Pay Attention to the Work Area

Operators have more and more distractions in the cab than ever. Safety comes from awareness of the operational environment and it is vital that this is understood and enforced. Some thoughts from the field.

Overview

The operation of large earthmoving equipment can be a hazardous business. A lot can go wrong, very quickly and often with very bad outcomes for those involved. A primary way that we work to prevent such things happening is for everyone to be aware of the work environment.

Having a good awareness of what’s going on brings about three things:

• Safety
• Productivity
• Upskilling within the workforce

Safety

In my thirty odd years in the business I have seen some very ugly things that resulted from one simple fact – those concerned were NOT PAYING ATTENTION to what was happening around them. They ended up engulfed in pit wall failures, backed into, run into or run over. But at the end of the day it always came down to this one thing – not paying attention.

People have all sorts of ideas on how it is their ‘right’ to read on the job, listen to music, text, talk on a mobile phone, come to work in a poor frame of mind and so forth.

But I have to tell you, if their actions are such that they do not have full attention on what is happening around them, they shouldn’t be there – period.

Productivity

The next reason for paying attention to the work area is so that you don’t hold things up. How frustrating as a loading tool operator to sit waiting with the bucket in the air. All the while, some dozy truck driver is off in a world of their own and not getting themselves moving.

Truck drivers more than any other person on the crew should be sitting there wide awake and alert while waiting to be loaded.

In many cases, a good truck driver will spot a potential collision, rock fall or other event before anyone else sees it and can give a warning.

It needs to be understood that good truck drivers are VERY valuable. By good I mean, looking after the truck and tyres and keeping the truck moving, minimising bunching and making sure that the loading tool operators are cued up as to when they will be back.

Upskilling within the workforce

One of the best ways to learn how to operate a machine is to watch someone else who knows what they are doing. I initially learned this way and I am sure so did many others and the technique is as valid now as it was then.

If you take the time to watch (and question) a good operator you can learn a lot – not something that is going to happen for the truck driver who buries their head in a magazine the second they pull up back at the loading tool after racing back in an effort to get more reading time.

Action Item(s)

1. Ensure that haultruck cabs are distraction free zones.
2. Watch for inattentive truck drivers and either handle them or get them off the trucks (and preferably out of the business).
3. Encourage watching other operators as a way to learn.

Summary

Being attentive is vital. People are paid to come to work to be attentive, not to read magazines or allow themselves to be distracted. Take a tough line on this issue – the safety and productivity of your workplace depend on it.

This is part of an ongoing series of posts on the fundamentals of Load & Haul. If you like this post, please take the time to check out others in the series.