The Words in Regulations

[pdub]

The guy who's here to certify mobile crane (boom truck) operators this week, today he needed me to be a witness. A nearly impossible course set up...you have to maneuver a big round drum through a maze of little PVC poles set up, with tennis balls perched on top of each little pole. If you knock a tennis ball off, or if you completely knock a pole over, points off. This is for big-time boom truck operator certification.

The obstacle course takes anybody quite some minutes to complete. Get the load swinging, and ...well, poles and tennis balls go down. He needed me to run the backup stopwatch for him, it was every bit that official. and documented. That's all I was doing, running the backup stopwatch in case his messed up.

So while we're standing there talking about all kinds of training and such, we (I brought it up) got into a conversation about words in regulations. I'M saying "should" should never be used, because it opens the door to all sorts of things. Being steeped in procedure I use "Must," and no other word. OSHA stuff is loaded with "should's". That lets operations stay in business without being paralyzed by regulations, I reckon.

[68scott385]

I was a heavy equipment operator in the Marine Corps. We were trained on seven pieces of equipment during MOS school. Cranes were not part of that program. I met a guy in Saudi that was certified to instruct & license others. Once we all got back stateside my unit arranged for a couple of us junior personnel to get licensed. The guy gave us a basic walk-around before giving us a couple small things to maneuver to & pick up. Then he came out with a galvanized mop bucket, filled it with several large stones, and drove a stake in the ground. He hooked the mop bucket to the crane hook and told us if we could balance the mop bucket on the stake he would give us a license for that piece of equipment. It took some time but we all did it. The cranes were 7.5 ton & 30 ton models in wide use at the time.

Not sure whether that was normal testing standards for those particular pieces of equipment or if the guy was creative in his teaching methods. I'm sure it wasn't OSHA approved.

[Deaf Bob]

Learned to move scrap with a Link Belt loader.. Maybe 1930-40's. Press the clutch, let magnet drop, and be sure to let clutch free before the line unravels in the drum.. Went on to exevators, with magnets, log tongs and buckets, most fun? Buckets! I should list all equipenet I've operated before I forget!