I was honorably discharged
from the Marine Corps in 1968 and needed to make some money.
I began working on construction projects as a laborer. The
company I worked for leased a trailer pump to place the
concrete for an office building. It was a real learning
experience. We had an idea of how things were supposed to
go, but no ‘experts’ to teach us the correct
procedures. We all learned as we worked out the daily problems.
It was very interesting, and had something new and different
every day. I knew then that this was what I wanted to do.
It was a young industry and I wanted to grow with it.
As a trailer pump operator, I pumped in a
variety of situations. My first job as an ‘out on
my own’ operator was pumping the bases for ski lift
towers at Copper Mountain, Colorado. That summer we pumped
1500 ft both up and down hill (mountain). It was an experience.
After two years of that I was given a boom pump to operate
and maintain. I ran a boom pump for several years until
I received the opportunity to work for the premier concrete
conveying company in our country. I worked there on the
development of an electrically powered, horizontally articulated
mobile placing boom for a pump application. This piece of
equipment was sold to a French company working on the Metro
project in Paris. I followed the equipment, training the
jobsite personnel as to its use.
After returning to the states, I had no real
desire to change my line of work to conveyers so I went
back to running a pump. My next opportunity was working
on a nuclear project in South Texas. My duty was to insure
that the conveying system was assembled and used properly,
educate the employees as to its use, train operators for
the conveyers and concrete pumps, teach the set-up crews
about system and basic maintenance of the pumping equipment
and then I was allowed to, as a foreman, return to my first
love, running a pump and overseeing the day to day placing
needs on the project. This turned out to be a twelve hour
a day and seven day a week job.
A few years later I went to work for a pump
manufacturer as service manager. My duties were to start
up new machines, train operators in the safe operation of
their new pumps, and do warranty service work on customers
equipment. It was lots of airplanes, hotels, rental cars
and restaurant meals.
My next major opportunity was running a parts
company and machine shop for a pumping company. We manufactured
and sold all types of pump parts and accessories. It was
quite a learning experience.
The next 10 years or so I worked as a salesman
for pump manufacturers [I am the world’s worst salesman]
and did consulting work for others. This work typically
consisted of operator training and integrating the equipment
into a job site situation.
My last three years have been working as a
safety director for a pumping company. As it turns out,
this was a job I had been training for my entire working
life. The most rewarding part of the work has been the transferring
of knowledge to others within our industry. I remember how
hard it was to learn everything the hard way and how lucky
I felt when someone with experience helped me along. I feel
like we owe it to each other to pay it forward. I have managed
to learn something new about pumps and pumping every day.
I hope to do so again tomorrow and the days after that.
I would like the opportunity to bring this experience to
other companies in our industry. That is what SEI Safety
is all about. My wife and best friend, Meredith (she is
a pump dispatcher), and I live in rural Georgia with our
assortment of dogs and cats.
Bob Sanderson.
Robert Sanderson
6372 Hwy 166
Douglasville, GA 30135
(770) 403-1444 |
