Hi there, Any advice out there? 1/Apart from Reg 9 - Puwer, MHSAW reg 13 and HASAWA section 2 is anyone aware of any specific 'guidance' on the operation of OHCs in regard to provision of training by an accredited body? 2/Does anyone have a PPT / TBT on Safe Operation of OHCs they would be willing to share? We have 60 employees that may from time to time need to operate an 5tonne Overhead Crane. There has recently been an incident where some equipment has been damaged. Luckily no person was injured. No formal training (certified by external provider) has been given, however there is a SSOW which should be followed at all times. This did not happen and the incident occurred as a result. Do you think it reasonable to simply refresh everyone of the requirements of the SSOW via a firm TBT or pay £££££ for an external trainer to come along for 4 hrs and give everyone a certificate? The SSOW is based on the manufacturers safety and RA and does appear to be 'suitable and sufficient' - rather the communication of safety has not been effective. Any views on internal vs external training? Cheers G

Don't foget LOLER to your list. PM 55 used to be the relevant guidance note for OHTC's. If I'd known they were gonna bin it I would have kept a copy!

Garfield, My veiw would be to establish through questioning & observations operators understanding of the SSOW in use of the equipment, If you think that all require refresher training in the use of the equipment then crack on either external or internal if you have the resource. If this incident is through behavioural or cultural then you need to address this seperately buy establishing if this is minority or majority eg common practice,then work with all to understand why ! & Get the managers to manage & challange poor practice.

Don't go far without checking out BS7121. It's in umpteen parts but part 7 on OTCs hasn't seen the light of day so the old 5744:1979 (yes, 1979!) is still relevant although obsolescent. It has been under revision for years. Although at first sight obscure, these are the standards the HSE would use so you need to be comfortable that you tick all their boxes. I think you are exposed at present and I don't think a quick toolbox talk would be enough. There's a lot to slinging/crane operation unless you have a very limited range of loads and as a default I would be starting from the point that all users without exception have proper training that can be traced back to a known syllabus (a few training organisations now work to an accreditation of the Lifting Engineers trade body LEEA). You have the flexibility of specifying your needs much more than with FLTs as there's no equivalent accreditation so I'd start off establishing your needs then talking to some training organisations. Jim