Crane Tech, LLC is proud to announce that Jeffery Ellis, Instructor and Field Services Manager, has been named the 2015 Professional Top Trainer by the Association of Crane & Rigging Professionals (ACRP) and Crane & Rigging Hot Line (featured in the November edition).

The professional-level award is tailored for companies that are primarily engaged in training activities, and Jeff was selected as the overall winner from a judging panel of peers and former award recipients. One of the reasons he was chosen was that he repeatedly displays care in improving the overall safety of a situation, even when correcting the condition of equipment, processes, or knowledge of employees was not a part of his original task as a trainer. “Jeff Ellis’s knowledge and experience allows him to gain the trust and respect of people at all levels of organizations to impact positive changes, often beyond the scope of the training he was hired to do,” said one judge.

When asked about Jeff’s approach as a trainer, Bo Collier, President of Crane Tech stated, “In my experience, it is easy to find a polished trainer or an experienced operator, but rarely do they come together in a way that you find in Jeff Ellis. The reality is that Jeff’s passion and ‘can do’ attitude naturally shines through to both students and management, creating almost instant credibility, building immediate trust and forming a bond early in the learning process.” (more…)

Last week we had the opportunity to exhibit at the International Construction and Utility Equipment Exposition (ICUEE), the premiere trade show for utility industry professionals and construction contractors.  Over 18,000 registrants came from all 50 states, nine of the 10 Canadian provinces and more than 60 other countries worldwide to view new technologies and meet industry providers, like Crane Tech.

To see some of the happenings in and around the show from the Crane Tech perspective, check out our photos!

Is it a 3-day class? Seat-time? On-the-job training? or Years of experience? In our humble opinion, becoming a mobile crane operator requires more than just a classroom course on load charts and the dynamics of crane operation. It requires time in the seat—applying book education with a hands-on experience–to move beyond theory and truly learn how these powerful machines work and move under a load. (more…)

The last three weeks we have been exploring the use of Job Safety Analysis (JSA) before beginning work. We’ve discussed the feeling that your crane operator may feel the need to be Super Craneman, talked about involving the lifting team in the Who, What and How of the JSA, and then last week we talked about With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.

We also asked for your input… 77% said that JSA’s are a requirement before beginning work and 20% said that JSA’s are performed sometimes, but without regularity. While we would like to increase those results to 100% performing JSA’s, we are glad to know that a majority of readers place a high priority on safety.

We want you to know, we practice what we teach. Before any hands-on training at our Training Center or a client site, Crane Tech instructors are required to assemble those involved and perform a JSA. To help guide the process, we developed a training and lift-specific checklist that allows conditions relating to the job/site to be recorded.  Our instructors are required to fill out the form completely, which includes three areas for hazard recognition, equipment specific information, and risk assessment. (more…)

In the last two posts, we’ve determined that working as a crane operator takes more than super powers to be safe—you need a team committed to safety and willing to do a little work before getting in the seat and starting the lift.  We’ve specifically looked at the When, Who, and How of a Job Safety Analysis (JSA) and this post we will take a closer look at identifying potential hazards and determining what to do about them. (more…)