Luck or Training - Which Do You Rely On?
Not only on St. Patrick's Day, but every day of the year, safely operating a crane requires more than just luck.
It involves education, knowledge, experience, knowing when to say no and when to say go.
- It demands a sharp mind-an understanding of physics and math, that goes beyond just knowing how to work the crane's controls-knowing how to level the crane and successfully interpret a load chart.
- It requires constant vigilance-operators must be aware of the signal person, continually identifying potential hazards, and knowing how to respond in a split second should something not go as planned.
- It is being aware of all the load dynamics-such as swing out, wind, speed of operation, and load center of gravity.
- It is knowing the machine you are operating-how it handles, what it was made for, how to set it up to properly lift the load, understanding line pull and reeving, and making sure it is properly maintained.
- It can be physical-setting cribbing and outriggers, climbing or sitting for long periods of time, and if it's a friction crane, then you just about need three feet to operate the pedals.
- It means attention to detail-making sure to do pre-use inspections, knowing when to reject hardware, how to set up the LMI, and being able to work with a lift plan.
- It calls for a person who takes pride in their work-making sure that they care enough not to just keep themselves safe, but also the equipment, load and others on the site safe from harm.
- It commands respect of site and weather conditions-high-voltage lines, ground conditions, buildings, other equipment, wind, temperature, precipitation, visibility.
- It means a familiarity of federal and local regulations-to make sure they stay in compliance and maintain safety.
Chances are if you leave any of these items up to luck, then at some point you fill find yourself very unlucky. Operators must receive training to be able to take each factor into consideration and account for them in their daily workload. It means making training and education a priority, because you never want to hear your operator say, I didn't know about that...
So dare we ask, when was the last time you considered your level of training?
P.S. Just a reminder that Crane Tech offers both scheduled and on-site refresher training, in addition to our operator training classes.
