Most employers have a “fairly sound” understanding of their duties and responsibilities to evaluate their crane operators, according to a report from the NCCCO Foundation: “Crane Operator Evaluation: How are employers responding to OSHA’s new requirement?”
The report also reveals that there are some aspects of the OSHA crane operator qualification rule that give rise to a degree of confusion and misunderstanding. It can be downloaded for free at the NCCCO Foundation website.
The study sought to assess the degree of understanding and compliance by employers of crane operators with OSHA’s revised crane operator qualification rule published in November 2018 and, in particular, with what has become known as the “third step” of that qualification process, namely, the evaluation of crane operators.
Employers were polled as to their level of understanding and/or compliance with each of the key elements of the new evaluation requirement. They were also asked several open-ended questions to gauge any general concerns or challenges.
“Overall, the findings are quite encouraging,” said NCCCO Foundation CEO, Graham Brent, in a prepared statement. “Most employers that completed the survey were aware of the key elements of the evaluation requirement and how it works together with training and certification to complete the qualification process. In fact, many already had a process in place that simply needed to be reviewed in light of the new rule.”
Results were less strong when employers were asked to identify events that would trigger new evaluations, as well as the criteria they used to qualify evaluators. Although some had a negative view of the requirement, (one- third found it “burdensome”), 61 percent said it would “help to save lives.”
In addition to the results of the survey, the 20-page report includes a three-page FAQ section on OSHA’s crane operator evaluation requirements, as well as links to additional resources, supplementary findings, and the survey itself. Employers who have not yet done so are invited to complete the survey and return it. Multiple excerpts from the rule and its preamble, highlighting not only key provisions of the requirements but also the rationale OSHA employed for developing them, support the text throughout.
Source: NCCCO Foundation
