September 28, 2016—The Pennsylvania State Board of Crane Operators (the “Board”) has announced that certificants applying for a license in Pennsylvania to operate telescopic boom mobile cranes with fixed or rotating controls must take them on “an ASME B30.5 crane.” The ruling applies to applicants taking their practical exams on or after January 1, 2017.
In particular, the Board has announced that: “Practical exams for the telescopic boom with fixed and/or rotating control station specialties that are done on machines such as: digger derricks, bucket trucks, articulating boom cranes, vehicle mounted aerial lifts, or any other type of machine that has a load line and hook but is not an ASME B30.5 mobile crane cannot be accepted by the Board for our fixed control station telescopic or rotating control station telescopic crane license.
By way of background, the Board has explained that it will not grant a specialty license to operate a crane unless the applicant’s certification is based upon successfully completing a practical examination on a crane of that same specialty type. Furthermore, applicants for a Pennsylvania license may not complete their practical examination on equipment that is not classified as a “crane” under Pennsylvania law, which defines the term “crane” to exclude any “crane or drag line used in coal mining operations, forklift, digger derrick truck, aircraft, bucket truck, vehicle or machine not having a power-operated winch, tow truck or wrecking crane used for towing or vehicle recovery, locomotive crane, load line or crane used in longshore or other intermodal operations or a crane used in manufacturing applications.” 63 P.S. § 2400.102; 49 Pa. Code § 6.2.
Under the circumstances, CCO candidates who may be seeking a Pennsylvania state license should ensure that, for any practical exams taken on or after January 1, 2017, the cranes used for testing meet the definition of a mobile crane as defined by the B30.5 mobile crane standard and Pennsylvania law.
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