CICA TRAINING
EMBRACING THE CRANE TRAINEE PROGRAM As the industry faces the challenges of an ageing demographic, Coff City Cranes is proactively closing the generational gap. AFTER 15 YEARS OF RUNNING CRANE hire businesses for other people, Phil Makinson and his wife Jenny decided to do things for themselves and established Coffs City Cranes in 1999. The business remains family owned and operated to this day. Operations manager, Emma Makinson, spoke to Cranes and Lifting recently. “I was working in the construction sector, but I also looked after the safety and commercial paperwork for the family business. In 2012, the business was facing further growth opportunities and in 2013, my sister Sandra, returned from working in the Middle East. She took over the running of accounts, human resources and administration and I manage the
allocating, client relations and contract negotiations,” said Makinson. “By 2013, there was opportunity to expand our capabilities even further and we purchased two 20t Frannas, six months later a MAC 28t and six months after that, a 110t Tadano, Dolly and B Double, HIAB rigid. We purchased a second-hand 20t Franna and these were added to the existing fleet which included a Tadano 25t truck crane, 15t Franna, 50t Tadano truck crane, 20t Humma and 80t Grove,” she said. “Today, we work for companies like CPB, Lend Lease and Vision Stream. We work on network tower infrastructure, civil infrastructure, local road works and Pacific Highway upgrade work. There’s also local and general hire work,
Australian Rail Track Corporation work, contracts for the RMS, precast and tilt up panel work and all this happens from Ballina down to Port Macquarie,” she said. For some time, the Makinsons have been aware of the importance of closing the generational gap in both the business and the industry, and they appreciate the value of training younger people in the correct and safe way. “We knew there was a generational gap in the industry and also in our business. We have a number of employees facing retirement and when jobs become available, we have attracted younger people, but they don’t know our industry. In some cases, they have their tickets through working in the mines, but they don’t have general hire or civil Coffs City Cranes trainees – Simon Edwards, Darrin McGilvery, Douglas Collins, Sam Russo.
26 / CAL November 2019
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