The deadline for a federal government requirement to certify crane operators has officially been extended until Nov. 10, 2017.
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration had originally set a deadline of Nov. 10, 2014. But last May, the agency announced that it was considering extending the deadline. That extension became official on Sept. 26, 2014.
Operators of service truck cranes encompassed by the rules weren’t exactly rushing to become certified when the extension was first being proposed. Now that the extension is official, they have even more time to put certification on the back burner.
“I think there’s a general sentiment that some of the users of service truck cranes have taken a breath to see how things shake out,” said Joel Oliva, director of operations and program development for the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators. “And we certainly don’t blame them for that.”
In April 2013, the NCCCO launched a special certification for service truck crane operator. That was developed with the help of a committee of manufacturers, dealers, users, trainers and other industry insiders.
The initiative was in response to changes to OSHA’s rules regarding lifting operations for cranes and derricks. Those changes to what is called OSHA 1926 Subpart CC will require operator certification for all cranes of 2,000 pounds capacity or greater that are used in construction.
Another certification body, Crane Institute Certification, is in the final development stage of its certification program for service truck crane operators, according to its website. CIC didn’t respond to a request for an update on that program.
As Service Truck Magazine reported last year, the new standard, known as 1926.1400, “applies to power-operated equipment, when used in construction, that can hoist, lower and horizontally move a suspended load” and that includes “service/mechanic trucks with a hoisting device.” However, the regulation exempts mechanic’s trucks when those devices are “used in activities related to equipment maintenance and repair.”
To say the new rules are complicated and open to interpretation is an understatement. As far as service truck cranes are concerned, one area of dispute is over where to draw the line between construction and maintenance. A common example concerns the placement of propane tanks: initial placement can be considered as construction whereas swapping of subsequent tanks might be regarded as maintenance — even though the lifts are identical.
Interest is trickling in
Despite the challenges, Oliva said the NCCCO has still seen some “modest gains” in the program. He didn’t have exact figures but estimated that the NCCCO has now certified 300 to 400 service truck crane operators compared with about 75 last April.
“We’re not talking thousands yet,” he said. “We’re still talking hundreds.”
However, representatives of two companies that provide training for service truck crane operators say that demand for that training has fizzled.
“In this industry, people procrastinate. They always procrastinate,” said Teri Drapeau, CEO of Nationwide Crane Training, which is based in Carson City, Nevada.
Her company had partnered with Stahl, an Ohio-based manufacturer of service bodies, on a five-day training and certification program that was supposed to launch last February. But so far that program hasn’t gotten off the ground, although Drapeau said a couple of her trainers have trained small groups on the side.
Still, interest is trickling in, Drapeau said.
“The thing is with the service truck, almost every industry has a service truck,” Drapeau said. “So we feel as though it’s going to explode but not just yet. It probably won’t start exploding until 2016.”
Dave Foster, manager of the crane training division for Venco Ventura Manufacturing, said his company trained several hundred service truck cranes operators in the beginning of the program. However, it hasn’t trained any in the last eight to 10 months — or since about the time OSHA indicated it might extend the deadline.
“There’s no sense of urgency and everybody’s just kind of hanging loose now,” Foster said. “It was like you flipped a switch. There’s no real commitment.”
Subbed: Don’t expect any more exemptions
Foster suspects that many people harbor a mistaken impression that the deadline delay means OSHA is planning more exemptions to the requirements. “And that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Foster said. “The only reason they’re opening up the law again is to change a specific piece of it to do with boom length and capacity for clarification. I don’t see them adding any other exemptions to it at all.”
Curiously enough, his own company, which is based in Cincinnati, recently issued a news release promoting its new Venturo ET6K electric crane, which has a maximum capacity of 2,000 pounds, as being exempt from OSHA’s operator certification requirements.
Foster said a niche for such a small crane has been created in Ohio because of a state law that requires public agencies like municipalities and school boards to adopt the federal OSHA law. Those agencies typically only use small cranes for picking up items like manhole covers and fire hydrants.
“So they don’t need the capacity,” Foster said. “And in that law if the crane’s rating is 2,000 pounds or less it exempts them from having to become a certified operator.”
Subhed: Qualification still required
Nevertheless, he and others noted that existing OSHA rules also requires that a crane operator is qualified to perform the application — regardless of certification.
“They should still be qualified operators and that’s done by training and testing — if they do it themselves or if they hire somebody like myself to do it,” Fraser said. “And that’s got to be documented.”
Garvin Branch, a technical specialist in OSHA’s Directorate of Construction, noted that even cranes exempted under the new rules would still be covered by another OSHA rule — 29 CFR 1926.20(b)4. It states, “The employer shall permit only those employees qualified by training or experience to operate equipment and machinery.”
However, a question still remains as to whether or not the new certification requirement will supplant the over-arching requirement to qualify personnel.
“At this point, I don’t know,” Branch said, adding “because this was a negotiated rule making, we have to really explain ourselves if we are going to deviate from what was already required.”
He noted that employers still have almost three years to comment on the legislation before the final deadline. “Especially now that certification doesn’t supplant that employer duty, there are going to be some stakeholders out there that are going to say, ‘Now that I’m back on the hook, why do I need to send my individuals to certification bodies, testing organizations, when I can do that myself?’”
Nevertheless, those kinds of comments have already been received and Branch doesn’t expect to hear any new objections. “But we will probably have more economic data on how employers are going to address that if now they have to certify and the employer has to evaluate their operators,” Branch said.
Just to complicate matters further, it bears noting that the NCCCO’s service truck crane operator certification applies only to telescopic cranes. In fact, operators who receive the NCCCO’s telescopic boom-fixed cab (TSS) certification are automatically certified for a telescopic service truck crane. An operator of a service truck crane with an articulated boom (also known as a knuckle boom) would need to be certified as an articulating crane operator.
It also should be stressed that training and certification are separate but related processes. The NCCCO only does testing and certification, not training. And technically, a crane operator can challenge the certification exams without first undergoing training.
“As a third-party certification body we are not allowed to require the training,” Oliva said. “We of course encourage people to get it.”
The cost of certification totals $225 for the written exam and practical exam. So Oliva doesn't think those fees are discouraging anyone from getting certified.
The cost of training might be another story. A two- or three-day class runs anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 per operator depending on experience, Oliva estimated. Drapeau said she has seen costs ranging from $1,500 to $12,000 per person. The latter could include having to fly in an instructor on short notice.
“Cost is a huge variable,” Drapeau said.
Employers also have to cover the cost of their workers while they’re being trained, Oliva pointed out.
“So the indirect costs, or the opportunity costs, that are associated with attending a two- or three-day class, oftentimes is an issue,” he said.
Branch, though, said training should never be an issue regardless of the certification requirements. He called it “an urban legend” that operators of cranes exempt from certification don’t have to have any qualifications. “If you don’t take anything else from this, you should always be trained and that person should be competent to operate that piece of equipment — whether or not certification’s required or not,” Branch said.
He advised those in the industry to check OSHA’s crane page periodically for updates on the new rules — www.osha.gov/cranes-derricks.
“We will be posting our site visits,” Branch said. “So you can get information about what other employers are doing regarding how they meet their requirements for competency.”