NEWS HEADLINES

Once again, NCCCO will be hosting a range of activities at the International Construction and Utility Equipment Exposition (ICUEE), which this year takes place October 1–3 in Louisville, KY.

It is with the greatness sadness that we report the passing of serving NCCCO Commissioner, Kenneth J. Shinn, Jr.

NCCCO is pleased to announce the following Practical Examiner Accreditation Workshops to be held in Salem, OR:
   • Rigger Level I to be held August 7–8, 2019
   • Rigger Level II to be held August 9–10, 2019
   • Rigger Refresher to be held August 5, 2019
   • Signalperson to be held August 6, 2019
   • Signalperson Refresher to be held August 6, 2019

If you thought it was too soon to start planning for CONEXPO 2020 – think again! The once-every-three-years international exhibition and seminar, North America’s largest, is only 10 months away and that’s close enough to start checking your calendars to carve out some quality time to make plans to attend the event, to be held in the second week of March next year. With 2,800 exhibitors across 2,500,000 square feet and some 150 education sessions, CONEXPO is a “must attend” for serious construction industry professionals.

More than 3,800 high school and middle school students across Michigan attended a remarkable demonstration of construction equipment, May 1–2, that showcased the extraordinary opportunities that crane and rigging, as well as related trades, can offer.

Twenty years almost to the day that OSHA and NCCCO signed their historic agreement officially recognizing CCO certification as an objective assessment of the knowledge and skills of crane operators, representatives from the two agencies sat down again in the very same room at the Department of Labor in Washington D.C. that the Agreement had been signed in.

TNT Crane & Rigging was the host for the 46th Biannual Meeting of the NCCCO Commission held March 29 in Houston, TX, with Crane Inspection & Certification Bureau (CICB) providing much appreciated additional hospitality.

Lift and Move USA—the industry-led initiative that NCCCO sponsors along with SC&RA, the SC&R Foundation, and KHL to address the skills gap in the crane and rigging industry—is kicking off the year in high gear. Lift and Move will hold two events in May 2019.

For the third consecutive year, Liebherr Cranes is generously providing sponsorship of calculators for NCCCO candidates to use on approved written certification exams at paper-pencil test administrations.

International interest in NCCCO certification and NCCCO’s role in effective regulatory change continues to build.

You’ve read the Final Rule, OSHA’s FAQs, and the NCCCO Employers Guides. You’ve watched the SC&RA webinar and reviewed the Employer Evaluation Forms. You’ve even taken a stab at scanning the Preamble. But you still have questions.

If NCCCO’s experience is anything to go by, there are going to be a lot more truck drivers carrying a CCO card on the nation’s highways in coming months—at least those equipped with articulating boom cranes (knucklebooms).

Leaving after 23 years to head up new foundation
Graham Brent will step down as CEO of the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO) effective July 1 to take up leadership of the recently formed NCCCO Foundation.

A statistical review of NCCCO activity in 2018.

The National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO) and the International Association for Foundation Drilling (ADSC) have jointly announced the introduction of a certification program for operators of drill rig equipment.

Eight years after the rule was originally published, and fully 15 years after the Cranes and Derricks Advisory Committee (C-DAC) finished its revision of the crane rule, OSHA’s requirement for construction crane operators to be certified has come into effect. We look at five key elements of the final rule.

Following the publication last week of OSHA’s Final Rule on crane operator qualifications, and the triggering, on November 10, of the requirement for crane operators to be certified nationwide, NCCCO has published three Employer Guides, one each on the training, certification, and evaluation requirements covered by the Rule.

Violations of a certification body’s policies, including the code of ethics and substance abuse policy, can threaten the trustworthiness of a certification program and erode its integrity. NCCCO has always taken such matters very seriously and in line with its policy of continuing improvement, has announced two major enhancements to its program integrity tools.