Yesterday was a typical day in my week – all go from start to finish. Arrived at the yard at just after 7am to collect all the paperwork for the day’s lifts. Checked all of the lift plans and looked at the weather conditions for the two sites on my schedule. All looked good, so assembled the extra bits of equipment I knew would be needed. The grillage for the first lift had already been stacked onto the small flat-bed we use to take it to site, so I liaised with the driver and the rest of the lift team so everyone knew where we were going and what the job consisted of. This was a contract lift, so Carters provided a full package of personnel and lift plan and was responsible for the lift supervision. Arrived at the first site just before 8am and talked to the site supervisor, in this case the building contractor, to check that nothing had changed since my last visit. The lift plan was still accurate, so we agreed when and where to start. The rest of the lift team arrived and we went over the lift plan in detail and checked that the H&S measures and PPE were in place before positioning the crane and starting on the rigging. There were several roof trusses to lift, but everything went smoothly and the customer was happy. We loaded all our equipment, had a de-brief and then the lift team went on their way. All finished by lunchtime. A textbook job. After a quick bite to eat, it was time to head for the second site of the day – luckily not too far away although a very different type of site. Rather than a single self-build, this was a large site for a major house-builder where we had worked on many occasions. They have their own lift supervisor and lift team, so they had only booked the mobile crane with a driver. Despite this being a repeat job, the supervisor and I went over the details of the lift plan and I checked the site for positioning the crane. Same routine with H&S and PPE – checked that everything was in place before starting. Again, there were roof trusses but also some heavy steels and concrete steps to lift into place. A well-planned site with plenty of space and trained contractors is usually much easier to work on and this one was a dream. It wasn’t long before I was lifting the first of the trusses into place and before I knew it the afternoon was over. Time to head back to the yard to clean up, fill up with fuel and load any equipment needed for the following day. There are always lift plans to create and customers to call, so nothing slows down in the last hour of the day. I left the office at around 6pm ready for a well-earned meal and time with the family.
For any further information on any aspect of crane hire or construction training, please contact us or telephone 01395 446 446.
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