each crane he or she operates. If multiple cranes
are used and the machines are the same make,
model number and are configured alike, one qual-
ification evaluation will suffice. However, if the
employer has multiple cranes made by different
manufacturers, the employer must qualify each
operator on every different machine the operator
runs,” explains Cliff Dickinson, President of CIS.
“The evaluation process requires initial planning
to determine how many different machines are
in a given fleet, how many of them are the same
make, model, configuration and whether they are
used for the same type of work,” adds Dickinson.
A one-day Crane Site Safety class offered by CIS
may now also include two additional days on-
site devoted to instruction on how to evaluate an
operator. On the second day of evaluation instruc-
tion, potential evaluators are observed perform-
ing the actual process.
The course reviews the OSHA documentation
requirements, and includes a checklist that
evaluators can apply to different crane types and
configurations that are commonly used in the
employer’s fleet. The course also provides guid-
ance for evaluators to determine if an operator
is qualified to run the machine. “There is a heavy
focus in the class on new OSHA language for
operators to be able to ‘recognize and avert risk,’ ”
says Dickinson.
Online record-keeping
OSHA requires that operator evaluations be avail-
able on the jobsite, however, Dickinson says, “It
does employers no good to lock the information
away in a filing cabinet or save it to an electronic
file without making the information searchable
and dynamic.” Working with iReportSource Inc.,
Crane Industry Services, LLC (CIS) has custom-
ized an online reporting tool for crane users.
iReportSource integrates all the pieces of project