Crane driver

What do a PlayStation and a crane have in common? Lots, according to Peter Saloway. “If you can play a PlayStation you can drive a crane,” jokes Saloway, a crane driver for construction giant, Mirvac.

Saloway has been with Mirvac for 13 years. He started with the company as a labourer, then showed an interest in cranes.

He began his crane experience as a dogman before reaching great heights as a driver. Saloway is quick to explain that a dogman actually has nothing to do with animals. Dogman is the term used for the workers at the bottom of the crane who help to sling the loads and hook up the weights. The dogman also acts as the eyes and ears of the crane driver.

Saloway spent more than four years at the bottom of his monstrous machine, getting to know the ropes as a dogman before becoming a crane driver. He has been driving cranes for the past eight years and loves every minute.

“If you are not scared of heights I think that anyone can do it,” he says.
Saloway is presently working as a crane driver on a site at Milsons Point, where he has only about a 10 per cent scope of vision, so he has to rely almost entirely on the team of dogmen below for directions.
Saloway communicates with his dogmen by two-way radio.

“They give me the directions on where to go with the load when I can’t see,” he says. Saloway says it’s all about working as a team to get the job done safely and efficiently.

“I can’t emphasise enough how much responsibility goes on to them [the dogmen],” he says. Although he spends a lot of time communicating with his crane crew on the ground, Saloway spends most of his time at work on his own.

“You have to be happy with your own company because you are up there all day by yourself,” he says. Saloway says that, unlike his wife who gets dizzy standing on chairs, he isn’t afraid of heights. That is probably a good thing considering he spends most of his working day perched high above the ground. Saloway has worked as a crane driver on various residential and commercial sites across Sydney.

Whether it’s six storeys or 30, he says he isn’t fazed in the slightest.
“It is like going on a boat and getting your sea legs,” he says.

“Once you get used to it it’s fine and you have the benefits of a perfect view. Where I am now I can see to the airport and on a clear day I can see out to the Blue Mountains. It’s great.”

How to be …
a crane driver
You will need to obtain a certificate of competency from WorkCover NSW or ACT WorkCover. Call the Transport and Logistics Industry Skills Council on (03)93204243 or visit http://www.tdtaustralia.com