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NCCCO Foundation Launches New Directory

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The National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators Foundation (NCCCO Foundation; Fairfax, VA) has announced the launch of a web-based directory designed to help employers navigate OSHA’s rules on crane operator qualifications.

According to a statement from the NCCCO Foundation, the Most Similar Certifications Directory is designed to assist employers in selecting the most appropriate operator certification for a particular crane when no specific accredited certification is available. It is the result of the NCCCO’s Foundation’s research and education initiative designed to enhance safety and encourage compliance with federal and state safety rules and regulations, per NCCCO Foundation CEO, Graham Brent.  

“OSHA anticipated this service being needed when it included the provision in the operator qualifications rule that if no accredited testing agency offered a certification for a particular type of crane, an operator would be deemed qualified if he or she had been certified for the type that was most similar to the crane for which a certification was available,” Brent said, “hence the name of the new Directory.”

The Foundation s statement went on to say that OSHA also noted in the preamble to its rule that it did not believe the agency was in the best position to determine the various types of cranes for which certifications should be necessary. That was why NCCCO had stepped up to fill this need by creating the Crane Type Advisory Group (CTAG), a committee of seasoned crane professionals with decades of collective experience with cranes of all types and in a host of industries and applications, Brent said.  

OSHA has also stated it would be “unwise” for the agency to consider a major change to the standard “before the NCCCO Crane Type Advisory Group concluded its work.” CTAG had been formed in 2017 and over the last three years had now refined the process by which these very necessary determinations could be made, Brent said.  

CTAG has met over a dozen times and made determinations about more than 20 specific crane types and/or crane installations in response to requests from employers, training firms, regulators and other industry stakeholders. A full listing of CTAG’s “most similar” determinations can be found by clicking here

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Background to the OSHA Crane Operator Certification Rule and the rationale for the establishment of CTAG can be by clicking here.

And a full listing of the crane subject matter experts who serve on the CTAG committee is available here.

For more information, visit ncccofoundation.org.

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