Linemen’s Job Evolves With Improvements in Equipment, Training
It is hard to forget that first climb. Even linemen with decades of experience under their belts clearly remember the details of their first trip up a pole.
“It’s one of those things when you get used to it, it’s not too bad,” says Dylan Mobley, who has been a lineman with South Alabama Electric Cooperative for 10 years. “When you get to doing it every day, you get comfortable with yourself and trust in yourself.”
April is Lineman Appreciation Month, and April 18 is National Lineman Appreciation Day. Over the years, the linemen with SAEC have seen changes in their field in the areas of safety, training, equipment and technology. With those changes, linemen have evolved to meet the needs of members.
Even the journey up the pole is different. Foreman Dewayne McGhee joined SAEC 34 years ago, starting out on the ground crew and training to become a lineman. Throughout his career McGhee saw technology advance with service maps now as readily available as a computer tablet. The tools linemen carry around on their trucks also improved over the years, making work more efficient.
“As the times change, everything else changes,” McGhee says.
When you get to doing it every day, you get comfortable with yourself and trust in yourself.” — Dylan Mobley, South Alabama Electric Cooperative lineman
Training For The Times
For example, how linemen are trained today is notably different than in years past. General Foreman Chris Sanders started with SAEC 39 years ago and worked his way up to journey lineman, the highest classification. Sanders says specialized lineman schools have brought a substantial change in the industry. Sanders and McGhee both learned as apprentices while on the job.
“In order to make a journeyman lineman, we had to have somebody retire like a foreman, and then the journeyman lineman was made the foreman,” Sanders says.
The training schools have also better prepared new linemen for what the job will entail, Sanders says. For example, if someone has a problem with heights, it is better to learn that during a training course than on the job.
“The good thing about the lineman school, of course, is they teach them how to climb,” Sanders says.
Mobley attended a 7-week course at Wallace Community College right out of high school. 2 months after he graduated, he got a job with SAEC. He was the youngest member of his crew. The lineman course taught him the basics of electrical line work, but he found there was still a lot to learn on the job.
“I’ll be learning when I retire,” Mobley says. “There’s something to learn every day.”
Today, he finds himself offering support to new linemen as they come out of programs like the one he attended.
“The work we do is different,” Mobley says. “The stuff we do, nobody else does. Yeah, you’re going to scoop dirt and dig holes, but 90% of the work we do, you’re not going to do unless you’re doing line work. You’re not going to experience this until you do it. You’ve got to do it, get started and learn as you go. There’s not another way to learn it.”
Mobley may not have the years of experience older linemen have under their belts, but he still has seen changes in his 10 years. Metering has advanced, tools have become lighter to carry and easier to use and trucks have changed.
Safety First
Sanders says safety gear has also improved tremendously over the course of his 39 years in the industry. Fall-restraint equipment has been 1 of the biggest safety upgrades, he says.
“When we came up, we didn’t have this fall-restraint stuff. Now we have this fall-restraint equipment,” he says. “We would freehand climb. We climbed all the way up and put our safety belt around there.”
Sanders remembers his first climb, but he also remembers the first pole he fell from — straight down to the ground, tearing up his long-sleeved flannel shirt but leaving him uninjured. His foreman then had him climb another pole and carry a handline up with him. He was nervous, and the climb took him close to 30 minutes to complete.
“He made me climb that pole really for nothing, but he made me climb it — it’s like getting thrown off a horse,” Sanders says. “After that, I was fine.”
Linemen wear standard safety equipment like hardhats, eyewear and gloves, and those working with electrical lines wear full insulated sleeves as added protection. Bucket trucks have eliminated some of the climbing, but there are situations, especially during storm events, when climbing a pole is still necessary.
McGhee agrees that compared with when he started, linemen must wear more safety gear now while on the job. “Back then it took 2 to 3 minutes to get your stuff on. Now it takes you 20 minutes to put on the gear,” McGhee says. “Safety has changed a lot since then — a whole lot. It’s a good thing.”
Like Mobley, McGhee says linemen still have much to learn on the job regardless of experience.
“Don’t ever come out here thinking you know everything,” McGhee says. “Like I tell my guys now, if there comes a point in life where I come to work every day and I can’t learn something, that means I don’t need to be here.”