"RoseGarden" - - - - - - - from - nscave

Although the terms are often used interchangeably, there is a big difference between the two. You drive a car, a pickup truck or other light vehicle. The average person out on the road today is a driver. When you see a bus, truck, tractor trailer or snow plow, you are looking at an operator - in most cases.

Having spent 3/4 of my working life time training operators of large vehicles and equipment, I can honestly say I can train almost anyone to drive a truck or bus in about a half hour or so. But to train an individual to 'operate' such a vehicle in a safe comfortable manner, able to navigate all possible hazardous conditions under any circumstances all the time requires hours of training.

So in effect when you see a bus driver, you are really looking at a bus operator, because most bus companies require a lot of training for their operators to become fully qualified. The same holds true for most tractor trailer companies who have strict requirements for their operators.

Sadly part of the problem in areas that are subject to snowfall during winter is that there are too many snow plow drivers. Cost cutting over the years has resulted in getting anyone who wants to do it to plow snow. There are proper techniques for plowing snow that have to be taught to be learned properly to become a snow plow operator. There is a special technique for doing intersections and multi-lane streets. There is even a certain way to do parking lots depending on their layout.

A driver that runs a dump truck all summer doesn't become a snow plow operator in winter just because you stick a blade on the front and allow him/her to go. Very little if any - money is put into training anymore. And to add to the total mixture, even the supervisors in charge often have little knowledge of the basics of snow removal. They have no clue whether the job is being done right or wrong because they don't know how to do it themselves. There was a time when a supervisor had actually done the job prior to becoming a supervisor.

Several years ago I was within hearing range of a meeting of snow plow 'drivers' where a head supervisor was giving winter advice for the upcoming winter season. Every single thing the supervisor advised his workers was wrong.

When the snow removal job is not done correctly it contributes to vehicle collisions by suddenly putting ordinary drivers into situations they didn't expect.

This should not be - but it has become a fact of life.

-=One Day At A Time=-

This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License