My Stump/Soap Box Page

I'm now retired so I guess I can say what I want without fear of losing my job. I wish some of you operators could see what goes on here in Southwest Florida. I have seen some real junky equipment, equipment like I haven't seen since working abroad in countries that couldn't get any better. Some I wouldn't want to be seen on.

Some of the local marine contractors are running cranes with booms patched up with welded pieces of any kind of angle or material readily available. No windows, rusted out cab, rusted, twisted boom, rusty cables, tracks that won't move, leaky hydraulics, boom safety kick-outs removed, instruments all knocked out, and fittings that haven't seen a grease gun in years. There is NO WAY the cranes could ever be brought into close enough compliance to pass inspection. I never worked in a scrap yard, but I've seen some of the machines in scrap iron yards, in years past, that looked better.

Local contractors are begging for operators. I wonder why :-). Low pay and junk equipment is not much of an incentive to get operators or to inspire young men and women to want to learn the trade.

Safety meetings? I saw one impromptu, tailgate meeting conducted in the past year.

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From the UK: "Doyle - that's a great site - written I can tell with passion by someone who knows all about the industry and its poor state (judging by your stump page - why stump by the way?).

Being a native Texan, I've heard the term all of my life. Following is a Texans definition: A stump is where a tree once stood and all that is left after sawing it down is a stump.Years ago when politicians traveled through the country giving speeches, they would find a stump or sometimes a "soap box" to stand on to address the crowd. Itinerant preachers (evangelists) often used a stump or soap box for a place to preach the gospel. Thus the terms, stump or soap box.
--Doyle