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Plant operating has gone to the dogs

Mon 31 Mar 2014

Plant operating has gone to the dogs

As reported previously in Earthmovers Magazine, the average age for plant operators in the UK is now 47 years old. There is no denying the workforce is ageing and it is becoming extremely difficult to attract youngsters into the industry, as more and more are lured into office based work, sat in front of the computers that they have become accustomed too from such an early start. The big problem the industry faces now is who is going to take the place as these older operators retire. One highly respected Chinese animal behaviour therapist, Su Ju Cumin thinks she has the answer and has set up a plant training facility, specifically aimed at training canines to operate machinery. Speaking to the Digger Man Blog via an interpreter Su Ju said, “We were contacted by the leading plant and machinery think tank, World Organisation of Operators Forum (W.O.O.F), to come up with a training scheme, whereby dogs could achieve a basic level of competence to control excavators for the more repetitive type of work like loading trucks, its very early days yet, but we are making good progress with the training. We have had one or two issues so far. Dog’s paws are not good at gripping levers, so we have made up some special bone shaped joysticks which the dogs seem to prefer, the other problem, is just like their human counterparts, if the dogs see a female walking past they do tend to lose concentration, leap out of the cab and wander off for a sniff”! We think it’s plain to see this training is very much a work in progress, but we have been assured that trials are hoped to be completed by April 1st 2015.  

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