Serious question, why do we still argue about hand signals vs radios?

Had a chat with this old timer, Bob, at the union hall in Portland last Friday. He said radios make us lazy and miss too many calls on busy sites. I always thought radios were faster but he showed me three times last week where a hand signal would've saved five minutes of confusion. Has anyone else seen more screw-ups with radios lately?

3 comments

3 Comments

rileyb6129d ago

Honestly, Bob's got a point, I've seen radios cause more mix-ups than they solve lately.

the_holly28d ago

Bob's exactly right. Saw a crew yesterday spend ten minutes yelling into their radios about the wrong crane because they didn't look up first.

the_brian17d ago

Always keep a spotter with a clear view of the drop zone before anyone keys the mic. Had a guy on my last job spend twenty minutes arguing about a load that was sitting three feet from where he thought it was. Now we just point, wait for the nod, and then talk. Cuts out all the back and forth.