International live demonstration show for the quarrying, recycling and heavy construction industries at Hillhead Quarry, Buxton, UK.My post last week about the Queensland quarry owner whose 9 year old grandson had been banned from driving a Cat 980H by the local Mines Inspector caught the attention of Ken Horlor in New Zealand. Ken dropped me an email pointing out that he had started driving loaders in a quarry at the age of 8, which he advises is the age at which boys ‘down under’ start working on farms etc. Also, he explains that the age at which driving on the road with a licence is permitted is 15, which allows farms and other primary producers to ‘go about their business’. Finally, he observes that, whilst through UK eyes a story about a nine year driving a wheeled loader in a quarry might seem strange, in his ‘neck of the woods’ it would be seen in the rural areas as an example of more ‘city meddling’.
Does anyone else want to offer a comment on this subject?
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The monthly journal for the quarry products industry.
Comments
hi i am 43 years old now but i first dove plant including a 22 rb dragline as early as 6 so whats gone wrong in this world you need experiance and to gain an early interest !!! i have seen ticket men all my working life ,i have also seen men who think they are the bees knees until i show them what they are operating is a tool and not just something no one else is as good as them at driving ! i have also taken men that think they can drive anything and given them a go on my own dragline wow operators and now we have leaver pullers there is a bloody big difference now its i have a ticket and i can operate wronnnnng i have a bus ticket but i can operate anything!!!!!!!!!
Quite right! We sadly live in an age where an easily obtained piece of paper counts for more than years of experience. I had need to get several staff ticketed this year and a couple were put forward with zero hours under their belt just to see what the outcome was, end result- my ticket has expired so I can't (apart from my own work)drive my own tackle yet I have 2 young blokes with no idea who can!
We also live in an age where we no longer send 9 year olds down coal mines, experience is important but at appropriate ages when responsibilities can be understood. There are plenty of "experienced" operators out there who can make a machine sing, they can also cost their employers a fortune. I agree though that there are training schemes running nowadays that are a real concern, as a new operator you go to a training centre and learn which way to shove the sticks and with your new card off you go to someones site with no operational experience and become the site owners latest statistic! How do you learn to work a quarry face in a classroom, the guy who's been working the face safely for years is the best person to teach a new operator not someone in a classroom. Safe controlled operational experience is the way forward whatever the age!
There's a lot of misunderstanding about what constitutes competence. Having a ticket that says you can shove the sticks is not competence. This would only allow you to work at a quarry under the supervision of someone who was competent.
Allowing a 6 or 9 year old to operate heavy machinery is not giving experience to someone expressing an early interest, it's pure irresponsibility. Doing it in a working environment would demonstrate a total and complete lack of competence on the part of the person allowing it to happen.
Now, before the 'I started working mobile plant before I could walk' brigade start getting on their high horses, I quite agree that some people mature considerably earlier than others. There are plenty of 30 year olds that I wouldn't let anywhere near a pedal car, let alone any quarry plant; but there are 18 year olds who are mature enough to train.
It's all about understanding competence.
i remember sitting in my dad's lap driving up the m1 back in the sixties at the age of six didn't do me or any one else any harm i have thirty years of accident free driving on motor cycles,cars and hgvs...
i dont know the lad in question, but, depending on the situation, everything was probably ok, i was brought up on a rather hilly farm in derbyshire, and have worked my way round a variaty ov different machines from small farm tractors up to a larger komatsu pc450 on reinstatement work over the pond.at a very early age i clearly remember scraping the cow yard with the {little} scraper tractor, having reached the top ov the loading ramp, continued on and landed the tractor on top ov the muck spreader,{whoops}, with no cab, roll cage or any other safety precaution i was lucky, but it was a good learning curve,{it never happened again}.