Thursday, May 9, 2024
As trade media has extensively covered in recent weeks, my company is delivering lifting equipment and services to the Cross Tay Link Road (CTLR) project in Perth, Scotland. Central to the job is a new three-span bridge. But the River Tay isn’t the only gap that needs crossing.
As ongoing campaigning ahead of Global Lifting Awareness Day — #GLAD2024 — proves, we work in a market that remains somewhat overlooked, both in terms of being a specialist industry, and a sector that is a fun, challenging, and rewarding place to work.
Think about the benefits of the CTLR, which is the largest ever infrastructure project undertaken by Perth & Kinross Council. As the central element of the Perth Transport Futures Project, it will address the area’s long-term transport needs and promote economic growth, while tackling congestion and pollution. It will change lives.
Lifting changes lives. It keeps people alive.
No project of this scale would be possible without cranes, hoists, blocks, shackles, hooks, slings, and harnesses. Countless vertical markets are brought together at such sites, from special transport to earthmoving, and many are given a much higher profile than lifting.
Why?
Community bridge
There’s always a euphoria around building bridges, or even just crossing them. It’s a childlike fascination. One thing’s for sure, you can’t build a bridge without lifting something, or a lot of things, over and over again, eventually at height.
Think about it: without lifting there would be no Poohsticks! Imagine that.
My first experience with such construction work was on the Second Severn Crossing, opened in 1996 to supplement the traffic capacity of the Severn Bridge, built in the 1960s. As they’re so useful and visible, river crossings do a great job of pointing to engineering brilliance, and we need to keep lifting central to that conversation.
CTLR is being delivered by construction group BAM Nuttall, which presented all stakeholders with an opportunity to meet local residents that will benefit from the new bridge at a community open day last month (April). We were invited, alongside other suppliers, to participate in a tabletop-style exhibition — part of an event advertised as a day packed full of family fun, community updates, and opportunities to learn more about the project.
It was a great idea and one that demonstrated clearly why lifting matters. As Gordon Orr, our regional manager – Scotland, said, there was genuine interest in what we do as a company and how we play a part in such impactful work. For many, Gordon told me, it was the first time they had seen a shackle, chain block, or lever hoist.
We’ve got to do more to make sure that these gravity-defying products and the technology that supports their use, are better known to future generations, and they want to become the heroes that use it all.
Futureproofing
Sean Maslen, director of sales and business development; and Lauren Green, office manager, both attended the CTLR open day too, and agreed that BAM did a great job of using the event to connect with members of the public of all generations.
Sean told media it was especially uplifting to meet people taking their first steps into industry. Amy, of BAM; and Jacob, of Flannery Plant Hire (both 19), for example, were overseeing the Boston Dynamics robot dogs and digger demo units respectively.
These tech references are important because lifting is at the sharp end of some of the most advanced systems used by any industry, anywhere. In addition to approximately 1,500 assets we’ve delivered to CTLR, we also lead periodic Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER) inspections. Our offering is all supported by Motion Software’s radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, which is changing the way such projects are operated.
It’s a huge selling point for our industry that it is pushing technological boundaries all the time. And it isn’t only bridge projects that utilise it. I’ve blogged before about our long-term involvement with the Thames Tideway Tunnel, which is another enormous undertaking that wouldn’t have got much beyond ground-breaking without lifting gear. HS2 and Hinkley Point C are just two other examples.
All such mega-sites give lifting an opportunity to use toolbox talks, expos, and open days, to transcend an industry and serve as a platform from which to share educational messages. I remember using a super sewer site in London to demonstrate the effect of using slings at angles of various degrees from the vertical, recording the increased loads on load cells. People were aghast.
All such outreach is vitally important, whether the local community or fellow tradespeople are the target audience of the day.
Upholding values
A pillar of our #GLAD2024 messaging is that lifting is very different to tool hire.
Using this equipment, on a bridge, tunnel, tower, or vessel, can go disastrously wrong. Just because some lifting products are sold at online stores alongside hardhats and hammers, nobody should be sourcing, supplying, inspecting, or using our equipment unless they are competent and trained to the highest standards. I would go so far as to say that the tool hire trade is devaluing our industry — and we need to defend it.
We’re staging a managers’ meeting on 18 July to coincide with #GLAD2024, and this will be among topics of conversation. The day will also serve as another reminder as to the importance of people to the future of lifting. We’re all taking a step closer to retirement every day and we need to share our knowledge with those at earlier points of their careers.
We’ve got to be multifaceted in our approach; whether someone is picking up their first lever hoist or conducting their 500th LOLER inspection, they have a part to play.
Welcome, Paul
Paul Glover, our new national director of operations, understands the messages of this blog as well as anyone, having been in the industry as long as I have. It was rewarding to be able to finally bring him into our team, adding unrivalled knowledge and a first-class attitude to our ever-growing leadership group. He knows the sector inside out and brings a commercial edge that will be another differentiator as we continue on our growth curve.
‘National director of operations’ is just a title; what it means in real life is that Paul is there to support our managers and keep customers happy. Initially, his focus is on our northerly depots, but he will pivot towards southern areas towards the end of the year.
It’s important that when a business recruits into these roles, that there is a simplicity to the remit. This is necessary so the individual knows what is expected of them, while colleagues and those reporting to them have clarity too. I’ve seen too many flat management and organisational structures where people with long job titles don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing. If they don’t, how can anyone else? Imagine what the whole thing looks like to a customer.
It’s been fun to reconnect more formally with Paul in recent weeks and learn from his experience in running a large organisation and structuring a business. He’ll be an asset as we add more individuals to our team and position our company at the forefront of one of the most dynamic sectors on earth.
Bridge-building continues. Grab a stick.
Steve Hutin
Managing Director
Rope and Sling Specialists Ltd
