OSHA has announced a final rule aimed at clarifying requirements for crane requirements.
The rule maintains the employer’s duty to ensure that crane operators can safely operate the equipment and maintains safety and health protections for workers while reducing compliance burdens.
Companies are required to train operators as needed to perform assigned crane activities, evaluate them and document successful completion of the evaluations.
Employers who have evaluated operators prior to Dec. 9, 2018, will not have to conduct those evaluations again, but will only have to document when those evaluations were completed.
The rule also requires crane operators to be certified or licensed, and receive ongoing training as necessary to operate new equipment. Operators can be certified based on the crane’s type and capacity, or type only, which ensures that more accredited testing organizations are eligible to meet OSHA’s certification program requirements. The final rule revises a 2010 requirement that crane operator certification must specify the rated lifting capacity of cranes for which the operator is certified. Compliant certifications that were already issued by type and capacity are still acceptable under this final rule.
The final rule, with the exception of the evaluation and documentation requirements, will become effective on Dec. 9, 2018. The evaluation and documentation requirements will become effective on Feb. 7, 2019.
