Using a platform with operator...problems!

[conkers]

The issue with the IPAF ticket is irrelevent here because it is a HGV.

I realise that tree work needs to legislate with training standards but each company has to see what type of work they do, ie we use this kind of platform once a year if that! On that basis I am not going to get HGV 1 AND ipaf when we can get these things as part of the hire.

 

I think it is the responibilty of the hire company to inform the hirer of any recent changes to there policies and also list the basic requirements for hiring, like poviding a screen. Some companies do and some don't. Are we supposed to guess?

Like I mentioned, they were told it was tree work to be carried out.

 

Thanks Paul for clarifying the harness thing!

[Big 'Ammer]

You don't need a wagon license to hold category 1b IPAF, which is operate a static boom.

 

Same course as for the popular towabouts.

 

Categories | Training | English | IPAF

[Peter]

No, but you would still have to pay for the operator to drive it to site and then stand around all day smoking skinny rollups.

[Big 'Ammer]

No, but you would still have to pay for the operator to drive it to site and then stand around all day smoking skinny rollups.

 

Having the machine you need to do the job delivered and taken away from site is part of the hire, whether it comes on a lorry or is the lorry.

 

The job should be priced to reflect this.

 

The advantage of holding the operators ticket is that you can just get on with the work your good at, without reliance on someone else having to be in the basket, who more than likely, isn't familiar with tree work.

 

It would do my nut in having to tell someone every move I wanted to make and then wait for them to do it.

 

Particularly if they are nervous about being near chainsaws.

 

Usually, there are time and financial pressures on when big kit is on hire. I just want to get on with the job the way I want to do it and concentrate on that, not get irritated because I'm reliant on another, and lose focus on what I'm there to do.

 

Hence, my earlier post suggesting that the cost of the training will pay for itself.

[Peter]

Maybe I'v always been lucky with operators.

 

I have also flown the platform for a colleague to cut, that is the fastest way although somewhat labour intensive.

 

I just hate having to constantly put the saw down, move the basket, pick the saw up, put it down........

 

With a good operator the basket never stops moving, and the saw never stops cutting. I can see I'm not going to convert you so I'll leave it there!

 

As to moving the basket and cutting simultaneously, that used to be standard practice with the versalift machines I used to use, if your hands were big enough you could span the controls with your left and and cut with your right. On the many of the modern machines however, you need to depress a foot pedal to make it go, so unless you cut a wedge to keep it permanently down, and you can run both joysticks with one hand, then I think you'd struggle. If you can then maybe a career in the circus beckons?

[Big 'Ammer]

I fully agree that a good operator familiar with tree work will speed things up no end.

 

If you have a good relationship with a local firm and know the operators and they know you, alls good.

 

But when you hire in from a national firm, you don't know who's going to turn up with the machine.

 

And on the other side of the coin, if I were a truck mount driver/operator and had had one bad experience with a tree gang, I'd be very much on the back foot about getting up in the basket with a chainsaw operator again.

 

I would insist on the mesh guard before starting work on site.

 

Holding the relevant IPAF cert gives the tree surgeon the flexibility to to the job with or without the operator on board.

 

However, as not everyone has the certificate, IMO it ought to be the hire company's responsibility to send a machine out in suitable trim (ie with a mesh guard) for the nature of the work that it has been booked for.

 

They have to do risk assessment for their employees as much as we have to for ours!

[Dean Lofthouse]

It's the hire firms responsibility knowing the nature of the work.

 

Tree Guy : "What make and model of platform will you send us?"

 

Hire firm: "A 30m ariel lift truck mount"

 

Tree Guy: "Oh spot on, I have a guard in my garden shed for just that model of basket"

[Andy Collins]

I was thinking about this today, and was wondering how many people use a chainsaw inside the bucket? Whenever my saw is in cutting mode, I am reaching out of the bucket, I start the saw outside the bucket, and I turn it off outside the bucket. How many incidents of injury have been recorded where a bucket operator has been injured by a running saw inside the bucket?

[Mesterh]

I was thinking about this today, and was wondering how many people use a chainsaw inside the bucket? Whenever my saw is in cutting mode, I am reaching out of the bucket, I start the saw outside the bucket, and I turn it off outside the bucket. How many incidents of injury have been recorded where a bucket operator has been injured by a running saw inside the bucket?

 

I was just going to say that.

 

I dont see the need for a mesh screen at all!

[conkers]

Just to say.... Nationwide sent there 35m truck mount today and the operator came with a can do attitude.

 

Really tight access, real nightmare to get the wagon in and out.

Told him the tree is totally knackered and that the risk assesment/ method statement does not make for nice reading.

He just got us up there and got the job done. Totally different to the first guy who just did not want to do it and made up the first excuse that poped into his head.

All went smoothly.. bit scary looking at the bottom of the tree tho. About 20% holding wood on a 70-80ft Doug Fir with a full crown!