New England Needs More Crane Operators

By Anna DeBattiste, owner, New England Crane School

For years, I have maintained lists of companies looking for operators and operators looking for jobs, so that I might help our customers find each other. This year, I gave up. My list of companies looking for operators is long, and my list of operators looking for jobs is empty. The problem is especially acute in Maine.

Ironically, I also take a lot of calls from aspiring operators looking for an entry-level training program. Yet we have tried and failed to get a comprehensive training program for new operators off the ground. The problem is that such programs are expensive, and aspiring operators are often out of work and can’t afford them. Currently a rookie seeking a three- to four-week crane operator practical training program has to travel to Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida or Texas; there is nothing for them in New England.

We do, however, offer practical training on an hourly consulting basis. This is not an option for the average construction worker looking for a way into the industry, but it can be an option for a company looking to create its own operators from within. The way it typically works is that we schedule a half day of practical training for your rookie, traveling to your site and working with your crane. At the same time, we schedule him to attend the classroom portion of one of our certification classes in order to start him off with a good foundation of safety knowledge. We leave the rookie with some maneuvers to practice, and hopefully, someone else in your crew to apprentice with. Then at an appropriate time in the future we follow up to see how the rookie is doing. Eventually we schedule him for certification exams when he’s ready.

This is obviously not a short-term solution and won’t solve your problem of how to staff next week’s project. Even if you have a fast-tracker who can pass exams in a relatively short amount of time, certified does not mean qualified. That’s why I encourage everyone to get going on it now, whether you have a shortage of operators or not. If you’re fortunate enough to be fully staffed this year, you’re in the best position to begin identifying potential future operators and training them.

What if you don’t have anyone in your current crew with the desire and/or potential to become an operator? Amanda Anderson, office manager for Moores Crane Rental in Dover, NH, recently educated me on the state unemployment office funding programs available to unemployed workers. State unemployment offices maintain lists of unemployed workers you can access on their websites, and those workers in turn can apply to organizations such as Pathways for funding to attend job skills training programs. While you aren’t going to find an unemployed crane operator on those lists, you might find someone with other heavy equipment experience, or at least with construction experience and a true desire to get into the crane industry.

Dr. Jeanne Fredericks, Director of Education for the Associated Builders and Contractors of Indiana/Kentucky, speaking at the awards dinner for this year’s CIC crane operator skills championship, told the crowd, “By 2018, it is predicted that the industry will see tremendous shortages of crane operators.” She cited statistics from the states of Florida, Texas and Alabama, each of which expects a shortage of operators between 6000 and 11,000 by that year. Clearly, we can expect our situation in New England to get worse instead of better. The bottom line is that it’s time for us to stop looking for crane operators and start making them instead. Call us if we can help.