The Utility Source February 2019 | Page 26

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