Hello there
A few you ago I had a lorry loader ticket I passed with LTS (Lancaster training service)
Did not use it for a while then got some driving work with an agency who did not care about experience or customer relation (the usual story)
They sent me into 2 jewson sites and somewhere ells I can not remember.
But this Jewsons crane was different then the one at LTS, the one at LTS was a HIAB brand and I don’t know what make the Jewsons one was
The one at Jewsons had all these especial safety shut off switch which would shut down say if you moved the jab to far out
I could not use it and they had to send someone out from the builders merchant to come and sort things out, this did not go down well at all
So I was thinking of resisting my crane test and applying for jobs direct with the builders merchants or with some employment agencies
But if I take the test with LTS again I will only be given training on a cheap old HIAB that wont train me how to use a modern one
Question: how many different brands of cranes are there out there
Hiab, HMF, Palfinger, Cormach, Faso, PM, Atlas, and that’s just the ones I can be bothered to remember, and doesn’t cover all the different types of attachments you could find on the end of job.
The thing to do with a new crane you haven’t used before is to ask someone for a few pointers on it.
No trainer can teach you to use every brand and every attachment, it would cost a billion pounds and last forever!
This is a major reason why I stopped doing HIAB work; always needing to ask twenty questions about the device and sometimes finding I couldn’t use one properly, even brands I was familiar with (plus the stupid customers who’d expect me to do dangerous things that I’d been taught not to do). One particular time I was given a Fassi crane which wouldn’t slew if the legs weren’t fully extended, which was impossible on this building site, and when I called the dealership I was told I shouldn’t be using the machine as I’d not been familiarised by their agent. I had to leave the job which was meant to go on for another day.
we have 2 wagons with seemingly identical atlas cranes , they are totally different to use . for example on one you put the legs out as far as conditions allow and carry on , the other the legs have to be either 50% out or 100% out or it simply wont work . it has sensors fitted and if they cant detect whatever they detect . ask questions and spend 10-15 mins in the yard trying things before !! you go to a site and embarrass yourself . it works for me . good luck
I’ve been driving a trailer mounted roll along crane for the last 7 months after a break of 28 years ,
my gaffer put myself and another new driver through our ticket on a crane that is completely different to the one I use every day now .
The only way you are going to become proficient on any one is to spend some time on the same unit.
Agencies will expect you to know everything about all of em , & when it goes wrong it’ll be your fault
Applying to merchants is a good call , regular hours , easyish work & they’ll train you the way they want it doing … Good luck
Ha ha, yes I just renewed my tkt just before Christmas at LTS,they still have the old atlas 3500 crane,last time I took it the tkt lasted 3 years and counted towards the driver cpc,this time it don’t count towards cpc.The training is not about the crane ,its about safe lifting,ground conditions,power lines,and so on.I use a top seat atlas every day for the last 35 years,but have no clue about these remote things these days. but I would familiarise myself before setting out with something different.
Annoying things Ive been asked to do with our grab tipper…
Load under cables.
Load over the tailgate/cab.
Excavate the ground.
Rip out tree roots/stumps.
Reach around corners.
Load over cars.
Reach over a bungalow to the back garden.
Expect me to wheel barrow the out of reach material to where I could reach it.
Sweep up afterwards because they’ve sodded off elsewhere.
syramax:
we have 2 wagons with seemingly identical atlas cranes , they are totally different to use . for example on one you put the legs out as far as conditions allow and carry on , the other the legs have to be either 50% out or 100% out or it simply wont work . it has sensors fitted and if they cant detect whatever they detect . ask questions and spend 10-15 mins in the yard trying things before !! you go to a site and embarrass yourself . it works for me . good luck
Hear is a list of Atlas cranes I found from Atlas web site; can you find yours from the list? atlas-cranes.co.uk/uk/downloads.aspx
I see those manuals give no trouble shooter or how to operate, just a technical specification
syramax:
we have 2 wagons with seemingly identical atlas cranes , they are totally different to use . for example on one you put the legs out as far as conditions allow and carry on , the other the legs have to be either 50% out or 100% out or it simply wont work . it has sensors fitted and if they cant detect whatever they detect . ask questions and spend 10-15 mins in the yard trying things before !! you go to a site and embarrass yourself . it works for me . good luck
Hear is a list of Atlas cranes I found from Atlas web site; can you find yours from the list? atlas-cranes.co.uk/uk/downloads.aspx
I see those manuals give no trouble shooter or how to operate, just a technical specification
Again if we look at HIAB web site we see there full list of cranes hiab.com/en/global/products/ … rand-hiab/
Then if we look at one of there cranes it gives a manual but that manual is no operators instructions so again no good! hiab.com/en/global/products/ … rand-hiab/
I guess this would never work with an agency as they would only put you in a day hear a day there and you would not know what you where doing. and I dout they could keep you full time on HIAB
I am wondering if I had this ticket; if I approached the builders merchants what my chances would be?
But hear is a job centre search page for HIAB driver north west, and there really is only 1/2 page jobsearch.direct.gov.uk/JobSear … est&rad=20
Other then finding out how many builder merchants there are in my area, there really dose not look like there is much demand for this type of work
syramax:
we have 2 wagons with seemingly identical atlas cranes , they are totally different to use . for example on one you put the legs out as far as conditions allow and carry on , the other the legs have to be either 50% out or 100% out or it simply wont work . it has sensors fitted and if they cant detect whatever they detect . ask questions and spend 10-15 mins in the yard trying things before !! you go to a site and embarrass yourself . it works for me . good luck
Hear is a list of Atlas cranes I found from Atlas web site; can you find yours from the list? atlas-cranes.co.uk/uk/downloads.aspx
I see those manuals give no trouble shooter or how to operate, just a technical specification
. ask questions and spend 10-15 mins in the yard trying things before !! you go to a site and embarrass yourself . it works for me . good luck