Just quietly. We have a problem.
We think we’re doing good. But really, are we?
Today, I had a conversation that felt like daylight robbery. An email landed in our inbox from a long-standing customer group – over twenty years of solid work together, no hiccups, no complaints about competency. Then, out of the blue, it’s “Hands up!” They’re demanding $50,000 annually for what they’re calling “Credentials”.
No discussion, no consultation – just a digital stick-up note saying, “Pay up, or else.”
Let’s break this down. In a recession, $50,000 isn’t pocket change. For us, that’s 666 hours of crane hire at $500 an hour – a number that feels almost poetic in its absurdity. And what’s it for? So this customer can issue a QR Code we scan to prove we’re competent. A QR Code. After a decade of flawless delivery, they want us to pay for a shiny new system to tell them what they already know. They say they’ll pay for the crane hire to cover it. But really, will they? Really?
The cost isn’t just the headline figure. They’ve spelled it out: $15,600 in software fees for 130 people at $120 a head, plus another $34,400 annually for one of our team to babysit this bureaucracy. That’s $50,000 to keep their system ticking over – all for a customer group in only one sector of our work.
Meanwhile, our in-house competency system? It’s been humming along just fine, keeping our people safe and our operations sharp.
We love health and safety. Let me say that again: we love health and safety. We’re proud of our professionals in the field who make a real difference every day – the ones who live it, breathe it and do the hard yards to keep everyone safe.
But this? This isn’t safety. This is safety as perceived at its finest – a desk-bound, box-ticking exercise that drags good people away from the real work. If this customer stepped out of their office and talked to our team, they’d see safety in action. Not safety on a spreadsheet.
Instead, we’re facing competency proliferation. First, it was prequel proliferation – endless hoops to jump through just to get a foot in the door. Now, it’s pay-to-play competency enforced at gunpoint via email.
It’s not about making anyone safer; it’s about solving a perceived problem - when actually talking to the people would have a far greater impact.
We think we’re doing well. We’ve built systems, trained our people, and delivered for this customer group year after year.
But really, are we? Are we just feeding a machine that’s lost sight of what safety actually means? This isn’t progress—it’s robbery dressed up as regulation.
So, here’s my question to you: when did safety stop being about people and start being about payments? Because if this is the future, I’m not sure it’s one we can afford – financially or morally.
I guess we will pay—we have little option. Can we not just stop driving a desk and do real safety?
Lastly, I guess—let me know who else now wants a flash-shiny competency system - we will probably pay you too.
My quiet word,
Scott McLeod
Managing Director, McLeod I will add that People's hearts are in the right place here. But the full ramifications are probably not considered from all perspectives. Ours is the sub-contractor who works with 1,000s of customers annually.
Scott, as a small sub-contractor over quite a few years to your company, I cannot believe that a client company can put you against the wall like this. As observed by me over this time, you and certain other crane companies would have to rank as the most safety conscious participants in the vertical lifting industry that I know of. Maybe in partnership with your trade association, it might be time to demonstrate your "togetherness" and invite the client to come and dunk gingernuts in coffee so that an amiable discussion will result in a win win for all parties. I know that you will have actually thought of that! Regards, Greg.