Heard a site safety guy say load charts are just 'suggestions' today

I was sitting in the break trailer at a job in Newark last Tuesday and this safety coordinator from the main company was talking to some of the newer guys. He said something like 'load charts are more like guidelines, you gotta feel it out.' I nearly spit out my coffee. I mean, I get that experience matters and you learn the feel of your machine over time, but saying that to green operators feels like asking for trouble. Has anyone else run into supervisors or safety guys that downplay the charts like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

gibson.mark1mo ago

What kind of person tells new guys load charts are just suggestions? A buddy of mine runs a Grove RT in Philly and he had a safety guy try that same garbage. One afternoon they set up to lift a concrete panel, chart said 12,000 pounds max at that radius, but the safety guy insisted it could handle 14 easy since it “felt light.” My buddy told him no, so the guy went over his head to the foreman. Foreman backed my buddy up thank god, but that safety guy kept pushing it on other crews until someone finally reported him to corporate. I heard he got canned a month later for ignoring a different chart on a tandem pick. Load charts are the law, not a menu you can pick from.

spencer_hayes711mo ago

Damn that's straight up crazy. A safety guy of all people telling you to ignore the chart is wild. That's literally the one person who should be the most strict about it. Feels like he was just making stuff up based on how he felt which is insane for someone in that role. Glad corporate finally got wind of it before someone got crushed or worse.