Opinion Pieces

It’s time to start seeking experts again, says Ross Moloney, CEO of the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA). During the lockdowns I resorted to domestic haircuts, in common I suspect with many others. An uneven fringe is a small inconvenience during a period when access to many of the usual services we took for granted […]

People must tear up the script and rethink the plot more often than ever before—and that’s not all bad, says Doug Stitt, president and CEO at The Caldwell Group Inc.   One of my favourite movies is the western, Tombstone. In it, Doc Holliday asks Wyatt Earp, “What did you ever want?” “Just to live […]

More end users of overhead cranes, particularly in the steel sector, are installing emergency brakes – but it’s been a long time coming, says Joel Cox, managing director of sales for Dellner Bubenzer USA.   We recently received an order to fit emergency brakes on two 400USt capacity hot metal ladle cranes at Nucor Corporation’s […]

The new apprenticeship scheme for lifting equipment engineers, now ‘live’ in England, is based firmly around the needs and expectations of the industry and those going into it says, Ross Moloney, CEO of the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA), and chair of the Association, Kat Moss.   The Lifting Equipment Technician apprenticeship will transform the […]

As supply chains continue to bottleneck, the pandemic endures, yet business booms, there really hasn’t been another period like it, says Steve Napieralski, president at Oz Lifting. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch […]

Ross Moloney, CEO of the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA), looks at the ways apprenticeships offer value to the Lifting industry and to the apprentices themselves. Supply chains emerging from the constraints of the pandemic and its lockdowns are struggling to meet rapid escalations in demand, particularly in terms of having sufficient labour. While the […]

How can we stage a long-term, sustained recovery after two lightning strikes? Doug Stitt, president and CEO at The Caldwell Group Inc, went looking for the answers.   Someone once suggested to me, that if we don’t know where we’ve come from, we won’t know where to go. I guess there’s something in that. So, […]

We’re failing to properly train the next generation of crane technicians, even in heavy industrial sectors, warns Joel Cox. I was talking to a mining market manager from one of the world’s major electric overhead travelling (EOT) crane and hoist manufacturers at the recent MINExpo International, which took place 13-15 September in Las Vegas. The […]

Ross Moloney, CEO of the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA), explains how investment in new training channels, technologies and culture will help the lifting industry to continue to defy gravity in safety. Why does LEEA exist? Sometimes it’s the simplest questions that can require the most thought. Having pondered on this one recently, I believe […]

As we continue to innovate as an industry, we can’t forget to present only the right tool for the job at hand, says Steve Napieralski, president at Oz Lifting. The good news is that, as the lifting industry has innovated, supply chain representatives and end users have realised that such ingenuity leads to productivity and […]