A Mobile Crane Inspection Company Helps Control Costs While Increasing Worker Safety

By Leslie Ball


The end of the economic decline of 2008 sparked a construction boom in many cities that is most visible in the presence of enormous mobile cranes against skylines. While often considered a visible sign of progress, there is a darker side related to highly publicized accidents costly in both money and lives. A Tennessee mobile crane inspection company helps keep both employees and machinery working with fewer dangers or delays.

Crane manufacturers benefit from current technology able to create specifically designed structures that are both lighter and stronger. Because construction stalls when they are idled, any interruptions can quickly generate cost overruns as well as taking a human toll. Regularly performed inspections are not only necessary to prevent mechanical failures, but are also the key to worker well-being through accident prevention.

OSHA, or the Occupational Safety and Health Association, determines national standards for workplace safety. Recent regulations require all operators of cranes to have an accredited certification prior to assuming control of one of these massive machines, and the lifting devices themselves are required to undergo frequent checks performed by inspectors who have passed official government requirements for knowledge, experience, and training.

Although companies may still train their own employees to fill that function, independent agencies often do the work more economically, and without questions surrounding a conflict of interest. More than one agency today is allow to certify, but the most recognized is the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators. Today, both training courses and independent inspection companies are more widely available than ever before.

Independent agents are welcomed on sites today because they are current not only on mechanical and physical issues affecting portable cranes, but are also informed of constantly updated regulatory rules. Although having an internally trained inspector may be advantageous to a construction firm in some ways, that person may not have earned the trust and confidence of his or her peers, and may not be experienced enough to actually be considered authoritative.

A certified, documented inspector is indispensable to insurers, providing them a benchmark for extending equipment and operator coverage, and using one can potentially have a beneficial effect on rates. Because inspection companies have only one major focus, they are able to provide necessary services both quickly and efficiently, and complete any required documentation that can affect future costs.

They also perform readiness pre-inspections, as well as checking for properly installed equipment integral to structural integrity and stability. They coordinate ongoing jobs with power suppliers when construction takes place near electrical lines, providing timely line deactivation as well as ensuring proper clearance and grounding. They make sure that failure is not more likely due to excess weight or lifting that exceeds the recommendations of load charts.

These experts determine the time intervals between inspections based on site conditions including terrain and weather, as well as making sure the equipment used meets all standards. In the past, those regulations often varied by locale. Today, national, state, and local regulators require uniform compliance. The result has been a decrease in the number and severity of mishaps, in addition to fewer dollars being wasted by preventable delays.




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