What Colour Hi-Vis Should Your Team Wear?

High visibility workwear is an essential part of many business’s PPE. It helps to keep employees safe and visible at all times. These hi-vis materials are available in several different colours.

So, should you just choose the colour you prefer or are there practicalities behind the different shades? In this article, Core Workwear take a look at the different hi-vis colours. How each one can benefit your employees.

Hi-vis class system

Hi-vis clothing comes in three different classes depending on the fluorescent and reflective materials contained within it.

Class 1 clothing is considered to be low-level protection and is usually two-tone vests. Hi-vis which contain a minimum of 0.14m2 of fluorescent material and a minimum of 0.10m2 of reflective material.

Alternatively, Class 2 offers middle-level protection with 0.50m2 fluorescent background fabric and 0.13m2 reflective material.

The highest level of visibility comes from class 3 clothing, which could take the form of jackets. Long sleeve sweatshirts, t-shirts and vests. That, when combined, contains 0.8m2 fluorescent background material and 0.2m2 reflective fabric.

It is important to remember that there are vests which come in red, pink, green, blue and black. Contain reflective strips, but these items are not fluorescent and therefore would not be classed as hi-vis clothing.

Safety standards

It is important that all high visibility clothing is manufactured to the recognised British Standard BS EN 471. All compliant workwear will contain two numbers to indicate how conspicuous the workwear is and its retroflexion performance.

Class 3 hi-vis clothing is recommended if there is a high risk that someone. Could be hit by a moving vehicle, whilst Class 2 is recommended for any medium risk. Class 1 tends to be worn by workers providing roadside assistance. Volunteers or delivery drivers where risks are considered to be lower.

It is essential that employers provide all necessary hi-vis clothing if it is needed. They also take responsibility for keeping it in a clean state and in good working order. It should be checked before being given to employees. There should be adequate storage facilities for when it is not in use.

Yellow and orange high vis workwear

Yellow and orange hi-vis workwear conforms with UK hi-vis clothing regulations. To choose between them, you need to think about which will make your employees the most visible.

Green outdoor environments might be better suited to a fluorescent orange which will stand out against the background, whilst yellow hi-vis is often easier seen in low level light and is commonly used indoors.

As yellow and green tend to be used for train signalling, rail workers prefer to wear orange in order to avoid the risk of confusing drivers.

Two-tone high vis clothing

Some hi-vis clothing comes in a fluorescent colour and another colour which can be fluorescent or not. These can help differentiate between different job roles or teams and can protect against dirt as the lower half of the workwear is often a darker colour.

However, it is important to remember that this might affect the class of the workwear as the less fluorescent fabric there is on show, the less visible a member of staff will be.

It is important to remember that the main purpose of hi-vis workwear is to make sure somebody is as visible as possible in order to keep them safe. You therefore need to choose a class and colour that will make them stand out in the environment that they will be working in, and so it is important to take all elements of their job into consideration.