Learn How to Operate a Crane Safely with These 6 Tips
Are you worried about your worker’s being injured due to an improperly operated crane? If so, teach your employees how to operate a crane safely with these 6 tips.
Are you concerned that your employees don’t know how to operate a crane safely?
Can’t remember the last time that you conducted or unannounced inspection in your warehouse?
Aren’t certain whether or not the work site is the right space for your specific crane?
If so, then you need to keep on reading this post.
In it, we’re sharing some of our most effective crane safety tips with you.
Remember that crane safety won’t just protect you legally and financially, it will also extend the life of your equipment and ensure that you’re able to complete jobs on time.
1. Conduct Frequent Inspections
The number-one most important way to ensure that you understand how to operate a crane safely?
Always ensure that you conduct frequent inspections of any cranes you use in the warehouse or workspace. In general, this should happen a minimum of once a year.
However, if you use your crane in hazardous or intense terrains and weather conditions, once every four months may be more appropriate. After all, when a crane is exposed to high heat or other chemicals, it will deteriorate faster than average.
Your team should also take the time to do a quick daily inspection of your cranes, and should provide you with proof of this inspection.
Remember that you’ll need to examine the base of the crane to look for cracks and other potential problems.
When you’re in the market for a reliable crane inspection, get in touch with the expert team at Atlantic Crane.
2. Ensure the Area Underneath is Solid
When most people are studying how to operate a crane safely, they put all of their focus on the crane itself — and neglect the area underneath it.
However, you need to be sure that the surface underneath your crane is actually strong enough to support it. Study the soil or the material underneath it, and ensure that it can handle the weight.
Remember that just because you’ve adjusted your outriggers, doesn’t mean that the area is automatically stable. Instead, always study the weight of the load and do the math.
3. Use Certified Operators Only
Another one of the most crucial crane safety tips is to be sure that the only people who are operating your crane are certified to do so.
Never under any circumstances allow anyone who has not received the proper training to operate your crane.
It’s really just that simple.
4. Never Store Items on Cranes
We understand that, when your employees are operating a crane, it can be convenient for them to store objects and even other pieces of equipment on it.
This can include things compressors, baskets, or even tools.
This is a huge crane operation safety no-no.
First of all, these items could easily fall off, especially if you’re using the crane in windy conditions. Plus, because many cranes today function through the use of hydraulics, if your crane starts to leak, the overall pressure will cause the boom to fall.
This, of course, will crush anything — and anyone — below.
Plus, storing items on cranes could impact the rate of their swing — throwing any safety calculations that you’ve made way off base.
5. Implement Workplace-Wide Safety Instructions
When you want to teach your team how to operate a crane safely, it’s your responsibility as a warehouse manager or boss to ensure that everyone’s when it comes to safety training.
This means that you should keep safety and operating instructions visible through signs throughout the workplace at all times. You should also regularly update your safety training, and ask your employees periodically if they’ve noticed any new safety risks while operating your cranes.
You should also conduct random spot-checks and safety testing drills, and even consider putting hidden cameras in your workspace, to ensure that proper protocol is followed at all times.
You can also teach your employees crane handle signals that they can use to ensure communication goes smoothly during operation.
6. Do Your Homework
The final thing to keep in mind when you’re evaluating your crane operation safety?
Always make sure that, before you lift anything, you’ve weighed the load you’re lifting and compared it to the overall weight capacity of the crane itself.
Also, take into consideration how things like wind, rain, the number of people operating the crane, and even the shape and size of the load could impact your lifting process.
Determine how, if you’re using a man-basket, it will impact the overall speed at which the crane can safely operate.
Make sure that, above all, you’re using the crane only to lift the specified load that you’ve measured for. Never attempt to side load your crane, use a crane to pull something out from underneath an object, or use it to drag an object or piece of equipment across any flooring.
It’s just not worth putting your worker’s safety at risk — and potentially looking at a large worker’s comp lawsuit in the process.
You Know how to Operate a Crane Safely
We hope that this post has helped you to better understand how to operate a crane safely.
Remember to conduct frequent and thorough inspections, never to overload the crane or use it for storage, and to pay special attention the surface and soil underneath it.
If you follow these crane safety tips, you’ll be able to reduce the number of accidents in your workplace. Plus, you’ll also ensure that your team members feel safe while on the job.
Looking for more advice about how to and more efficiently?
Spend some time on our website to get the operating tips you need to succeed in any industry.
