Dirt Moving Any ideas on how to be reachable when operating your tractor?

[ultrarunner]

Serious question... I know part of the joy of tractor ownership is not being reachable.

I've worked at the local Hospital for 19 years... for the last 15 I'm required to be reachable by pager 24 hours a day/7 days a week.

My official day off is Thursday... but still must be reachable.

Here's the problem and it happened again today just like last year.

I was running my Cat D3 Dozer cleaning up fire trails on my parents property in preparation for the annual fire inspection on June 15th.

Hospital paged me three times and I didn't know it till my 76 year old mother was called and drove to where I was working and hiked down the trail and flagged me down.

Between having no cell coverage in the Canyon (Dead Zone) and wearing Ear Protection and the general noise and vibration of the Dozer... didn't realize I was paged until I turned off the Dozer. I keep the pager on vibrate in my shirt pocket... still missed it with the Tractor running. I've also missed one a couple of years ago running the Kubota... also on my "Day Off"

Boss went ballistic and told me in no uncertain terms that I will have to hire someone to do tractor work if it makes me not reachable... not responding is grounds for termination. Hospital has a 5 minute call-back rule.

By the way, I let everyone know at work yesterday that I would be running my Tractor today and not to page me and I had already been in contact with work earlier in the day on a page... had to hike up to the road and attempt to call out having the signal drop twice.

If jobs were not so hard to get these days... I was ready to call it quits...


My question... How do you stay reachable when operating heavy equipment? How do the operators that run tractors, loaders and such day in and day out stay reachable?

I've many times exactly what's involved with fire suppression work and reducing the fuel load... doesn't help. None of the Doctors or Nurses have any concept of what's entailed when someone is operating heavy equipment in remote locations and how a simple page can easily result in 4 to 6 hours of lost time.

Sorry for my rant... hope there is a suggestion out there.

PS... the emergency turned out to be a small 3 hp auxiliary air compressor on the roof mezzanine that was stuck "On" (Pressure switch Contact Points stuck together) causing the pressure relief valve to pop open... staff thought something was going to blow and was making preparations to cancel surgeries.

 

[kyspartan]

get an arm band and a pager that lights up,or strap it to the dash. that is the only thing i can think of. surly you cant be the only mant man at a hospital.

another reason why i dont trust witch doctors and their staph infection death houses, no common sense.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Your closing story was funny to read since I did not have to live it.

I miss a call digging up a tree last week on the cell phone. I choked down the engine and heard the beeping.

Since you get on call pay it is hard to get around not showing up.

There must be pagers for the deaf.

 

[Cami]

In remote areas they keep in touch with radios and use the phone in the office.

I don't have any suggestions for dealing with your employer but as for staying in contact, what about leaving the pager with your mother and keeping in contact with her by radio? It doesn't help with the 5 minute call-back but it'll save your mother some trouble.

I don't know your situation but from the sounds of it a bossectomy is in order but if a job pays...you're wearing what an old friend calls gold handcuffs.. It sounds like they own you and I hope the pay and perks are worth it.

 

[RickB]

If the pager has a vibrate mode, strap it closer to your body in an area where it WILL be felt. This is not an insurmountable problem if you think about it a little. Chest, upper arm, somewhere. This can be done easily & cheaply.

 

[kennyd]

If you had a new cabbed tractor and dozer you would hear the pager/cellphone:thumbsup:

 

[Skyco]

Maybe construct some sort of apparatus to hold the pager that detects the page and sets off a bright flashing light and loud horn? This might not be trivial to do though to avoid falsing on other noise and of course whatever holds the pager has to be RF transparent so the signal isn't blocked.
I'm sure your hospital must have some electronics techs and hopefully one of them likes to tinker and will help you out.

Of course this device needs to be in front of you on the equipment and easily moveable. I'ver run into the same issue on the tractor as well as running a chainsaw or log splitter....I've had similar issues and as I get older it is harder to hear things in a noisy environment.

PS- I've joked at work for years that phones/pagers need little cattle prod tips that extend after a few rings and poke me in the side to get my attention when I don't hear or feel it "ringing":laughing:

 

[tommu56]

What kind of pager do they provide?
My firehouse pager has a docking station you can buy that can be hooked up via a relay to any thing.

Call the paging company and ask for their suggestions.

Maybe a cell repeater in your truck would extend range for your cell phone.

for my digital pager I put it in a empty coffee can on vibrate and it is louder than the ringer.

tom

 

[patrick_g]

What kind of pager do they provide?
My firehouse pager has a docking station you can buy that can be hooked up via a relay to any thing.

tom

And anything includes de-energizing a fuel control solenoid to shut the engine down, or turning on a siren or a strobe light or rotating amber light (available cheap from Harbor Freight.)

Pat

 

[hunterridgefarm]

I use an ear piece for my phone and radio so I can hear the ring or the voice over the radio. Never used my Bluetooth just the ear piece like on the old transistor radios. Don't know if you can get one for a pager.