IPAF aerial access certification.

[BigClive]

I've just re-sat my one day IPAF (International Powered Access Federation) course, which is unfortunately required every five years at significant personal cost or I am prevented from using things like Cherry pickers on some jobs (and hence lose work).

Do you guys in the USA also have to do the IPAF course, or is there a different one on your side of the pond.

We have to resit it every five years here. How often do you have to get recertified in powered access equipment?

I compare it to the vehicle driving licence. I only ever had to sit one test to get a driving licence for life, yet this scam makes me do the cherry picker course every five years.

[Pootnaigle]

Ummmmmm we domt do that here

[rob8210]

And we don't do that here in Canada either. If you can get it there without rolling it , your hired to drive it!

[stulittle]

Clive,

I agree, it's a money making scam. It's like all the different categories, lets face it if you can drive a 26m truck mount in a tight space, you should have the skill for a 15m self propelled boom or 8m scissor but if you follow the rules, every one is another £100 or more.

I was operating them for years before I done my ticket and then only done truck mount because that's what I needed at the time. Pasma is as bad (for our over the pond friends, sectional scafford towers)... All of my guys can build them and take them down without any sort of problem, we do occasionally move them when we perhaps shouldn't but who doesn't ;-) I'm the only one with the ticket and at £300 to get it I don't fancy paying for all of them to be able to sign it off.

Perhaps we could start our own scheme for "linespersons and related trades". If you can climb and survive in our world, you get a picker ticket :D

Stu

[bren guzzi]

Deffo a scam... I do mine every 5 years also... The funny thing is... Every cherry picker, mewp, and bucket...you get into ... The controls are always completely different.

[BigClive]

I've looked into this and it's not a legal requirement to have either IPAF or PASMA. Just that your employer should make sure you are experienced in the use of this type of equipment.

The five year renewal is also just a profitable invention of these organisations. The snag is. With enough marketing and given time they will establish themselves as being an authority, just like the NICEIC did many moons ago. The NICEIC was NOT started to promote electrical standards. It was started to protect the financial interests of large contractors by deterring young companies with catch 22 situations to stop them getting work.

I think the HSE needs to get a grip as it is effectively causing these profit motivated training scams. At the very least they should extend the duration of the "qualification" to at least 10 years.

IPAF claims to be a non profit organisation, but with every single construction worker in the UK being forced to pay about 250 quid every five years I don't see how they can't make profit.

[skylifter]

Here in the States, the ANSI Standard, which is referenced by OSHA and becomes the law of the
land, dictates that anyone operating an aerial lift must be trained, and familiarized, on the equipment. It is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that the operator is trained. The IPAF, or here in the States, AWPT (IPAF's American subsidiary) training satisfies that training requirement. Whenever a new piece of equipment is delivered to any operator, if it is different than any other piece that they have operated, then familiarization is required. Both of these requirements are often overlooked, mostly because companies, and managers, don't know their responsibilities. OSHA has not done as good a job as they could in enforcing the Standards.
In the UK, HSE is a lot more active.
For example, last week, we received a call from an operator that a 52m Bronto Skylift did not work. We found out that the entity that we rented the machine to had simply 'given' it to a contractor that was doing storm resto work. It turned out that the guys on the crew had not used a Bronto before, but assumed that they knew how to fly it because they had flown Reach-Alls, Hi-Rangers and Condors occasionally. They proceeded to set the Bronto up, incorrectly, but enough that they could get the boom out of the rest, then the machine stopped, and prevented them from continuing.
We got them all folded up and then talked to the power company about the requirement for familiarization. The familiarization was completed the next day, and the operators were appreciative that someone was looking out for their well-being.
This is a case of the operators not knowing the requirements that they must adhere to, the managers of both the contractor and the utility not knowing their responsibilities, and the fact that the storm restoration was putting everyone under pressure.
Bottom line-there was a happy ending. Nobody hurt, no damage to equipment or property, and some smarter linemen as a result of the machine training.
I can understand that with all of the training that you get in the UK, then a 5 year repeat on the PAL card might be overload, but here, any training on aerials is a good thing.
We have trained transmission linemen who have been in the business for decades, but nobody ever talked with them about machine stability and ground conditions.

[BigClive]

Was the Bronto issue that one where the boom extends slightly when the stabilisers are not correctly utilised, and then just locks up completely until a switch is shoved in or bypassed to get the boom back in again? We've had that even with experienced operators who use the same Bronto all the time. Strikes me it might be a slight design issue.

[skylifter]

The users did not have even ground pressure on the outriggers. When one of them got 'light', and when they did not know that the platform was not centered, they shut the machine down. After that, with the booms out of their rest, and the outriggers not properly set, nothing would work.
When that happened, the users assumed that a microswitch was bad.
Nothing was wrong with the machine-it did exactly what it was supposed to do...