What is the future in the trade?

[reppy007]

That really is a hard Question,its a good question.I hope this doesnt seem to be off the wall,but this can happen....I say could because if anybody told me that a bucksqueeze would be law of the land back in 1983,it would have been unthinkable,laughable....but this is what I think can happen.....Osha or anyone else with pull can enforce a law that states that when you have a wire down,you will need to notify dispatchers/controllers or whomever before getting on the wire itself....they will want to know if it has been grounded...then give their approval.Its not a visual type of rule,but a verbal...like a switching order,like a clearance in a way.....personally I can see that happening,do I want to see it happen.......no...but something will happen,you can bet on that.

[thrasher]

Believe it or not there have been several off the wall proposals from OSHA killed during the preliminary stages because by law they have to be reviewed by a group known as the Small business Council. If the SBC shows that a proposed regulation adversly affects a Small business more than a large business OSHA is supposed to come up with alternatives or drop the regulation. One of the facts about Small utilities; primarily Munis and Cooperatives is that many of us do not have 24 hour dispatchers. In fact in the case of my Coop after hours is handled by a service in another state. We have on-call linemen and an on-call Duty Supervisor but minor trouble is handled by the journeyman. If there is major trouble that needs more than one crew to handle then the Duty Supervisor reopens the office. This is common and therefore OSHA has been stymied on some of their ideas about paperwork. Danger-Hold tags and Non-reclose tags for example are not required to be logged by anyone other than the lineman installing and removing the tag. In the prelimanry documents OSHA had a log run by the central dispatcher as part of the requirement. The SBC killed that.
There have been other items killed over the years by the SBC. Also sometimes the industry can challenge the rules if they should have been reviewed by the SBC and were not, like the Crane rule.

[lewy]

That really is a hard Question,its a good question.I hope this doesnt seem to be off the wall,but this can happen....I say could because if anybody told me that a bucksqueeze would be law of the land back in 1983,it would have been unthinkable,laughable....but this is what I think can happen.....Osha or anyone else with pull can enforce a law that states that when you have a wire down,you will need to notify dispatchers/controllers or whomever before getting on the wire itself....they will want to know if it has been grounded...then give their approval.Its not a visual type of rule,but a verbal...like a switching order,like a clearance in a way.....personally I can see that happening,do I want to see it happen.......no...but something will happen,you can bet on that.

I started in 1989 & they brought in fall restraint for us around 1991. As far as your scenario about the wire down that is the way we have to work it now.

[bones]

Just hope I retire before robots take over.

[UGL]

That really is a hard Question,its a good question.I hope this doesnt seem to be off the wall,but this can happen....I say could because if anybody told me that a bucksqueeze would be law of the land back in 1983,it would have been unthinkable,laughable....but this is what I think can happen.....Osha or anyone else with pull can enforce a law that states that when you have a wire down,you will need to notify dispatchers/controllers or whomever before getting on the wire itself....they will want to know if it has been grounded...then give their approval.Its not a visual type of rule,but a verbal...like a switching order,like a clearance in a way.....personally I can see that happening,do I want to see it happen.......no...but something will happen,you can bet on that.

this is how its worked here.

[reppy007]

So UGL,your saying that a system dispatcher/controller is notified and actully ask you guys if a wire is grounded before you can work on it...its not a bad idea if it will save some lives.Here its the linemans baby,jsut tell them what you found and and what you picked up,and that the service is back on.

[bren guzzi]

Just hope I retire before robots take over.

Too late.. We've a few in charge over the pond...
They plan routes with google maps. Never leave the office. And don't understand ( does not compute ) problems out in the field... ( coz they ain't never been out in the real world..)

College kids planning line work .. For lines MEN... " illogical captain "

[Orgnizdlbr]

Too late.. We've a few in charge over the pond...
They plan routes with google maps. Never leave the office. And don't understand ( does not compute ) problems out in the field... ( coz they ain't never been out in the real world..)

College kids planning line work .. For lines MEN... " illogical captain "

Even worse here Bren, many first line supervisors here with no field experience. They ask the stupid questions like why it took so long or why isn't it done. Always on the job, then when the sh!t hits the fan they're no where to be found. 40 years in this trade and being second guessed by a youngster who never touched a hot wire in their lives. And it's getting worse.....

[T-Man]

Too late.. We've a few in charge over the pond...
They plan routes with google maps. Never leave the office. And don't understand ( does not compute ) problems out in the field... ( coz they ain't never been out in the real world..)

College kids planning line work .. For lines MEN... " illogical captain "

What those college "Ties" sitting the office never will learn is, if a lineman could do this job from a desk. . . . .we would have already figured out how to do it. . . . . .They aint all that smart, they just want to look that way. Good thing pencils are still around to be pushed.

[bren guzzi]

Even worse here Bren, many first line supervisors here with no field experience. They ask the stupid questions like why it took so long or why isn't it done. Always on the job, then when the sh!t hits the fan they're no where to be found. 40 years in this trade and being second guessed by a youngster who never touched a hot wire in their lives. And it's getting worse.....

It looked easy on paper... ( knob head )

Trouble is , " AIN'T NEVER BUILT A LINE ON PAPER YET "

Time to put your pencil down and get your shiney shoes off... Get your boots on and come an have a look.. Dumb @ss.