Noticed younger operators skipping the hand signals more and more

Last week at a site in Denver I was spotting for a guy running a 50-ton Grove and he kept telling me to just use the radio instead of giving hand signals. Three years ago when I started out, every operator I worked with insisted on hand signals for every lift. Am I the only one who thinks radios can mess up when you got multiple crews on the same channel?

3 comments

3 Comments

uma68515d ago

Radios are great until you got three crews shouting "boom up" at the same time and your operator's trying to figure out if the steel's for him or the guy pouring concrete. @sageross nailed it, backup channel is smart but good luck getting anyone to actually set that up before something goes wrong. Guess I'll keep waving my arms around like a madman while everyone else drops their radios in the mud.

laura_black3123d ago

Radios plus my clumsy thumbs equals pure comedy gold half the time. Dropped mine into a muddy puddle last month trying to hold it and signal at the same time, now it sounds like I'm talking through a blender. Had a guy on a different crew think I was calling out lunch orders instead of telling him to boom up three feet. We all ended up laughing about it but that's a hard no when you're lifting steel near people.

sageross23d ago

Backup channel for crane signals should be standard practice on any site working blind, not just something you figure out after the radio dies.