Blazing a Trail for Plant Operators

James Baraclough clearly has a lot of ambition to succeed in the heavy plant operating sector, and I was delighted when he recently agreed to be featured on the blog, and to share his views and opinions with us.

As we all know only too well these days, the industry is desperate for new blood, but with much of the mainstream industry media focusing on attracting females to take on roles, there seems to be a lack of focus on attracting young men, or even talking about their successes.

Last year James, aka the_bearded_plant_operator on Instagram, won the prestigious Plant Operative of the Year award at the CPA (Construction Plant-hire Association) Stars of the Future Awards which was hosted at the Heart of England Conference and Events Centre in Fillongley near Coventry.

Talking about his award James said, “When I won the award from the CPA I was absolutely made up as I honestly didn’t think for a moment I’d win.

Whilst proud of my achievements I’m not a big fan of the spotlight as I just want to get on and keep trying to continuously improve my skill set”.

Being a 30 something year old male with a beard, James might think he is an unlikely candidate for some media spotlight, but I was keen to hear about his journey into plant operating.

James takes up his story, “I joined L-Lynch plant hire and haulage via their careers in plant scheme late July 2019 after many years working in the security industry.

A good friend of mine Barry Peck was a customer of Ben Holloway of Lynch and suggested that maybe I call Ben and have a chat about a future with the company - this mainly down to me being very unhappy in my work at this point.

Ben invited me into the depot at Rushden and along with my then future boss Jamie Bell spent an hour talking to me about myself and my background and their expectations of me and mine of them.

We agreed that I would be put forward for the Lynch careers in plant program and that they would be in touch.

It wasn’t a fast process at the time due to arranging the newly designed program etc but in the end Gez Bonner Lynch’s National Training Manager arranged for me to go down to Pat Healys training school at Cleraune Hertingfordbury, for a week of intensive training on ADTs, forward tipping dumpers and tracked dumpers - it was a scorching hot week but I passed all of the courses and was out to work the following week thanks to their excellent training school and it’s teaching abilities.

In late 2020 I was contacted by Tess at Lynch Hemel Hempstead to say I had been put forward for the operator of the year award via the CPA by Lynch, and after various personal statements and a small piece to film it was time to wait and see if I had made the finalists list”.

James continued, “In the meantime in January 2021 I was sent back down to Pat at Cleraune again to complete my 360 and later that year in July I was appointed as a Relief Operator for Lynch - a role I am proud to carry out - predominately covering holiday and sickness as well as short term hires for our plant out for our customer Mick George, although I do get involved in other hire work as well.

In the July I found out I had made it to the finalists of the CPA awards and in September 2021 I was awarded plant operator of the year by the CPA panel of judges - I’m still in disbelief now as the competition was so strong.

My prize was to get a free training course of my choosing at ACOP group in Wales run by Sion Jones and his fantastic team - I chose agricultural tractor as it will help me in my current role - I also opted to pay for some extra training myself and completed my rigid dump truck and roller tickets whilst there”.

Pictured Above: James 2nd from the right at the awards ceremony, with the other finalists.

In between all of this James has completed his wheeled excavator ticket which he self-funded and his crawler/tractor (dozer) ticket which Lynch funded for him.

It certainly turned out to be a hectic and expensive year for James, but after 2020 he was glad to be able to extend his skill set and invest in his future.

Summarising James said, “I am now trying to polish up all of my newly gained skills and become the best I can.

I am eternally grateful of all the backing and support I have received from L-Lynch as a company but also the training team, particularly Chris Kent, Dave Rogers and Gez Bonner as well as the team at the Rushden Depot, particularly the continued support from my Depot Manager Charles Hounslow, National operations manager Darren Walden and Jesse Collins my Line Manager - who whilst being 15 years my junior is one of the best people I’ve had the pleasure of working for across all sectors of my working career.

If anyone is looking to change direction like I did (at 37 years old) I say embrace it and go for it!

The financial benefits are fantastic, I enjoy 99% of the work I do, but I would say you must be prepared to put in the hard work and determination that’s required to succeed, people will help you but they can’t do it for you, you need to get up early, be reliable, work with the customer and give 110% and remember that we were all new once, help and encourage people.

Most importantly remember that blowing out someone else’s candle doesn’t make yours burn brighter - leave the negativity and sarcasm at home when you meet someone new to the job, a few positive words can make a world of difference in the same way that being negative can ruin someone’s confidence too”.

Nicely put James, I for one and the Digger Man Blog as a whole, wish you continued success in your journey in the plant industry, its so refreshing to hear about your journey.