Electricity Today T&D Magazine

Line-construction contractors can do their best to train the management, offer safety training and equipment and trust the foremen who are appointed to a job, but it is an inherently dangerous business. Despite all the safeguards, some new linemen say this is what some foremen tell them about safety procedures: “That’s the way you may have learned it in training, but this is how it’s done on the job...”
Training is designed to keep linemen safe. But is that training and equipment being put to proper use? The answer varies depending on the job and the foreman—more so than the...

Protecting utility workers using mobile technologies

BY TOM OCONNOR, Panasonic Solutions for Business

Nearly every lineman has heard of a colleague who has been injured—or worse—while on the job. Because of the dangers inherent to their job (that is, electrical safety in the field), these brave men and women must take every precaution to get their work completed efficiently and safely. The realities of the economic slowdown add an additional level of complexity—the expectation that workers do more with less.

In an effort to increase their productivity in the field, linemen may be tempted to take shortcuts. A better...