reactive visits
Winter 2018/2019 – 100% performance from activated and reactive visits