Health & Safety Requirements, processors and young people.

[nick channer]

Agreed, I was also driving Fordson Dexta's and Super Majors at about 8 or 9 usually on thinks like chain harrowing of rolling. Then graduated to discing,ploughing etc when a bit older.

 

Having a feel for what the machine is doing and when its just starting to struggle by the engine note is only learned by experience.

 

A

this is so true.. my front mount 550 chipper on mog has never had the stress control working from new... its not a problem till it gets bit blunt then you can hear the engine cstruggling a bit and has been known to block..... i've tried for years to get my workers to hear what i hear but they havent a clue... its so frustrating...

[NI Tree]

i put the tanker on the 5000 this year it is a lot more fun to drive than the TS110 as you have to work iit makes a driver of you. ps rolling a field gets borring so we would reverse round the field it was not allways the strightes but it was fun and a good way to learn to reverse at a young age. ps the nabrough 4 year old is a pain as he knows what the leavers do i the shovel

Edited October 2, 2011 by NI Tree

[Alycidon]

i put the tanker on the 5000 this year it is a lot more fun to drive than the TS110 as you have to work iit makes a driver of you. ps rolling a field gets borring so we would reverse round the field it was not allways the strightes but it was fun and a good way to learn to reverse at a young age. ps the nabrough 4 year old is a pain as he knows what the leavers do i the shovel

 

With a single roll I assume !!. I learnt on the Dexta in the rain, no cab of course, I was not allowed off until I had mastered it. Mind you I have never been able to reverse a 4 wheel drawbar set up, seen it done yes but never needed to learn as we had nothing with that axle configuration other than a bale elevator which could be moved by hand.

 

A

[doobin]

this is so true.. my front mount 550 chipper on mog has never had the stress control working from new... its not a problem till it gets bit blunt then you can hear the engine cstruggling a bit and has been known to block..... i've tried for years to get my workers to hear what i hear but they havent a clue... its so frustrating...

 

+1....Every single person who starts work for me needs at least twenty 'gentle' reminders to keep the cord bumped out long on the strimmer and only use as much throttle as needed for the vegetation in question. Even after I've spend a good ten minutes explaining it. To me, it's instinct. It's hardwired in along with eating and breathing. Nothing winds me up more than the sound of a brand new strimmer revving it's tits off with about two inches of cord on it.

[Tom11]

If you employ someone to use a processor (any age) do they need formal qualification or is on site training enough? How much does previous experience account for?

I'm just looking at getting someone in to process my logs - they would be unsupervised. I am about to enter into a world of pain with regard to HSE regs?

[Alycidon]

If you employ someone to use a processor (any age) do they need formal qualification or is on site training enough? How much does previous experience account for?

I'm just looking at getting someone in to process my logs - they would be unsupervised. I am about to enter into a world of pain with regard to HSE regs?

 

Thats exactly why I started the thread !!.

 

Looking at the replies the general opinion is train the guy yourself from scratch, give him 30 mins on and 30 mins off as concentration starts to slip after 30 mins. Closely supervise ( looking over shoulder) for as long as it takes, this may be a week or more, one chap suggested 40 hours but you may be able to cut that back a bit if they guy is good, has a chainsaw ticket etc.

 

Make sure the guy knows how to service the machine, make sure all the guards, safety devices etc are present and work correctly. Do a risk assessment, take on board the points in the HSE leaflet on processors. Start a training register and get the guy to sign it when he has completed certain tasks competently. You are creating a paper trail that you may have to reley on in court, get it wrong and he does something stupid and it could cost you 30K in fines.

 

One other thing to consider is what are you going to do with the lad when he has reduced your log pile to nothing.

 

A