I am not a person who puts much stock in luck. I believe that in our line of business, it takes the correct tools to do a job correctly – especially since I’ve been the victim of a 4-inch lag to the forehead while trying to use a bell wrench as a hammer. I also believe that how you use those tools is equally important. And finally, I believe that there are times when we need a little help from documents called “best practices.” What exactly is a best practice? It is a set of guidelines, ethics or ideas that represent the most efficient or prudent course of action in a given situation. Es…

With the best of intentions, our industry has not been able to change the persistent statistics of serious injuries and fatalities over the past decade. Even the most brilliant ideas seem to be unable to be translated into a change in work. So, while we continue trying to determine how to slow our serious injury and death rates, we should also gain a better understanding of how to prepare for and respond to serious events when they inevitably occur within our circle of co-workers, family and friends. In addition to being a lineman, I also have experience as a flight paramedic/nurse, plus…

Over the years, I have received many questions asking what it takes to become a journeyman lineworker after being hired as an apprentice. In response, I have prepared the following overview of the skills training I believe needs to be covered. Please note that this is only an overview; some companies will need to deliver training for their specific policies not covered here. Introduction To become a journeyman lineworker, approximately 8,000 hours of combination classroom and field training are required, with all on-the-job training (OJT) to be supervised by qualified electric utility j…

This isn’t the first time – and I suspect it won’t be the last time – that I have addressed the question of what work can be done under the digger derrick exemption found in OSHA’s Cranes and Derricks in Construction standard (29 CFR 1926 Subpart CC). The issue has come up constantly since the matter of the digger derrick exemption was resolved, and just recently I once again received considerable pushback to an answer I provided on the topic for Incident Prevention magazine’s Q&A section. Before we go any further, I want to define some terms I will use in this article for brevity’s …

Q: Why don’t all utilities use rubber gloves with hot sticks? A: One of our supporting consultants sent us this question that he gets all the time. The answer is simple: There is no requirement in any standard to use rubber gloves with hot sticks. Rubber-gloving hot sticks has evolved as a work practice in the last decade. There is nothing wrong with choosing to use rubber gloves with hot sticks, and lineworkers have been known to do so during wet or snowy conditions. But many lineworkers with more than 20 years of experience will tell you that we never used rubber gloves routinely with …

Stop-work authority is crucial in our industry. Understand me when I say this: If people aren’t using stop-work authority, they don’t have that authority even if it’s promoted on a bulletin board somewhere. With that said, I want to propose START (self, task, assess, reduce, thrive) work authority to reduce the number of times you’ll need to stop work. I admit this is a play on words and that what I am proposing is very similar to stop-work authority, but I want to challenge the norm of defining “fitness for duty” as someone being present at the work site and “work planning” as being lim…

Editor’s Note: This month’s Tailgate Topic has timely advice to ensure crews working with unknown subcontractors are kept safe. Remember that OSHA requires those subcontractors to be qualified for the assigned task and that their employer is responsible for their safety. Having subcontractors observe and participate in a line crew’s tailboard is a good way to help them ensure safety without directly supervising their work practices. Most state’s dig laws restrict the use of mechanized equipment within specified tolerance zones of buried utilities. Because of these laws, hydro-excavation …

As EHS professionals, we may scoff at first when a worker asks us, “Seriously, do you really care about what I’m doing?” But this question has a much deeper meaning than you may think. In our day-to-day activities, much of the relationship building and many of the general discussions fall to skill-of-the-craft concepts. This means there is tremendous variability between individuals regarding how they approach and connect with people at a personal level. Many companies have abandoned engagement-based or team-based training due to budget restraints or a perceived lack of value, so there is…