When the ARA of California decided to offer the American Rental Association (ARA) Certified Mobile Elevating Work Platform (MEWP) Train-the-Trainer program Aug. 26 at A Tool Shed’s Morgan Hill, Calif., location, Eddie Wilson, general manager, City Rentals, Ontario, Calif., knew he wanted to take part.
“MEWPs are our bread and butter. We rent a variety of scissor and boom lifts. I wanted to attend to make sure we are following the correct protocol on training our staff,” he says. “And when it comes to the responsibility of each individual pertaining to MEWPs such as the owner, the operator and the end user, I wanted to understand the liability shift among those categories so we could maintain compliance with that.”
He wasn’t disappointed in the training that was held in conjunction with the California Rental Association’s (CRA) second yard party hosted by A Tool Shed.
Like all who took part, Wilson undertook the online training first. “I felt the structure and interaction of the online training was excellent. ARA did a great job of developing a program that touched on all the different elements of how someone learns. It encompassed all those different ways to learn and was very effective,” he says, noting that it prepared him well for the hands-on training that took place at A Tool Shed.
“The hands-on training was very interactive,” he says. “Our instructor, Kevin Gern [ARA vice president of education and risk management] couldn’t have been better. He shared stories and lots of little tips that unless you are a veteran in the industry, you wouldn’t know. That was really good. The timing was perfect. Doing the online prior to the hands-on, we were able to focus just on the hands-on. It wasn’t a long, drawn-out process. It was precise and to the point. Everything we did had a purpose. It was great.”
David Peoples, branch manager at A Tool Shed’s Morgan Hill location, agrees. “Kevin was amazing and had so much experience. We went through all kinds of situations, the reasons the rules are in place, the step-by-step processes that start with the visual inspection, all the forms, the categories because when you are training, you have to put down which type you are training on and all the details that you might not think are important,” he says.
One such detail that stood out for Wilson was the element of responsibility each person attached to the MEWP has. “As an owner and someone who services them and familiarizes, you don’t realize how much liability goes into just the end user operating the lift. It opens your eyes to that and makes you think about the little stuff that you might think isn’t a big deal, but it can be a really big deal. Those small things could make or break a serious incident or save a life. I liked the attention to the little things that are really important,” he says.
Another aspect is making sure the person on the ground who will handle the manual controls is familiarized. “We have to make sure we tell our customers who are renting a MEWP that they are responsible for familiarizing that person on the ground so the operator doesn’t get stuck up in the air. That detail will really help us at the counter,” Peoples adds.
One point that resonated with both was that “your line of sight is the direction of travel,” Wilson says. “If I am going to lift up in a MEWP, I look up prior to lifting up and I maintain my sight. If I am going to back out, I look back before I back out. That was a big thing he talked about. When backing up, people will travel 3 to 7 ft. before looking back. People subconsciously go without even looking and they don’t realize that. It seems like common sense, but a lot of us forget to do it. We become comfortable and can get a little complacent. It is so important to tell our employees to pay attention to that. It is the little things that you typically don’t think about because you are going 100 mph and trying to take care of as many customers as you can. It helped bring us back down to the level of the real small things that will make some of the biggest differences without you realizing it. That was a huge takeaway for me.”
The line-of-sight instruction “was a No. 1 rule that Kevin stressed,” Peoples adds. “Even in my car, I don’t always look back right away when I am backing up. I look at a mirror, but I don’t always look behind me. Those little steps are important and ones you can’t forget. Kevin wanted us to focus on that because sometimes people start skipping those if they have been on the machines so much. He wanted to make sure we avoided those little bad habits,” he says.
Another big takeaway for Peoples was the importance of using the same technique on every piece of equipment. “He stressed that we need to make sure the equipment is service-ready and safe to use before we do anything and then use the standard safety procedures on each item,” he says.
Both were impressed with the training and felt they received everything they needed to train their employees.
“I thought it was a great experience. Allowing us to do the online training on our own schedule where we could be totally focused and then coming together for the hands-on training was fantastic,” Wilson says.
“The online training was very thorough and focused on safety,” Peoples adds. “It really helped you learn what you were supposed to learn. Then the group experience at the hands-on training was so helpful because it was interactive, you could brainstorm and share ideas with others. I gained more knowledge than I thought I could have. Now I can better help my customers with their questions and train my employees on what they need to know. It was excellent.”