New rules and regs from CPCS

[Jeremy Rowland]

I really do fear for the industry, youngsters coming into the industry have no chance at all, and soon the cost of getting all these tickets will outweigh the wages ... perhaps one day into the future the shortage of operators will be dire, then perhaps things might change.

Its was interesting to see what Clive wrote about working practices in France, i mean if they had to put up with the crap that we do they will be blockading every town and city in France with diggers until something is done .... and what do we do, just moan about it.

Indeed Martyn it needs action which has always spoken louder than words and until industry or the public in general take the law into their own hands and refuse to obey the law then it will just get worse!

Jeremy

[shovel418]

The way this Industry has gone is beyond belief, I remember about 6 yrs back I had to collect a 20t track machine from a John Sisk site,
nothing unusual about that, should be in and out with load say half an hour, well any normal person would say that, then I met this very well polished man with a hi vis coat that looked like it had never seen day light before, he was plesent, until he started to ask how I intended to load the machine, Well not a problem sed I, I will drop the ramps on the back of the low loader and I will drive it up then tie it down should take about 20mins, He stood there and looked at me; well he asked me for my ticket for the machine, my site safe pass, and a generic method statement, WTF, are you taking the P#@s,(it was all I could think at the time), as I did not have a ticket I could not take charge of the machine on the site even though I was only tracking it onto the Low Loader, he told me that the driver of the machine would not be allowed to put it onto my trailer as he would not be insured, my company had to source another man to come to the site (with relivent tickets) and after a brief site induction we were allowed to load the machine. This job should have taken around 30mins, it went on for close on 5hrs, today I have a CSCS ticket (CPCS UK) for 360 >6t, slinger/signeller (banksman), articulated dump truck, ADR for both tank & packages and Safe Pass ticket, just so I can be a HGV driver doing some site work, & one final note to jcbjohn as a HGV driver you do a lot more than wait for your medical to come around, you should look up the driver cpc, which every driver has to do every year in order to keep there licence, and as long as I have been around machines I have never seen a machine driver getting arrested for not taking his break on time, being a HGV driver is one of the most regulated jobs you can do. any way I had my say and I do not support any further regulations or any additional bullsh#@t tickets that tells a good machine driver that he can drive.
Mike.

[Martyn Henley]

I wonder how they would of stopped you loading the machine on the low loader Mike ?

[shovel418]

Well Martyn its like this if they gave me the keys I belive that I would not have seen the safety officer as it is hard to see him under the tracks , they would not give me keys. but I have to admit that not all safety officers are like that.

Mike

[Martyn Henley]

Its a shame you did not have a spare set of keys Mike

Martyn

[martyn williams]

This has been going on for years in the rail industry. We have a ratio of 2.5 managers to one on the ground.Its taken FIVE years to get new overhauls.We have HS and compliance managers.who are turning a blind eye on some things and hammering people for very minor transgressions Working on and of in the rail industry for nearly 40 years, I have never felt so unsafe at work.
We need a revolution in this country and tell these people and the EU to P off.
Martyn

[adamec140]

Does anyone realise that is not a legal requirement to have a ticket, my last cpcs card with 9 categeries on ran out 6 years ago. Been driving machines for 14 years now and have not been asked once to show a card, my boss just refuses to do it now and does an in house training card. People should be responsible for there own safety as far as im concerned, its all about common sense

[Martyn Henley]

You are right Adam its not a legal requirement, i worked for years not having one after getting one back in 1987 under grandfather rights,they told us that we would never have to renew it , well you know what happened next few years.... it was only till i started working in and around London that i had to get one, Mick Daly gave me mine after i had changed the bucket on a Hitachi EX130 .. £400 lighter just to change a bucket.. the touch screen bit i did with Tamdown who i was working for at the time ...where in the UK are you Adam ?

Martyn

[bigkit]

The CMPE one is the best value and accepted by many. It has catagories that the CPCS hasn't got.............

How about this one............

Coppard Civils went to lay tarmac with their paver on a Berkely homes site. First thing in the morning all was ready to roll with 80 tonne of tarmac on site. The agent arrives, where's your ticket for the paver..........here.........CMPE, whats that? you need CPCS and CPCS only, its in the small print of your contract! Unable to provide a CPCS card they were told to leave the job! The 80t was laid by hand!!!!

In the afternoon Coppards got a phone call from Berkley Homes. Can you bring your paver back and finish the job?!!! What about the ticket issue? Berkley Homes replied "CPCS dont have a paver catagory!!!!!!!!!!!" The job was done and Berkley had to pay for EVERYTHING TWICE OVER!!!

[adamec140]

Evening Martyn, we're from south warwickshire, admittedly with our type of work we rarely get involved with big site jobs. Ticket or no ticket, accidents still happen. 12 months ago i went for job interview for caterpillar in malaga, spain and one of the instructors there was telling me its only the uk that do all this crap