Time Is Money, Until Litigation Sends the Bill

I have spent enough time in the field and enough time operating cranes to understand the pressure that comes with the phrase "time is money."

When you pull up to a customer's site, everyone is usually waiting on you. The crew is there. The customer is watching. The schedule is already tight. The job may look simple. Maybe it is just a quick pick, a short move, or something you have done a hundred times before.

That is when the pressure starts.

"Can we just get this done?"

"How long is this going to take?"

"We are only lifting it right over there."



From the outside looking in, it may seem like the crane is the delay. But from the operator's seat, you see things differently. You are looking at the ground. You are looking at access. You are looking at overhead hazards, power lines, swing radius, people walking through the work area, communication issues, the load, the setup area, and whether the site is really ready for the lift.

That is not wasted time. That is the job.

The problem is that too many people look at a Job Safety Analysis, a site walk, or a pre-lift meeting as something that slows production down. I look at it differently. I see it as the part of the job that can save the company from the kind of loss that no one planned for.

By: Joe | Hook Risk Management

The hour or less it takes to slow down, walk the site, talk through the lift, identify the hazards, document the conditions, and make sure everyone understands the plan is nothing compared to the cost of a serious accident, property damage claim, injury, OSHA investigation, insurance claim, or lawsuit.

And I can tell you from experience, the most dangerous jobs are not always the big, complex lifts that everyone is watching closely. Sometimes the real exposure is in the job that looks routine.

• The quick HVAC pick.
• The small residential job.
• The short-duration customer site.
• The "easy" lift.
• The one where everyone assumes there is not much to talk about.

Those are the jobs where the process matters the most.

When something goes wrong, nobody cares that the job was supposed to be quick. Nobody cares that the customer was in a hurry. Nobody cares that the crew was trying to save time. After an incident, the questions change fast.

• Was a JSA completed?
• Was the site evaluated?
• Were ground conditions considered?
• Were hazards identified?
• Was there a pre-lift meeting?
• Who was directing the work?
• Was communication clear?
• Did the operator raise concerns?
• What was documented before the lift started?

If the answer to those questions is unclear, the company is already in a bad position.

That is why I believe operators need to be supported when they take the time to do things the right way. An operator should not feel like they are creating a problem by asking questions, walking the site, stopping the job, or telling the customer that something needs to be corrected before the lift can happen.

That is not being difficult.

That is being professional.

A good operator understands that once the crane is set up and the load is in the air, all the shortcuts taken before the lift start showing up. Poor setup, unclear communication, bad ground conditions, people in the work zone, or missing information can turn a simple lift into a serious event very quickly.

The time to catch those issues is before the lift, not after something goes wrong.

The crane industry does not need paperwork just for the sake of paperwork. What it needs are practical jobsite habits that protect the crew, the customer, the company, and the operator. A good JSA and a good pre-lift meeting do not have to be complicated. They just need to be taken seriously.

Slow down.

Look at the site.

Ask the questions.

Document the concerns.

Communicate the plan.

Make sure the job is ready before the crane starts working.

That small investment of time can be the difference between a successful job and a claim that follows the company for years.

I understand the business side. I understand schedules, production, customer pressure, and the need to keep work moving. But I also understand what can happen when people skip the basics because the job looks simple.