Crane and Tower Operator Operate mechanical boom and cable or tower and cable equipment to lift and move materials, machines, or products in many directions.
Crane and Tower Operator is Also Know as
In different settings, Crane and Tower Operator is titled as
- Crane Operator
- Heavy Equipment Operator
- Machine Operator
- Mobile Crane Operator
- Overhead Crane Operator
- Port Crane Operator
- Scrap Crane Operator
- Winchman
- Woodyard Crane Operator
Education and Training of Crane and Tower Operator
Crane and Tower Operator is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Crane and Tower Operator
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education Required for Crane and Tower Operator
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Degrees Related to Crane and Tower Operator
- Bachelor in Construction/Heavy Equipment/Earthmoving Equipment
- Associate Degree Courses in Construction/Heavy Equipment/Earthmoving Equipment
- Masters Degree Courses in Construction/Heavy Equipment/Earthmoving Equipment
- Bachelor in Mobil Crane Operator/Operation
- Associate Degree Courses in Mobil Crane Operator/Operation
- Masters Degree Courses in Mobil Crane Operator/Operation
Training Required for Crane and Tower Operator
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Crane and Tower Operator in different industries are
- Hoist and Winch Operators
- Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators
- Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanics, Except Engines
- Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining
- Riggers
- Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators
- Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining
- Pile Driver Operators
- Continuous Mining Machine Operators
- Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders
- Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand
- Maintenance Workers, Machinery
- Conveyor Operators and Tenders
- Millwrights
- Industrial Machinery Mechanics
- Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing
- Machine Feeders and Offbearers
- Structural Iron and Steel Workers
- Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers
- Construction Laborers
What Do Crane and Tower Operator do?
- Determine load weights and check them against lifting capacities to prevent overload.
- Move levers, depress foot pedals, or turn dials to operate cranes, cherry pickers, electromagnets, or other moving equipment for lifting, moving, or placing loads.
- Inspect cables or grappling devices for wear and install or replace cables, as needed.
- Clean, lubricate, and maintain mechanisms such as cables, pulleys, or grappling devices, making repairs, as necessary.
- Inspect and adjust crane mechanisms or lifting accessories to prevent malfunctions or damage.
- Direct helpers engaged in placing blocking or outrigging under cranes.
- Load or unload bundles from trucks, or move containers to storage bins, using moving equipment.
- Weigh bundles, using floor scales, and record weights for company records.
- Review daily work or delivery schedules to determine orders, sequences of deliveries, or special loading instructions.
- Direct truck drivers backing vehicles into loading bays and cover, uncover, or secure loads for delivery.
- Inspect bundle packaging for conformance to regulations or customer requirements, and remove and batch packaging tickets.
Qualities of Good Crane and Tower Operator
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Tools Used by Crane and Tower Operator
- Adjustable wrenches
- All-terrain cranes
- Anemometers
- Angle grinders
- Anti-two block devices
- Ball peen hammers
- Barrel clamps
- Bench vises
- Boom angle indicators
- Boom length indicators
- Bridge cranes
- Cab cranes
- Chain falls
- Clamshell buckets
- Claw hammers
- Clips
- Closed-end wrenches
- Comealongs
- Crawler cranes
- Demolition hammers
- Dragline buckets
- Drift pins
- Drop hammers
- Electric impact wrenches
- Excavators
- Fall arrest harnesses
- Floor scales
- Forklifts
- Friction cranes
- Gantry cranes
- Grease guns
- Hook blocks
- Hydraulic jacks
- Hydraulic truck-mounted cranes
- Iron balls
- Jib cranes
- Lifting clamps
- Lifting magnets
- Lifting slings
- Load hooks
- Load monitoring indicators
- Luffing jib cranes
- Measuring tapes
- Monorail cranes
- Needlenose pliers
- Oilcans
- Open end wrenches
- Orange peel buckets
- Overhaul balls
- Oxyacetylene torches
- Paint application sprayers
- Pallet forks
- Phillips head screwdrivers
- Pile drivers
- Pneumatic impact wrenches
- Power drills
- Power washers
- Propane torches
- Protective ear muffs
- Protective ear plugs
- Pry bars
- Punches
- Ratchet sets
- Rated load indicators
- Respirators
- Ringer cranes
- Robertson screwdrivers
- Rough-terrain cranes
- Safety glasses
- Safety goggles
- Shackles
- Sledgehammers
- Slip joint pliers
- Snips
- Spreader beams
- Spud wrenches
- Steam cleaning equipment
- Straight screwdrivers
- Survival suits
- Timber tongs
- Tire pressure gauges
- Tower attachments
- Turnbuckles
- Two way radios
- Vernier calipers
- Wear gauges
- Wedge sockets
- Welding masks
- Wire brushes
- Wire rope cutters
- Wireless touch screen monitors
Technology Skills required for Crane and Tower Operator
- Crane operation control software
- Inventory tracking software
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft Windows