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How To Get Certified and Insured as a Rigger?

alskdjfhg

Diamond
Joined
Feb 20, 2013
Location
Houston TX
Looking at an upcoming auction, in the terms an conditions they say "25 ton overhead crane available to insured and certified riggers".

Now it would be a long time before I trust any of my equipment to ever do a rigging job for hire, so that will probably never happen. But being able to act as a rigger for myself when an auction allows it would be very convenient, especially when there is an overhead crane.

So who does rigging insurance and what's the "certification" process?

If I didn't have to take some summer classes, I'd be getting my CDL and crane operators license, which I'd imagine would be handy when acting as a rigger.
 
Unless you plan on earning a living with a CDL, don't get it. If you have a CDL, even if you are driving a car, the more serious traffic charges leveled against CDL holders will apply to you. And if you lose a CDL, there is no procedure to get a class C license until your CDL suspension is completed. As a young driver you may get a ticket that wouldn't be given to someone 30+.

Keep your farm plates and drive them as farm vehicles.

Crane operators license? I don't know of a downside there.
 
Contact your local rigging supplier for classes on rigging. One day basic, weeks for advanced. 25 ton crane would need national cert of which there are a few. NCCO being one of them. Operators can receive one in one week class. Be ready for lots of math on sling angles and such. Beings as you have a poor and helpless I am sure you would benefit from both. I have sent operators with many years experience that could ace the practical but fail the written. 35 years building bridges as a crane operator and I still learn something new every time I do a refresher course.
 
Thanks, I'm aware of the downsides of a CDL.

But even with farm plates you still need the class of license to correspond with the rig, and you have distance regulations. Driving from the farm to the ritchie bros auction on the other side of Houston is almost the max distance for farm plates.

May even get the CDL this summer after all, since I cant take the partial differential equiations class I wanted too.

Already have vehicles with air brakes and its very easy to get over 26,001 lbs even with a pickup. Eventually I want to get a larger dump truck and semi with a lowboy.

Really wanting to know more about getting rigging insurance.
 
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Contact your local rigging supplier for classes on rigging. One day basic, weeks for advanced. 25 ton crane would need national cert of which there are a few. NCCO being one of them. Operators can receive one in one week class. Be ready for lots of math on sling angles and such. Beings as you have a poor and helpless I am sure you would benefit from both. I have sent operators with many years experience that could ace the practical but fail the written. 35 years building bridges as a crane operator and I still learn something new every time I do a refresher course.

Thanks, once my mouth heals up so I can talk, I'll start calling.

The math shouldn't be too hard for me.
 
I have no regrets about getting my CDL it's pretty easy in MI. Take the writing test then the driving test. No schooling needed if you are already familiar with heavy duty trucks or if you want to learn on your own.
 
You just need liability insurance. Sometimes you have to name the place your doing work in on your certificate. It a different story if you want to insure the load on the trailer.
 
You just need liability insurance. Sometimes you have to name the place your doing work in on your certificate. It a different story if you want to insure the load on the trailer.

Yes. I have general liability in the $2 million range. Plenty good enough for rigging at an auction. There's not special "riggers insurance" as far as the auction company is concerned. Now, if you are doing a rigging job and you drop something and your insurance policy says "no coverage for rigging", you're in a bad spot. Make sure the insurance company knows what you want to do.

Getting a CDL is a piece of cake. Ignore the warnings. I've had mine since I was 18 and never had an issue.
 
I found at the auction your better off bringing your own equipment you could be waiting around all day for your turn. And also gives you the opportunity make a few extra dollars from other buyers.
 
Most auction places won't even let you bring your own equipment to load stuff without a certificate of insurance. I know all I've been to won't even let you unload your lift without a COI.

Your 2 million general liability may satisfy the auction company but you may run into problems if you have a claim. It depends on what your policy says.

I wouldn't even consider loading some else's stuff without rigging listed on my policy.
 
I've been at a few auctions where guys figured they would buy a forklift at the auction and then make a few bucks loading equipment for others. Even if they have insurance, the bottom feeder auctioneers won't let you have the keys to the lift you just bought because their pet riggers want to use them to load equipment. I don't know what the kickback scheme is, but every auction company must be completely in bed with a rigging company.
 
Now that I think about it, my lawyer may be able to answer the question about insurance.

m16ty, hoping youd see this as I know this is kinda your thing.

My forklift is a yard forklift, not very conducive to rigging inside a building. Its about 3x the physical size of a similar lift capacity Versa-Lift type forklift.

And my crane is a lattice boom truck crane, if it were any slower and obsolete it would be steam powered. Not really a machine that will ever see use outside my yard.

I've never purchased anything from this auction house, but I know a few guys who have and supposedly they arent too bad to deal with. I've seen them offer free rigging a few times.
 
There is something about wanting to do it yourself (and wanting to prove you can do it) . . . (and not wanting to be told that you can't or shouldn't do it) . . . that seems to bring out the desire to figure out the way to do it that no one has thought of before.

Combine this with the maxim that there is nothing new under the sun and you do stupid stuff like pick a 27,000 lb drill and drive it across public roads using a pickup and lift it with a non-certified, non-inspected crane.

Certainly you can save money and take short cuts if you have a wealth of knowledge and experience and a bit of luck. But don't expect your insurance company or the courts to look kindly on you when your destroy property or kill someone in the process.

My experience is that the people who thrive in the business (or hobby as some businesses seem to be) . . . are the ones who play by the rules, get the proper training, certificates, and insurance and charge accordingly. Having started in a garage, loaded multi-ton electrical cabinets costing close to a million dollars onto a truck with a self loading log truck and all kinds of other things when I was young, I have learned that sometimes (now most of the time) it is just better to pay the rigger, he has a family to feed just like the auctioneer and just like you.
 
Yes, most of the auction outfits have preferred riggers that follow them around. I don't do it, I'm not that hungry.

Yes, some riggers give the auction company a kickback. You go to a auction, the auctioneer takes a percentage from the people having the sale, they charge the buyer as much as 20% in some places, and then they are skimming off the rigging cost. Most auctioneers are nothing short of crooks.

Only time we deal with auctions is if one of our regular customers buys something and hires us to go get it. Even then, I will sometimes hire the auction rigger to do the load out to not have to deal with them letting me in there.
 
Another great reason to pass off the responsibility to a pro rigger is you can sit back and see if the poor bugger fucks up, then you can stroll up and tell him how he should have done it. The fun doesnt have stop there if youre savvy enough to take a camera. With beer in hand and bum on chair upload all the worst pics to PM, and relive the entire drama with others of like mind. :cloud9:
 
Probably 15 or more years ago, I went to a auction of a huge machine shop. They were letting everybody do what they wanted and it was a free for all. Too bad YouTube wasn't around back then because there would have been some great videos.

The worst one was a guy with a old Silent Hoist, about a 20K lift. He was setting a big press brake on a truck and he didn't let the forks all the way down when he pulled out. The forks had quite a bow in them when they got toward the tip and when they slipped out, one of the forks flew off. It went tumbledown back over the forklift and landed on the ground behind the lift. It was so close to hitting the guy in the seat that I had thought it had hit him in the head. He survived unscathed but that was enough for me and I went home.

Another auction I went to was a old stamping plant. They sold a very old stamping press to some scrap guys. It was probably around 100,000 LB and 25' tall. They came back with a whole truck load of old tires and started placing them in front of the press. The curiosity got the best of me so I walked over and asked them what they were doing. They said they were gong to lay the tires out, hook their old wrecker to it, and pull it over onto the tires. I left before that happened also.
 
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Another great reason to pass off the responsibility to a pro rigger is you can sit back and see if the poor bugger fucks up, then you can stroll up and tell him how he should have done it. The fun doesnt have stop there if youre savvy enough to take a camera. With beer in hand and bum on chair upload all the worst pics to PM, and relive the entire drama with others of like mind. :cloud9:


Another reason to hire a pro rigger; they have all the proper equipment and the knowledge and experience to use it. When they arrive with the new machine and unload it, you marvel at how easy they make it look. I don't know why you defend Brian, he is a screw-up from start to finish. Watching his videos is like watching the Three Stooges all in one.
 








 
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