How to Be a Good Crane Operator

To be a good crane operator, three key attributes are needed: safety consciousness, great listening skills, and efficiency.

Safe

This is the most important one. It’s a safety critical job. Products or parts of buildings can get damaged, the crane could get damaged. But worst of all, people could get injured or killed. Just one movement in the wrong direction could be fatal.

Good at listening

Communication plays a major part in lifting operations. Especially when crane drivers take instructions and directions. Listening properly is a fundamental part of that communication.

Efficient

By efficient, I mean things like:

Driving at a steady pace. Not too slow, but definitely not fast.
Using all the necessary motions at the same time.
Minimising the crane swing to make life easier for the slingers, as well as saving time.
Going to the exact places that you’ve been instructed.
Reading people’s minds. Knowing what they want you to do before they tell you.

All these things save time and make life easier for all involved. You can be fast at driving cranes without driving fast. It’s like footballers being able to read the game well. They don’t have to run around like lunatics. A good footballer gets in the right places at the right times.

There are many more attributes needed to be a good crane driver. So, let’s get into it.

Here’s what you’ll find in this article.

The first few sections aren’t about actual crane driving. They’re about human traits. How we can be as humans.

Listening

The skill of listening is the one most important qualities to have if you want to be a good crane driver.

Lifting operations require great teamwork. To carry out these operations, the lifting teams use huge amounts of communication. If guidelines and instructions aren’t followed correctly, the consequences could be fatal.

But listening isn’t just about reacting to instructions. You’re not really communicating properly if you don’t listen properly.

Do you ever really listen?

Hearing and listing are not the same. Hearing is merely receiving sounds through your ears. Listening requires focus. It means paying attention to not only words that are said, but how they’re said. A speaker’s interpretation of what they mean when they give information can be polar opposite to the next person.

If you’d like to know more about why listening as a crane driver is so important, and how to listen, check this article out.

Rapport

Having a healthy relationship with your colleagues makes for a more relaxed work life. With regards to actual crane operations, it puts the slingers at ease, which calms their demeanour. This, in turn will calm you as a driver.

It also makes for easier communication. Colleagues will more readily give you information that you need if you have a good rapport with them.

Rapport helps to build trust. Colleagues put their trust in you. When you make a decision, they’re likely to respect that decision and listen to it. Even if the decision isn’t in their favour.

It also helps to get away with stuff. This is a cheeky one. Like I said before, everyone makes mistakes. If you get on well with people, they’re more likely to give you a pass when you do mess up.

At the end of the day, the hours in the lifting industry can be long and stressful. Why not make the time go quickly and pleasantly by getting along with each other nicely and having a laugh?

I touch more on this subject in my People Skills blog.

Stress

Don’t let the job get to you. It’s just a job, right? Yes, there could be long hours. Yes, you might have to work weekends. Yes, you probably work with a bunch of dickheads. But it could be a lot worse.

Stress does horrible things to a person. It can affect sleep, affect relationships, cause you to drink too much, raise blood pressure, affect judgement. All these things can be detrimental to how you do your job.

So, try not to argue with people too much. Of course, there will be differences of opinions, but pick your fights. This includes arguments with site personnel, but also relates to arguments with friends, family, or partners, over text or phone calls.

Not only can it affect your decision making, it can also make you drive the crane aggressively. Just like when we’ve got the hump in the car. We think we’re Lewis Hamilton, don’t we? Nobody wants that.

Check out this blog post that talks about how you can deal with stress and burnout.

We’ve now covered character and personal attributes. Let’s talk about actual crane driving procedures.

Safety

This is the number one priority in lifting operations. Everything should be done the safest way possible. Whether it’s in decision making, judgement calls, or the way the crane is driven. There are lots of ways to maintain safety. Many of which get covered in this article.

Lift Plan

This ties in with the previous section. When starting on a new site, lifting personnel have to sign up to a Lift Plan. This document states how things should be lifted, by what accessories, in what conditions.

It’s to ensure the safest methods of work. Although most Lift Plans are quite generic from site to site, crane drivers should study the information each time, so they can be familiar with each site’s regulations.

Crane swings

Do you ever have dreams about your work? Well, if you ever dream about crane driving, you’ll be trying to catch a crane swing. The process is constant. It can be a joy if you’re having a good day, but can also be a complete nightmare and give you a major headache.

A good crane driver with pride in their work will continuously try to keep the hook block steady from the moment it flies into the air, all the way to its destination. Even while at its destination and the slinger is slinging or de-slinging the load, the driver will still tidy up any movements of the hook block.

Erratic driving creates bigger swings. Like I mentioned previously, you don’t have to drive fast to drive fast. Driving smart means less time trying to kill the swing. There are ways to minimise crane swings.

You can learn all about catching a crane swing in this article.

Or you can watch these three videos on the subject.

The basic principles of catching crane swings.

Tips on how to minimise crane swings so that there’s less work to do when you have to catch them.

Things to avoid when catching crane swings.

Marker points

Crane drivers often go back to the same place for lifts. This could be repetitive consecutive lifts, like when concreting, or just sporadically throughout the day.

Instead of working hard to line the hook up by sight every time, using marker points is beneficial. This is especially useful when working blind, because you can’t see what you’re trying to line up with.

There are various ways to use marker points.

Remembering the radius and/or degrees

When you do the first lift, check the monitor and remember what the radius reading is.

Some cranes also show the degrees that the crane is positioned at. This is more useful to remember on blind lifts, but I also use it if I can see when concreting, because it gets the concrete skip exactly on the slingers mark without them having to make adjustments.

Degrees reading on the screen of an anti-collision system.

Lining the hook or ropes up with a landmark or reference point

Instead of using the degrees, when the hook is above the first load, line it and the ropes up with something.

A good option is to line up with tower cranes or buildings because you can use them to make sure the ropes are completely vertical. This also helps to minimise swings.

Crane ropes being lined up with landmarks for a marker point, so the crane driver knows where to position the crane when returning.

Use the hook camera

Most cranes these days have cameras either on the hook block or on the end of the jib. They give live footage to a screen in the crane cab and also records for site offices or crane hire companies.

These are useful to record any incidents, but crane drivers can also use the live footage to make sure slingers are slinging loads properly, as well as lining the hook up with the target. This is especially useful on blind lifts.

When not on blind lifts, it’s not vital for crane drivers to look at the hook cams, but they’re there, so why not?

A lot of crane drivers say they don’t look at the camera screens. Well, guess what? They’re lying. And if they’re not lying, what’s wrong with occasionally glancing at the screen to give yourself an advantage?

Perception can be quite difficult to gauge if the hook is level with the cab. Especially when far out on the radius.

Know your weights

It’s important for crane drivers to know:

The crane’s weight readings without a load on.
The weight of heavy loads before lifting them.

The crane’s weight readings without a load on.

Crane RCI screens show how much weight the crane holds at all times. When a crane doesn’t have a load on, the screen’s reading shows what the hook block and ropes weigh. So, when lifting a load, this figure should get subtracted from the gross weight to determine how much the load weighs (the net weight).

The weight of heavy loads before lifting them.

Knowing the weight of heavy loads before lifting them is useful:

To be sure the load is below the crane’s lifting capacity.
To be sure the lifting accessories are sufficient.
To know the surface where the load is to be landed is sufficient.
To know if any containers the load is going in are sufficient.
To compensate for jib deflection.

To be sure the load is below the crane’s lifting capacity.

A crane’s lifting capacity varies depending on the manufacturer, size, and radius it’s working at. If a crane driver is about to lift a heavy load, they should predetermine the weight and what radius it is going to. They won’t want to get it into the air, only to head to the destination and not be able to get there because of the crane’s limits.

Similarly, the driver needs to predetermine if they can actually lift the load in the first place.

Exceeding the crane’s lifting capacity can put it under unnecessary stress. But the worst-case scenario is that the jib could break, or the crane could tip over.

To be sure the lifting accessories are sufficient.

Just like cranes having specific lifting capacities, lifting accessories do too. These could be chains, slings, shackles, spreader beams, etc. Anything that gets used to lift loads. The lifting team’s responsibility is to make sure the weight of the load doesn’t exceed the accessory’s capacity. The last thing you want is the accessory breaking mid-air and the load falling out of the sky.

To know the surface where the load is to be landed is sufficient.

It stands to reason that soft, squidgy surfaces aren’t suitable for landing heavy loads on. But even hard surfaces have their limits. Some surfaces have pre-stated limits of what weight can be put on them per square metre.

This could be things like a floor being decked out for concrete, a freshly concreted slab, or a canti-deck that has specified SWL limits.

Canti-Deck platform on side of building.

To know if any containers the load is going in are sufficient.

Sometimes, loads get lifted to their destinations in containers. Like everything else, these containers have specific limits of what weight they can carry (SWL). They could be anything like cages, stillages, skips, etc. It’s important for the lifting team to make sure the load weight doesn’t exceed what the container can carry.

To compensate for jib deflection.

Sometimes, lifting heavy loads causes jib deflection. The deflection causes the radius to increase. If the deflection isn’t compensated for, the load will swing outwards as soon as it leaves the ground.

Dealing with jib deflection

When lifting

Crane drivers should prevent heavy loads from swing out when lifting. They can do this a couple of ways.

Start with the hook block at a slightly shorter radius than what the load is. When full weight gets taken, the deflection forces the block closer to the centre of the load.
Start with the hook block plum with the centre of the load. As the weight increases when lifting, jib up or trolley in (depending on a luffing crane or saddle jib) to maintain that radius until the full weight gets taken. This is the better method of the two.

When landing

The opposite action to lifting heavy loads should be done when landing them, otherwise the hook block will swing inwards once the full weight is gone. Keeping the exact radius isn’t overly important. The idea is to minimise the swing.

Keep an eye on the height readings

When hoisting down

A slinger should always notify the driver of roughly what height the hook is at. But they don’t always.

When lifting from ground level, height perception can sometimes be difficult to judge. Particularly for tower crane drivers. So, when hoisting down at full speed, they should watch their height readings, so that they can slow down when approaching the target.

Crane RCI monitor highlighting the height reading.

Slingers make drivers aware of this in a few ways. Some don’t inform of the height, then just say ‘Stop’ at the end. This is no good, because some cranes have large overruns (when the hoist keeps going for a while after the driver has stopped hoisting down). Some will continue to run for another 5 metres.

Other slingers will tell the driver what speed/gear to hoist in. This is okay if they know the speeds and how fast they are. The problem is cranes vary. Not all gears on each crane have the same speed as each other, so this method isn’t always accurate.

Then there are slingers who inform the driver, in stages, how many metres are left, which allows the driver to judge which speed to hoist in. This is my preferred option. But not all slingers are good at judging their distances. Which is why keeping an eye on the readings is important.

The hoist reading can usually be zeroed at ground level. Some drivers like to zero it with the hook block at the ground. Others like to do it with the end of the chains at the ground. It’s a matter of preference. But it’s important to check whenever going into the crane.

For me, the latter option is better because the chain hooks are closer to where a load will be.

When returning to different levels

When a crane driver has to return to a certain level a few times, if they remember the height reading this first time, they can use that to be sure they have sufficient clearance each time they return.

Overruns

Overruns are when the jib, hoist, or slew actions keep moving after the crane driver has let go of the levers to stop those motions. It prevents shock-loading of the crane. The overrun distance depends on how fast the motion is going. The faster the motion, the longer the overrun.

Crane drivers should slow the motion down when approaching the target to minimise the overrun. An overrun not prepared for could smash the hook or jib into something or someone.

Jib overrun

Here is a useful tip when jibbing down or floating out when close to the ground.

When instructed to stop jibbing, the driver should hoist up a little at the same time as halting the jib.

That way, the overrun gets compensated for, because the hoist keeps the load at the same level as the jib keeps going down. This avoids the load hitting the ground or trapping fingers when doing precision work.

This takes some skill, because the driver needs to have a rough idea of how much the jib overruns at each speed the jib is going, to then know how quick and how much to hoist up.

The same principle applies to when jibbing up, but the opposite action gets done.

End lifts

An end lift is when an object is laying down and gets stood up on end. A column is a good example of an end lift.

Crane laying down a crane tower section.

Do the lift in the easiest direction

If possible, to do so, the crane driver should suggest doing the lift so that the load points away from the crane, with the top end furthest away. This way, the load can get stood up using the jib/trolley, without the need for lots of slewing and hoisting.

If the top of the load is nearest the crane, the driver will have to use the hoist as well as the jib/trolley. The more motions used, the more difficult the lift. On a luffing crane, they would stand the load up having to hoist quicker than jib action, because jibbing down lowers the height of the hook.

Know the length of the load

If the crane driver knows the length of the load during an end lift, they can get a better idea of what radius they need to be at when the load is vertical. This is to prevent the load swinging when leaving the ground.

A good tip is to take a marker point at the bottom end of the load, so that the hook is at that point when the load leaves the ground.

Only respond to your slinger’s instructions

Slingers often give instructions based on live instructions given to them by tradespeople or supervisors. The crane driver will sometimes hear these tradespeople through the radio. They shouldn’t respond to this background noise. They should only respond to the information the slinger gives them.

Similarly, trying to be useful, someone other than the slinger might try to give the driver hand signals while the slinger banks the crane. The only time someone other than the slinger should be listened to is when an emergency stop instruction is given.

Radio communication

Crash radios

Crash radios are used on multi-crane jobs, where the driver from each crane communicates with each other. This is useful for many reasons. The typical use is when a crane is to go near another crane, the driver will let the other driver know they’re approaching.

Some cranes have in-cab screens that show exactly where other cranes are in relation to them, which is good, but this shouldn’t be relied upon. Crash radio communication should always be used first and foremost.

Clear language communication should be used so as not to cause confusion or uncertainty.

Sometimes, site noises or the working radio (used to communicate with the slingers) can prevent the crash radio from being heard. If this is the case, the crane driver should ask the other driver to repeat, or politely ask them to wait while the distraction or task finishes.

Multi-channel radios

Interrupting lifts

On multi-crane jobs, each crane has its own radio channel for communication. Some sites don’t allow slingers to switch between channels, but others do.

If a slinger is banking the crane and someone else comes onto the channel to say something, the crane driver should stop all actions until the interruption has finished, otherwise they might not hear instructions given by the slinger.

Accidental channel switching

One problem with multi-channel radios is that sometimes people accidentally switch to another channel. This can cause problems because a slinger might give instructions to the wrong crane driver without realising.

This is why a crane driver should always be familiar with the voice that is speaking to them. And never carry out an instruction unless they’re sure the slinger is speaking to them.

Windy conditions

One of the most difficult factors to deal with as a crane driver is wind. It can be a major headache for all concerned.

Crane drivers should monitor wind speeds at all times. There are certain items that shouldn’t be lifted at certain winds speeds. The items and speed limits get specified in the lift plan.

The driver should be familiar with each of the specifications. If at any time they’re not sure, they should ask a crane supervisor or AP for clarification.

Sometimes the wind speed can be borderline. This is where careful consideration should be made. But at no point should a driver allow themselves to be pressured into working in windy conditions by slingers, management, or anyone else.

According to the Construction Plant Hire Association (CPA), crane drivers don’t have to work right up to the wind speed limits stated. They are just a guide, so it’s down to driver’s discretion. They also state that management should not override a driver’s decision under any circumstances.

Check out this Operating cranes in windy conditions article.

Conclusion

Whatever our jobs are, when we do them, we could just go through the motions and do the bare minimum, or we could do our jobs to the best of our abilities.

I believe, as humans, we should always be willing to grow, learn, and be the best versions of ourselves. This is paramount when doing a dangerous job like crane driving.

If you follow the tips in this article and any other content that Construction Cogs produces, you’ll be a fair way towards being a good crane driver.

You might already be a good crane driver. You might have been doing it for 35 years and think that there’s nothing anyone can tell you. You know all there is to know. Well. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are at anything, there’s always something to learn. Even if it’s one tiny thing.

The information in this article comes from almost 100 combined years of mine and some of my colleagues’ experience. A lot of it is very basic info to some people. But this website is predominantly designed for the inexperienced, the curious, and the people wanting to get into the industry.

I hope you’ve found it useful. If anyone can think of things to add to it, please let me know.

Get your training here

eady to take the next step in your lifting career? If you need training in any area of lifting operations, start building your experience today and consider enrolling in a course.

Similarly, if you’ve recently done a course and would like to progress to the next card level, book in with one of our assessors, so they can guide you through that qualification journey.

There is a shortage of skilled trades in the construction industry, so it needs operatives like you. This could be your opportunity to make a significant impact while advancing your career.

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