Buoyed by the newly published Statement of Best Practices of General Training and Familiarization for Aerial Work Platform Equipment, the subject of operator training programs is at the forefront of rental industry dialog once again. Not only is operator training and familiarization the responsibility of the rental company that is supplying aerial work platform equipment, but it is also an important and valuable service to provide customers that can both bolster revenue with new business and benefit customer relationships.

According to American Work Platform Training, operator training is still minimal in North America, despite the fact that it is required by American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations. “A training program is a tool that anyone who contemplates delivering training needs to have in place,” says Tony Groat, International Powered Access Federation North American representative and AWPT executive vice president. “That includes instructor training and operator training.”

The new Best Practices guidance was jointly developed by the American Rental Association, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, the Scaffold Industry Association, the Associated Equipment Distributors and IPAF. Its purpose is to provide general guidance and best practices in training and safe use of aerial work platform equipment and to summarize certain standards and regulations published by ANSI and OSHA.

Despite the fact that there are many programs available to train operators on the safe use of AWP equipment, there continues to be a lack of properly trained operators, according to the Best Practices document, which aims to define the minimum standards for establishing quantitative requirements to be met for the qualification of operators and their trainers. It also recommends the best practices for meeting the minimum requirements of familiarization. Section 8.5.1 of ANSI/SIA A92 standards lists what should be included in operator general training, and Section 8.5.3 of those standards addresses what should be included in familiarization, but neither defines a minimum standard. The Best Practices document was created to fill in the gap.

“It's really good in terms of helping dealers understand their obligations, employers understand their obligations and it lays out, because there's a lot of confusion in the industry about what is operator training and familiarization, that they're two entirely different things, and a lot of times I think operators are familiarized and they confuse that with training,” explains Teresa Kee, director, environmental health and safety for Deerfield, Ill.-based NES Rentals.

“People need to understand that there is a fundamental difference between proper training and familiarization and that both are required,” says Groat. “General training consists of both classroom and hands-on instruction on a category of machines, including safe operating procedures and recognition of potential hazards. Familiarization is information given to a trained operator regarding control functions and safety devices on a specific model prior to operation. I think we want to keep this new Best Practices document out there in front of everybody and just keep raising the bar on this issue.”

For rental businesses that offer AWPs for rent, safe operator training is an obligation — to both employees and customers. Determining how to best provide that training is the first step and one worthy of careful consideration.

“The tasks and administrative activities and responsibilities involved in implementing a program are numerous and very involved,” says Steve Phillips, vice president for health, safety and the environment at Millville, N.J.-based Trico Lift, which recently achieved the milestone of 12 consecutive months without any lost work time or recordable incidents. “It takes a significant commitment and it begins with the conviction that your internal safety programs are top-notch and current. We train up to as many as 1,500 people, mostly operators, in a year. These people are looking for us for safety leadership and expertise and we take that role very seriously.”

Phillips also references the new Best Practices and General Training document and recognizes its value in outlining the difference between general training and familiarization, and the accountabilities for that training.

The training table

Rental businesses have several choices to consider for how to train their employees to effectively educate rental customer operators on the safe use of aerial work platforms. NES Rentals recently announced it would become an AWPT training center in the Chicago market, offering operator training based on the IPAF training program.

“Because we already offer operator training programs from various aerial work platform manufacturers, it was a natural progression for us to add AWPT training to our programming,” says Kee. “Successful completion of the AWPT program leads to the issuance of an internationally recognized Powered Access Licensed registration card.”

A benefit of the AWPT training program as compared to an OEM-provided training program, according to Kee, is that the training is provided by a separate third-party, independent entity that can certify the rental company's instructors to train its employees and customer operators, and provide continuous monitoring. Because the AWPT training center has to pre-register the date, time and location where it will hold training courses, an official from the IPAF training program can show up at any time to monitor that training course.