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My spotter said something about our hand signals that has me worried about Monday
I was grabbing lunch at the diner near the yard in Tulsa with a guy who has 22 years in the seat, and he asked me what my signal for "stop everything" is. I gave him the one I learned in school, and he just shook his head and showed me a different one his crew uses. Turns out three of the four rigs on our site are running different signal sets, and nobody ever sat down and matched them up. If a load swings and two guys give opposite signs, that is how people get hurt. Has anyone else run into this, and how did your crew fix it?
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terryj4514d ago
Three of four rigs running different sets sounds about right, and here is the thing, half the guys I know could not tell you the official hand signals either way so matching them up on paper will not do much. The real fix is the same as it always was, one guy runs the radios and everybody else keeps their hands in their pockets unless they are the one calling it. Two guys giving signals is the problem, not which signal they give. A crew that talks it over before the first lift and puts one man in charge does not need a laminated card. The hand signal fight is just a symptom.
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reesecraig14d ago
Man, amen to that. I've watched two guys wave a load into a wall while the operator stared at both of them trying to figure out which one to follow. The fix is a five minute tailgate before the first pick, name one guy on the radio, and everybody else keeps their hands down even if they see something wrong, they key up and say it. We started doing that after a near miss and it cut the confusion way down, no card needed.
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