The employee you need

Your company is pumping an elevated deck and in order to do a professional job the operator is there, up on the deck, and not at the pump. He notices that the pump is not pumping, or that the boom won’t work. No one has bothered to tell him about the 80 gal of hydraulic oil on the ground under your machine. Or the last truck on the job finishes and he is ten floors in the air, it is dark and you are waiting for a call-back load. No one bothered to tell the operator that the last truck was three hours old when it backed up to the pump.

Or your outrigger is slowly sinking – or someone hit the “E” stop……………… etc, etc.

THE SOLUTION

Every company needs a second man on the 52 – 55 – 58 – 60 – 61 – 63 - 65 meter pumps, and on elevated system jobs. They would save your company money. The operator works for the customer, and the second man works for the pump.

One major problem with this concept is: Where do the people come from, and how do we find them?

I think that the operators all ready know these people. They might work for crews you pump for, or just people they know. These are not trainees, they are laborers. They make appropriate wages for the job. If one of them was a natural he might be moved into a trainee position; but that is not the focus. If (when) one of these people saves a hydraulic pump he would have paid for himself. While the operator is pumping the second man is watching out for you and polishing wheels, waxing the cab, washing out system, checking the tickets and whatever else you instruct him to do.

This program would be successful and make you a better service company. The customers could be sold on the concept and shoulder much of the cost; although the majority of the benefit would be to you.

I think that the length of the booms, the level of service that the customers demand, the cost of the equipment and potential cost of litigation require that a second man be placed with the machines that meet these conditions.

Written By Bob Sanderson