Exercise the Highest Safety Standards When Using Your Bucket Truck!

Bucket trucks are complex and powerful pieces of machinery. Depending on the nature of the company's aerial tasks, this mobile technology comes in a number of shapes and sizes, and is used for a number of different purposes. It's most commonly utilized by power utility companies. By exercising the highest safety standards when using this powerful piece of equipment, any aerial tasks can be completed comfortably and efficiently.

Only well-trained personnel should be allowed to operate these powerful pieces of equipment for safety reasons. Well-trained operators are those who are not only familiar with the user and maintenance manuals, and OSHA Safety guidelines, but also are properly trained operators and understand any safety procedures and be able to execute them in the field.

Daily Safety Checks

Before starting and after any operations are finished, operators should conduct a thorough safety check to detect if any vehicle damage has occurred or leaks have sprung up. This will help in determining any potential safety hazards and making the necessary repairs on the damages at this early stage will prevent any problems from getting worse. Visual inspection of the vehicle exterior is very important to identify broken, loose, missing or damaged parts. For vehicle tires, check tire bulges, pressure levels and cuts. The engine and hydraulic systems should be checked for oil and leaks, and the vehicle exterior must be free from cracks and any signs of rust. Any lighting should be fully functional and all decals and stickers on or around the boom should be present. Make sure also that the control labels are understandable, in their proper place and legible.

Bucket Truck Work Site Safety

Most accidents happen at the work site, so operators should perform inspections and spend time surveying the site before deploying the vehicle. Check for drop offs, holes, debris and bumps. Park the vehicle on stable and even ground. When the vehicle is in park, wheel chocks must be in position and the emergency brake should be engaged. The work site should also be free from any overhead obstructions, and operation should be cancelled if the wind speed is 30 miles per hour or higher, or any weather threat like an electrical storm is forecasted.

Fall hazards at a work site can be avoided if the worker keeps their feet on the floor of the bucket and makes sure it's clear of debris or equipment. They must also avoid sitting, climbing or standing on the edge of the basket. While inside the lifted bucket, they should never attempt to increase work height by any means such as using ladders or step tools. Fall protection must be worn at all times.

To avoid tip-over hazards, operators must see to it that while the bucket is raised, there are no objects that are being pushed or pulled, the vehicle should never be moved to another location and load capacity should never exceed 300 lb. It is also not wise to use the boom as a crane. Never attempt to carry other objects such as ladders inside the bucket. Operation should be avoided during storms or when there are high winds. Park the vehicle on even ground and ensure that outriggers are properly positioned during operation.

The highest safety standards should be exercised in the workplace to properly use a bucket truck. Operators must be well-trained and should perform the necessary safety checks of the vehicle while in the garage. They should also inspect the work site and make sure that the best safety practices are being facilitated during operation at all times.

Christopher M. Hunter is an expert in commercial specialty trucks. Click here to find out more about Bucket Trucks.

View the original article here

Qualifed Driver Shortage Linked to CDL Training Standards

CDL Training

What has always been termed as a truck driver shortage, is now being referred to as a shortage of qualified drivers.  It is a manipulation of words in order to achieve the success of a particular agenda.  A shortage of truck drivers has never existed, nor does it exist today.  So what is the agenda this time and what exactly does “qualified” mean?

Whenever there is a shortage within any kind of vocation, pay normally will rise in order to offset the shortage.  Truck driver pay continues to remain stagnate and has virtually remained the same for decades.

While looking through a 1993 edition of Overdrive Magazine, a company was advertising starting pay at .38 cents per mile.  I checked out their website today, in 2011 and they are showing their starting pay at .38 CPM.  In 18 years, their beginning pay has not changed.  To claim that there is a truck driver shortage, with no pay increase incentive ever being enacted, is a contradictory of terms.

Regulations push drivers away

As a series of new rules and regulations are imposed by the FMCSA such as the CSA, PSP’s, EOBR’s, HOS rule changes and the possibility of OBMS’s, truckers have never been more regulated and many seasoned, veteran drivers are calling it quits.  Still, thousands of unemployed workers are turning to trucking as a career after being told by company recruiters and CDL schools that they can make $50,000 per year.  During a time of a lengthy recession, when millions have lost their jobs, the promise of a high-paying career is hard to ignore.   Too many are lured into an industry which averages $32,000 per year for an experienced driver and are never told about the true realities of OTR trucking.

Moving away from a negative term of a truck driver shortage, the trucking industry is now using “qualified” as their chosen word.  This new terminology has been brought about due to the CSA.  Qualified now stands for a driver who has no crash or serious violation history, reference the PSP (Pre-Employment Screening Program).  For years, professional truck drivers have been pushed by their company to get the load picked up and delivered.  Violate HOS rules, run double logs, average 3-5 hours of sleep per day . . . do whatever it takes to move the freight;  and the drivers’ got the job done.  Now, these same drivers are being terminated by the very companies that pushed them into this performance.

Many trucking companies with these drivers who have accumulated violation points for doing what they were told, are being terminated and replaced with new drivers.  Through the CSA, these new truck drivers will not have a three and five year look back, no points or violations on their driving records and this gives the illusion of a better BASIC safety score for the motor carrier.  In this industry, never believe that there is any loyalty from the company to its drivers.

NAFTA is best alternative to lower pay

Could there be another agenda as to why NAFTA is being pushed so hard by the industry?  It is well known that before an industry can recruit and hire those with H2-B visas to work in the United States, that the industry must show that there is a need for these new workers.  Among the requirements, an industry must:

Establish that its need for the prospective worker’s services or labor is temporary, regardless of whether the underlying job can be described as permanent or temporary;Must demonstrate that there are not sufficient U. S. workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to do the temporary work and . . .Must show that the employment of H-2B workers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U. S. workers

The Comprehensive Safety Analysis provides the trucking industry with the reason it needs to use the term “shortage of qualified drivers“.   Experienced American drivers who are now being pushed out by the motor carriers who allowed them to run illegal in the first place, can now say that they can not find qualified drivers;  “qualified” as it pertains to the CSA.

Forcing out experienced, seasoned long haul truck drivers who demand a higher pay scale and replacing them with foreign drivers who will accept lower wages . . . this is the agenda of the industry.  If the fear of a lack of qualified drivers were true, then why is the industry not restructuring their CDL training programs in order to produce safer drivers?  Why is the FMCSA not addressing the CDL training problem?   To create safer highways, you must produce safer drivers.  If the industry was really concerned about a shortage of qualified truck drivers in the U. S. , then CDL training standards would be implemented.

The terrible tragedy which involved the CRST truck in Wyoming is only a reminder of the poor truck driver training standards that exist in this country.  Blame can not be placed on the CRST trainer who was sleeping in the bunk at the time of the crash.  When a person is fatigued and tired, the body must sleep.  One can only go so long before the body will shut down on its own.  The problem is not with the trainer, but with the training standards of the particular motor carrier, which is established by the industry.

There are starter companies which will allow a driver to become a trainer with as little as three to six months experience, yet the FMCSA ignores this serious safety issue.  Through out the statistics found in the Trucks Involved in Fatal Accidents file (TIFA), there are no stats correlating fatal truck crashes associated with new driver trainees.  There should be.

Standards must be established to where the trainer and student remain awake and active together during the entire training process.  Both trainee and trainer must be allowed to stop and sleep during the same period of time.

The trucking industry, for too long, has treated drivers like they themselves were machines.  A driver trainer has a larger degree of mental and physical responsibility placed on them and when the body reaches it maximum capability, the trainer will have no other option but to sleep and receive the rest needed.

Regardless of the fact that many trainees and trainers make it through the process without incident, the tragedy in Wyoming is a reminder that one senseless death is one too many and that these types of accidents will continue until stronger CDL training standards are established within the industry and safety becomes the true agenda.

© 2011, AskTheTrucker. All rights reserved.

: basic safety score, cdl training, CSA, driver psp, FMCSA, motor carrier, Safety, truck driver, truck driver shortage, trucking

Tagged with: basic safety score • cdl training • CSA • driver psp • FMCSA • motor carrier • Safety • truck driver • truck driver shortage • trucking

Filed under: FMCSA • Jobs and Careers • Politics • Safety • Truck Driving Jobs • otr trucking • truck driving schools • trucking • trucking companies • trucking life

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!

View the original article here