Hi all,
Seen an advert for Drivers/Operators of access platform vehicles. Anyone done this kind of work? Recommended?
Thanks.
I’m mainly just in the yard at mo, (awaiting dvla to give me my class 1 back) and when they do i’ll be back on the road full time delivering and collecting our machines, anything from a standard cherry picker, to a scissor lift, and then some more unsual narrow access equipment that is the main part of my companies business.
If you’ve never done them, there is alot to learn and it may all seem abit daunting at first but it all slowly starts to fall into place once you get the basics. They can be abit odd moving around sites to get them to/from your wagon, every bloody single 1 of them drives just a little bit different 
I find the bigger the machine, the easier it normally is to get on and off the wagon, but anything that can be tricky i just put on the winch, just to make it a safer process, (only my opinions here btw.) Most are normally a doddle to strap/chain down as alot have decent lashing points on the machines themselves, and we put a minimum of 4 straps on per machine. A standard ish type cherry picker, i would have 4 straps on the machine and a bonus 1 for good measure on the cage to stop it bouncing around in transit. A bigger machine i’d throw some more on. We have a couple of 37m and a 42m Omme, which is a self propelled tracked access machine, and its a fair old lump, so with these we normally stick 9 straps on in total, its got the lashing points for it so may aswell use them for piece of mind 
As for actually operating the machines, be they self propelled or truck mounted, hows your head for heights■■? I’m not really interested in the operating side, as although the height doesn’t bother me to much, its the actual movement of the machine once you start going up and outwards in them. Its a real skill and you have got to be on the ball at all times, checking and watching for everything, not just once your up there, but also whilst you are setting the machine up in the first place. You could have your own, and other peoples lives in your hands. We have a few truck mounted machines at our place, the smallest is on a little Nissan van and goes up 22m and the biggest is on a rigid Volvo going up 34m, we only have a few of the truck mounts as its not the main business, but there are truck mounted machines now that go just over 100m 
I quite like the job, (even though i’m not on the road full time just yet) but i do deliver the odd smaller machine on our Land Rover, its not your average job, it has alot of variety and you can get to go to some unusual places, some good, some not so good 
But the beauty is its all own account work, so no more am i at the mercy of container ports or giant RDC’s wasting hours of my life, which for me personally is a major bonus.
HTH
Thanks very much mate, I’ll get in touch with you for more detail if you don’t mind.
Cheers.
Just replied mate, if you need anymore info just give me a shout.