Heavy Equipment Safety Tip – Get To Know Your Equipment

Heavy equipment safety has become a central issue across the nation. This comes after decades of uncontrolled operation of heavy equipment. Even now, there is little in the way of licensing when it comes to operating heavy equipment. However, employers are required to keep employees up to date when it comes to workplace health and safety issues. In today’s workplace, employers can be fined quite heavily if their workers have not completed some form of recognized safety training. Our heavy equipment training programs include a safety component that is sufficient to allow graduates onto a work site.

If I was to offer one tip to new heavy equipment operators, it would be familiarity – in other words, getting to know your equipment. In many workplaces, the equipment you operate today will be the same equipment you operate tomorrow, next week, and indeed perhaps next year. Getting to know that equipment well will make it a lot easier to detect problems. If you have owned a car for a long time, you know almost immediately when something doesn’t feel quite right. You will also generally spot an external problem quickly, simply because of that familiarity.

The same is true for heavy equipment. If you know your equipment well, a pre-startup inspection will quickly reveal any problems. You will also spot potential problems that you can monitor daily. During operation, you’ll also quickly identify problems – an engine that doesn’t seem to have the normal power; controls that are not responding correctly; or perhaps just a feeling that ‘somethings not quite right’.

Our heavy equipment safety training can teach you how to inspect for problems, and how to report them. It takes constant use and a certain familiarity with your heavy equipment that makes the job easier. A word of caution – don’t let familiarity with you heavy equipment turn into complacency, use to your benefit instead.