The sessions at IWCE show were really great and I did go to many of them but I also moderated this session. I thought it would be good for you to see what is available for your site needs, especially if you are working mission critical operations. This is where the FirstNet system may or may not be up to par. I often wondered if FirstNet thought through their approach. Well, that’s another story, isn’t it?
Bob Selby-Wood, our favorite Australian, is the CEO and Founder of Sentor Control Systems, Inc, USA. He talked about monitoring the site for all the problems that they may see. He has had great success with the City of LA who rely heavily on his system to keep an eye on all problems in real-time. He covered how he would monitor the power before and after the filter because most customers don’t realize that they need to keep an eye on all aspects of their system. This was the one thing that most customers don’t monitor. The reason that is so important, filters won’t let you know if there is an antenna problem. By monitoring the forward and reflected power on both sides of the filter, in and out, you can see what is really happening on the antenna, if reflected rises, then you know you have a problem. If power drops on the outside of the filter, you may have a problems with the filter. You need to know what is really happening in your system.
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Rick Schmidtis the COO of Dantherm, Inc, of South Carolina. They make DC air conditioning units for sites. Rick covered how efficient the DC units can be for more reasons than just efficiency. He pointed out that the savings is really in how the unit can run steady at a lower speed for the compressor and the fans. This method saves so much energy by maintaining a constant speed versus the on-off-on-off scenario that pulls so much energy from normal cooling units. He also mentioned that the biggest mistake that most customers make is they try to cool the entire shelter more than necessary. You see, today’s equipment is hardened and can handle a higher temperature that you may believe. I know that cell site routers can handle more heat now than they could 3 years ago. Why not take advantage of that by saving on cooling costs and only cool what you need, like the cabinet, not the entire shelter. Just some suggestions. By the way, Rick is a really smart guy that has 2 patents, (he knows his stuff!)
John Potocki of PEPRO LLC covered the shelter design. He went over many different hardened sites and showed examples of different sites in extreme environments. They looked pretty wild, especially the Alaska site covered in snow, deep snow! When he was asked what the one over sight most customers make is, the answer was size! He talked about how most customers only look at the racks but they often overlook the filters, which usually are very large, but most customers don’t take that into consideration. This is a problem because a shelter is what it is, you can’t expand it mainly because it is hardened concrete. So what do you do? You plan ahead, look at all the equipment you will put in, and make sure that you plan for growth so you only put in one shelter, not 3 because you were too cheap up front to spring for a growth site. Most locations add equipment, very few remove equipment.
Nam Paik is the VP of Sales for TSi Power Corporation. He was there to speak of UPS systems and battery power. He gave a detailed presentation of how the systems work and what you need to look for when designing the system for appropriate backup power. I asked him what the one mistake most customers make, and he said that they often design systems for the max power needed, not the real world power draw. For example, if a unit is on 110VAC and has a 5A fuse or breaker, then you would know that the worst case power draw is 550 watts. The reality is that if you took an amp meter then you would see that the real draw is 1A. So at 110VAC at 1A the draw is 110W. So why buy a system that is 5 times bigger than you need? This is a common mistake that most people make and it adds unnecessary costs to your system. You may not think it’s a big deal, but 5 time the power means a bigger system and bigger batteries. If you have 100 sites, then it’s a real cost factor. By the way, Nam was nice enough to fill in at the last-minute, thank you Nam!
Site issues are often something that the site design team has to deal with. As you can see if you don’t do it right then you should expect problems from that site that will mean unnecessary site visits and probably outages. All because you didn’t plan properly up front. These are all critical issues, power, cooling, shelter, and monitoring it to know what is going on. Think about it!
You may not know but I will be speaking at IWCE. IWCE asked me back to do 3 sessions. Find out how to register here. (If you want to walk to floor or get a discount, enter the code SPK) Are you a fan of what IWCE? I am because the people in the wireless industry can learn so much. I know that I put a lot of time, effort, and money into going to these events. I put together the presentation, prepare the talk, and hope I can answer all of the questions thrown at me. I really like doing it because I get to meet so many people.
These sessions are put together to not only teach you about wireless technologies and processes, but also to give you a diverse view of the technologies available. When working in wireless you learn there is more than CDMA and LTE, like what the carriers use. (That may include GSM, but I digress.) Public safety relies on real-time communication that trunking systems can provide. They rely on TETRA and P25 to communicate. I think it’s important to realize that Wi-Fi and broadband access is also a common technology that many of us take for granted. These are all examples of wireless technologies that are used daily. If you ask the first responders what they use, they just know that they have a reliable communications system, they may not know if its TETRA or P25, but they know that they rely on their radios for backup and constant communication Whether that radio is their radio on their belt or the cell phone that they use daily, either one is a necessity in today’s world. Eventually they will merge into one, which is what I see.
World’s smallest LTE Network/micro broadband networks for mission-critical coverage: Mohan Tammisetti, CTO & Founder, and Gary Monetti, Associate, Virtualnetcom
Leverage Wi-Fi to Maximize LTE Coverage and Capacity: Wim Brouwer, Nokia
Convergent Management Systems as Enabler of Efficiency for Critical Operations in hybrid networks: Sami Honkaniemi, Managing Director of Mentura Group.
Nam Paik, TSi Power Corporation (Power management, touch on different options battery backup, fuel cell, diesel generator, solar, wind)
I would like to thank the teams at IWCE that make this possible. It is a huge undertaking. They really do a good job. Thank you for adding me to this impressive line up!
I want to go over the Large Wireless Network Deployment process. It is something that takes a long time to plan out and there is so much to consider. We often just see one phase of it, out in the field. The planning and preparation that goes into it can be a meticulous process, especially for the government roll outs. The carriers are better at it because they continuously do it and the entire company is on board with it. The challenges that utilities and governments have to deal with are politics and payback because they build their networks for different reasons, not just to generate income but to save money and lives.
So while I was at IWCE I sat in several sessions that they had. There were so many so I had to focus on a few. I attended FirstNet sessions but in addition I wanted to concentrate on the tower work, DAS, and Small Cell. I sat through a session on deployments that were geared to get the states, cities, and other government entities prepared for a large deployment.
Listen to the podcast for much more detail, there is too much to list here.
For this scenario I am going to present a large deployment. This is a bird’s eye view of the process. Of course many of you are involved in the specifics. I just want you to see the perspective from the end customer’s vantage point.
So in deployment the plan to be more thorough in the planning of the deployment. I see the way that consultants are going to be more and more involved in future deployments. They will be involved in the deployment planning. This is the initial work up front, usually 1 or 2 years before anyone really has a plan. They will be working with the customer to plan out what they will do. This is something that most deployment people get involved in but business development might be listening for something like this. A great example of this, which you can follow, is the FirstNet deployment. They have been planning the system out for years to make sure it is the system that will be working for years. They intend to have a broadband system to support public safety, utilities and other government entities to have access to.
Next will be the RFI, Request for Information. This is where the people doing the deployment will request information about the equipment, hardware, and timelines. I have been involved in many of these and they are very time-consuming because it’s the customer’s vision, but it may not be attainable or it may be unrealistic or it may be too soon to implement, meaning that they equipment is not ready for prime time. There could be several RFIs to clarify the expectation and to make sure all the contractors and OEMs are synced up.
Then will be the actual plan for deployment and then the RFP, Request for Price, or RFQ, request for Quote. These are where the customer will send out the refined system, the goal, the actual system that is set to be built with the expectations of the customer. This is where the larger contractors will respond with an answer for all of this. Then they will put RFQs out to the contractors to do the work or they will build a budget around your past pricing. Trust me, they don’t always have time to complete the RFQ process. This is where the larger contractors need to have good documentation on past projects. They also need to confer with the front line to make sure that pricing does not change.
Then, the evaluation process happens. This is where the customer and maybe their consultants review everything. This is where they need to decide who has the best answer for the best price. I know all of you think the response is solely on price, but if the customer is smart, they balance the responses out. Then the decision to install a system that meets all (or most) of their needs for the best price. This takes time and based on how they structured the RFP is it may be a long process to get to comparing apples to apples.
Then the award! Oh that sweet award. Actually the award may not be until after a long grueling questioning process to determine if the contractor can actually do what they said they could. It matters to make sure that they are all on the same page.
Just because you won the bid doesn’t mean you will get the work, you need to go through the qualification and then you may move ahead. Big jobs are tough, it’s more about the high level up until now. If the qualification took place and there were no objections, then the next step. Qualifications will take some time because you will need to lay out the plan and provide detail on how you will reach the customers expectations in not only the technical aspects like coverage and loading, but also the timeline for deployment and a plan.
Timelines are an issue. Remember that if you plan to build new sites or acquire new sites, that takes time! The structural may take time, but not always, if you have paperwork from a previous structural, which most tower owners should have, then it doesn’t take long at all, unless you need to improve the structural integrity of the tower, then that will have to be done. Remember to be realistic, set expectations, and allow for possible delays. This is a big step though, you start the design and then you do the surveys and build the BOMs. Here is where the site engineering takes place, oh boy!
Now, when all of that is completed, then the deployment or migration or upgrades. Whatever you may be doing in this case. There is always an opportunity for more work after the win. It’s up to you to decide if it’s what you want to do or not.
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Hi, I wanted to share the presentation I gave at IWCE so that you could have an idea of what we talked about out there. The panel we were on was the Tower Safety and Compliance panel. My talk was about the tower climber’s job and safety. The audience was a group of people who would hire or train tower climbers. The take away is to understand what the tower climber does day-to-day, the tools, the training, and that the customer plays a role in safety by vetting the climber, requiring the safety certifications, and by setting budget money aside for safety inspections. I believe that there should be someone to check up on the tower climbers to make sure they are following all the safety procedures. This keeps us all honest.
Enjoy!
Wade from www.wade4wireless.com
As you know, I just got home from the IWCE show in Las Vegas. I wanted to go over some of the FirstNet information I found out there. I am following FirstNet because I think it will be a big boom for the industry when it takes off.
Oh, if you scroll down to the bottom you can see the proper way to inspect your harness from our sponsorwww.towersafety.com.
There are so many moving parts to FirstNet. I mean it is not just building out the network but it is also about how to sustain a public safety network for the long haul. It is about the politics of getting the federal and state governments to work together to create a national public network that is nationwide and 4G and ready to be used in any emergency. Something where all governments and utilities will have access to this network daily and especially during a crisis. All this and politics too. Remember that in government they don’t work together for profit, they work together for the greater good. Now, let’s define the greater good! The states and federal governments probably won’t agree on what the greater good is because it is open to interpretation. I don’t’ want to get into that I just want to give you some feedback from IWCE on FirstNet.
Let’s talk FirstNet. FirstNet is taking a long time but the system is huge and very political. The one thing I got from the sessions I sat in is that communication still seems to be an issue between FirstNet and the states. There was a session that had the state’s point of view and it was very interesting. I sat in on the session called “The State of the States: FirstNet and Public Safety Broadband” and it was people representing the states. There was someone from Texas, Todd Early the TxDPS Deputy Assistant Director, Ohio had Darryl Anderson Major the Ohio MARCS/OHIOSWIC/SIEC Administrator. From New Mexico Jacqueline Miller the Deputy State CIO was supposed to be there but I walked in late and may have missed her. They were all discussing the view from the states. Also there was Richard Reed the FirstNet State Plans Director and Robert LeGrand the founder and CEO of The Digital Decision.
Here is what I got from that session, they plan are still trying to understand how the states will work with FirstNet to deploy and how the system usage will be handled. There are still many questions about opting in and opting out. They are still wondering how the public private partnerships will work. Who will have access to the system and how will they be billed. In other words it seems there are many questions. I am not sure if the states feel well-informed. They have had meetings with FirstNet but they are still working through the high level information.
So what I saw was Ohio FirstNet. Mr. Anderson laid out the plan for Ohio where they will reach out to the counties to talk to each of them. The meeting with FirstNet is scheduled for June 11, 2015, and they hope to get more answers. The thing that he showed us is that each state has a daunting task of working within the state to get the counties and cities to work together to share resources and make this all come together.
Everyone there was looking forward to moving ahead, but with that said they would also like a timeline of when things will happen. They also asked that maybe a weekly update from FirstNet would really help them stay informed. I know that there were technical questions on the system but mostly I got the message that communication between FirstNet and the states still need work. There are technical issues that need to be resolved, but that will be worked out moving forward. Right now they need to start to work on simple things like weekly updates.
What updates? Well, I think they want to know the status of what’s going on. I believe the timeline needs to be laid out. We all hear that they can make the date, but in what order, when will they start the core? When will the RAN be rolled out? What year? Is the funding plan laid out?
Texas has a website where they have some information laid out, http://txlte.com/if you are interested.
There were several FirstNet sessions and they were all pretty full. FirstNet is obviously on everyone’s mind. We have been hearing about it for 3 years and we really look forward to the actual construction of something. For something like this it may take up to 5 years to build once they get going. So let’s think about this, will they start next year? So we may have a system built, if we start in 2016, and then you should have a system built by 2021, in time for the 5G upgrades.
I guess I’m just impatient. All I want to do is deploy, deploy, and deploy!
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Tower Safety! Offering OSHA 10, OSHA 30, Authorized Climber, Competent Climber, Train the Trainer, RF Awareness, and CPR/First Aid.
I just got home from the IWCE show in Las Vegas. I had a good time catching up with many people. The exhibit floor was full of vendors for public safety and utility communications systems. I also saw tower companies and training companies. It was a good show for deployment. There were distributors and tower companies and training companies. There were also manufacturers of equipment for anything to do with backhaul, public safety, and utilities. If you would like to see a list of vendors,click here.
Oh, if you scroll down to the bottom you can see the proper way to inspect your harness fromwww.towersafety.com.
I spent most of my time in the sessions trying to understand more about deployments and FirstNet. There were many tracks and they also had certification classes for anyone who wanted to take them. It was a well-rounded show.
First, let’s talk about me and my session. I was in the Tower Safety and Regulatory compliance session. I talked about what the tower climber does and the safety aspects of it. My key point was to get the customers to realize that they too play a part in safety by putting in the requirements for certification. What I mean, specifically, that in the RFP that they write that they should make sure that they ask for the certifications of all the people on the job. All the tower climbers need to be certified. The customer does play a part in all of this. They should also ask to be shown the safety plan of the tower crew. Everyone should have a written safety plan.
The session I was in was moderated by Sharp Smith of AGL magazine. He did a great job leading the session. Cory Crenshaw talked about “Constructing and Operating in Compliance” where she reviewed the timelines for compliance, planning, and execution of tower construction. Anyone who has done this realizes you don’t just pop it up overnight. If you/re interested go toCrenshaw Communications Consulting website by clicking here.
Then we had a talk from Charles Ryan of Concepts to Operations about T-Mobile versus Roswell, Georgia. It was really about how the FCC has changed the zoning compliance issue in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Local zoning boards need a solid reason to turn you down for building a tower, and when you add to an existing structure you still have to follow the local zoning process but they can’t turn you down if you are on an existing tower and within the compound. There may be more to it than that but you get the idea. It was interesting to hear how much things have changed in favor of the communications companies. For more information on Concepts to Operations click here.
Then Dr Denis Boulais spoke about RF hazards and compliance. Mostly the real problems they have in Australia and the compliance differences between the US and Australia. It seems that they have done extensive study into the effects of RF on the human body and what we should look out for. If you are interested reach out to Denis here,denispatrickboulais@gmail.com to get more information.
Finally there was a presentation from Robert Johnson who spoke about the hazards of RF and what to look for at the tower site and rooftop. He mentioned that experienced tower climbers probably have the Narda monitor and know what to look for. Unfortunately on rooftops the other workers are not prepared, like the Air Conditioner repairman and the window washers, they are not as experienced as anyone working tower sites, so they are at the most risk. Roofers also need to be alert. For more information look for Narda Safety Test solutions. He gave out a FCC website that was also interesting,the FCC Frequency Safety site, click here to see it.
Thank you Tower Safety for being a sponsor! Where the best get better!
Tower Safety! Offering OSHA 10, OSHA 30, Authorized Climber, Competent Climber, Train the Trainer, RF Awareness, and CPR/First Aid.
OK, so I have been looking around and found a few articles that may interest you.
First off, there was a safety climb system failure that resulted in injury. It happened to a Kentucky tower climber that was working in Ohio on a Crown Castle tower. Allstate tower employee Taylor McDonald, 32, was climbing down the tower when he slipped on a step bolt around the 50 foot level and his safety climb did not properly slow him down. People on the scene said the cable grab appeared to be attached properly. OSHA did investigate the site and removed 50’ of the cable grab cable. He is currently in a coma according to Wireless Estimator. Just as a note, I reached out to Crown Castle to see what their safety policies were and I didn’t hear back. I have interviewed people in the industry before this happened and the common response was that Crown Castle doesn’t feel they play a role in climber safety. If you know more than let me know. I was told that they feel it’s not their problem. Can anyone corroborate that statement? Read about the accident here. There will be a law suit and I get the feeling that fingers will point blame both ways.
Did you hear? Wireless Estimator did a report stating that the tower climbing industry is 29,000 strong! Read about it here. If there are 29,000 climbers, it’s a huge industry and should grown even more next year, for those that can handle the work. Do you think seeing these numbers may make a union interested in recruiting these workers and helping train them? I wonder. Could 29,000 climbers agree to unite? Probably not. This is amazing since on that same day I read that tower climbing is one of the worst jobs, link here. There is also an interview about how one guy fell into the job, link here.
OSHA is busy, they handed out a $114,000 fine to Sherwood Tower Service. That is who Thomas Lucas, of Toledo, worked for when he fell from the tower in Stockton, Ca while paining. He had three children. OSHA handed out the hefty fine because companies that have workers at heights are required to provide adequate fall protection. Also, the harness should have been replaced due to visible signs of wear. These are called willful violations because it could have been avoided. Read about it here and here and here and here. To view current OSHA citation go to https://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/SherwoodTowerServices_989451_0206_15.pdf and you can check it out for yourself. Listen, I know most of you don’t appreciate OSHA, but they are trying to make a difference, so support them!
OSHA stand down week is coming up! May 4th to May 15th and the information is on OSHA’s website! They show the tower workers representing the worker’s at height. Inside Towers wrote about it here. What can you do? You can maybe take a day that week and practice rescue, maybe inspect all of your gear and tools and rope. Maybe spend the time working on your CPR and First Aid training. Review your OSHA 10 handbook. Take the time to make progress! Refresh your skills, inspect your gear, show that you care about yourself, your workmates, and your company! If you need more ideas here is the link to the FAQ on what to do! OSHA is trying to help, so accept what they offer and work with it. If it’s not good enough for you, then by all means, make improvements, that’s what you do in the field, right? Adapt, improvise, and overcome, where here is your chance to step up. If you take the 5 minutes it takes to read this, you will learn that it’s not about standing down for a week, it’s about educating yourselves. For some reason last year many of you said that you could not quit work for a week. Education takes time and you need to learn to read and listen. Nuff said!
Anyone going to NATE United? I wish I were but I just could not make it. If you are LBA is giving a RF Safety Awareness class, read about it here. It’s a great reason to go to Lake Buena Vista, Fl, this time of year.
I wanted to let everyone know that I will be at theIWCE conference in March, 2015. I will be on the“Tower Safety and Regulatory Compliance”panel on March 17th, 2015, starting at 1PM local time. It is in Las Vegas at the convention center. Click on any of the BLUEwords for more. There will be an impressive group who I am honored to share the stage with. I will be up there withCory Crenshawof Crenshaw Communications, Charles Ryanof Concept To Operations, Inc,Dr. Denis Boulais of Bytecan Pty Ltd, andRobert Johnsonof Narda Safety Test Solutions. My track will be sponsored byAGL Magazine. If you can make sure you go to see what is happening with today’s wireless communications systems. I feel honored to be selected to be on the panel. So if you can think of anything I should be talking about, then let me know below.
Go to Wade4Wireless products page where I have product links. and an audiobook for the eBook. If it helps, download the free eBook for aSOW Overviewfor more information.The Scope of Work training, SOW training package, I made for you to understand how the SOW will affect your payments and bottom line as well as the customer and safety requirements. The SOW is your key to getting paid and to defining change orders! Because you asked for an audio book I put the Tower Climbing: An Introduction in audio so you can listen while you’re driving or too busy to read! Hey, don’t forget to sign up for my monthly newsletter over there on the top right. > > >
Comment: I appreciate the comment about working on the beacon on top of a mast. Like so many other precarious situations on a tower, a small rail around the mast to stand on and one around the beacon to hook off on is easily designed and manufactured—-unless it is required to support a 5,000# load as OSHA requires. On the drug issue, there are a very high percentage of tower hands that use drugs. There is an even higher percentage that drink excessively, but not on the job. If accurate statistics existed, which they don’t, they would reveal that there are very few fatalities caused by someone being high or drunk. There are more accidents attributed to stupid than intoxicants, and there are a lot of hands that are stupid even when they are sober. I watched the video of you with Kelly Hill and I totally disagree with you on the use of capstans on a tower job. To begin with, you have to use a fiber rope with a capstan, not a wire rope. The statistics will show that there are numerous fatalities caused by ropes breaking, but not wire ropes. Fiber ropes are good for a tag-line or a trolley, but certainly not for hoisting loads up and down a tower. I can cite four accidents where ropes broke that caused the death of twelve people. The accident you referred to where the five men were killed was the 2,000′ Senior Road project in Houston. The men were riding the top half of the FM mast dressed out with the panel FM antenna. I think the load got too close to the tower and hung up which caused the picking channel across the face to fail. The load fell and hit the guy wire causing the whole tower to come down. I was hired as an expert witness by the firm representing Harris is why I am so familiar with this accident. Riding the winch line is safe!!! Much safer than free climbing and every job that requires the hoisting and lowering of antennas and/or mounts should be rigged with a wire rope.
Response: I called this guy and he is amazing. He is a big fan of winches, but only if you use cable versus rope. That is where I got the idea for the blog “Rope Versus Steel Cable for Hoists”. We also talked aboutmy video with Kelly Hill of RCRand he mentioned that the thing he disagreed with was the way I mentioned the safety of the winches. I made it clear that only a larger hoist should be used for man loads and he agreed. Now, as far as the accidents go, he knew so much about many of them. I plan to talk to him more in the future.
Comment: Wade; Scheduling is most definitely a problem, and a serious one. Unless you have been there and suffered in extreme conditions, you cannot fully comprehend the difficulty in working in subfreezing temperatures in a 15 or so mph wind. When you are in the midst of work on one of these days, you cannot help but wonder why this job wasn’t scheduled two months earlier or two months later. And you are not receiving any additional compensation for your suffering, and if you so chose, you could be at home in a warm house with your family—-maybe sort of like the bodily orifice that scheduled this project. When that anger starts building up inside, it doesn’t take much of a reason for a man to suggest to his boss to “just take this job and shove it.” If you don’t have a foreman with great leadership skills to keep this project under control, which means leading, not pushing, this job is going to go bad real quick. And when it stalls, nobody ever thinks of blaming the scheduler, they always blame the contractor and the crew. I learned early in my career the difficulty of working in extreme conditions and I have always made every effort toavoid putting a crew up north in the winter. I have a famous quote that I use when scheduling jobs, it’s “If you’re gonna be stupid, you gotta be tough.” I could write for hours telling stories about winter in the north without informing anyone of anything that they didn’t already know. I don’t really think the professional people who organize and schedule the jobs even care.
Response: Been there and done that, it is a tough job! I would bet that so many people have stories where they didn’t know how much they could take in the weather until they did it.
Comment: Thanks for this article with a high level approach to analyzing costs and benefits of small cell deployment. It raises more questions for me ultimately, and that is a good thing! I appreciate your work and insight, thanks!
Response: Thank you sir!
Comment: #4 small cell = small power demand. Depending on the load, duty cycle and site location an off-grid solar electric system could be the small footprint economical power solution rather than the minimum 100A service expense.
Comment: Enjoyed the article. It is very timely for me. Having serious problems getting paid. Company/worker loyalty in an unbiased format would be a good article also if not already done.
Response: Thank you! It’s a shame that even today people are not getting paid for the work that they do. Why is it that loyalty to the people working so hard can dissipate so quickly?
Comment: Just left a company 2 months ago for lowering my per diem from $600 to $500 per week. And had us on a 40hr. Week salary working 60 – 80 + hrs. A week. And only got home every 2 or so months.
Response: This is often the case when they try to make tower climbers salary. So many times the way companies raise margin is to screw the worker. That is very common in the industry. If it happens to you I would look elsewhere like this guy did, it is only a matter of time until they start making more cuts.
Response: Good point! Solar would be awesome! If the physical footprint would remain small with the batteries I see it as a viable solution.
Comment: Wade, Reminds me of the stories we hear constantly with tower tech’s where they had to finish work started in the early morning and ended after dark. The real part of the story is they had to drive 5 hours before and after the climb! This is plain dangerous! Completion bonuses, etc, etc, are nice to get your sub’s to hustle but would you like to explain to a jury why you had people in dangerous jobs working these hours?
Response: I agree, sometimes the worker put in such long hours and no one cares because they feel the work is more important and the customer may not know what the worker is going through. The workers need representation in the company.
Comment: Very good Mr. Wade, hope we get a Congressman to help us. The situation should be better for a person who chooses to work in this field! Thank you!
Response: I think that the FCC working with DOL should help by creating TIRAP. It is still voluntary but it’s a start. This is a chance for the government to recognize the seriousness of the climbing industry hazards.
Comment: I have been in the industry for 12 years, each year it get worse for tower hands… this industry makes more money than it knows what to do with and what they need to realize is this technology isn’t going to put itself up on any tower, water tank, or roof top without the tower hands that do it… appreciate your employees and treat them better… give better pay, appropriate per diem, and most of all better hours… the majority of tower workers have families, think about that when you go home to yours everyday and you have several crews that only see theirs 8 weeks out the year…… if that…….. so when you get on your cell phone to make your next call think about the guys that sacrifice so much for you to be able to enjoy that luxury and think about what they endure to provide you that luxury
Response: Like I said before, so many companies think that to raise margin they need to cut per diem and employee salaries. It is common. I guess the CFO that is sitting in his office that gets to work from 9 to 5 and go home every night to his family makes the decision that the tower crew who leaves Monday and won’t get home Friday night should skip meals. I guess they forget that physical work as well as engineering might burn a few calories each day. I guess they determined that they can always find more grunts. Good luck with that strategy. I have learned that it pays to take care of your employees, but there are so many people who just stay at a company because it’s a job and they don’t want to leave, no matter how bad the company treats them.
Comment: We have been blessed to be able to work with customers and vendors that have created a loyalty around what we do. We for the first time have really felt the issues of low bidder and the companies that go out of business one day and start again tomorrow. We hope that our customers will determine that it is not a low bid industry and will continue to give us a chance to do work and be profitable. The 3rd party companies and now the equipment providers have created hard times for the small company trying to keep up with increased pricing pressure and hard to find quality staff. They know they can stop us from taking work by buying a competitor and lowering their prices to push us out. Small business can only grow with the help of our customers. We need them to demand companies to have experienced employees and not just how many crews you can come up with. We have to stop the companies and owners which have failed multiple times but keep doing work. We know these are the companies that have made the industry unsafe and less profitable for the hard-working small businesses. Have a safe Thanksgiving.
Response: Thank you and I hope you had a great Thanksgiving as well. This is a great thought, I would like to think this is where the industry is headed, quality over quantity. Some helpful links below.
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