Traffic Control Officer (Stop/Slow sign turning)

[terravista]

Greetings.
I trust we have members with knowledge in this field that can help.
We have an adult family member who is recovering from a broken leg, dislocated ankle and tendons ripped off the bone. No walking for 7 months and gradual improvement since.
She was a college teacher and after not doing that for 12 months is looking at altering her working future and is doing some relief teaching, but needs to add more work at holiday times and quiet times of the school year.
Her interest lays in turning signs, but needs to know what a typical day in the life of a traffic control officer includes, besides being the target of bottles, half eaten pies and obscene verbal abuse. She had enough of that from school kids.
Does anyone know:
Is it standing up all day or is there breaks for meals, snacks and toilet breaks?
Is a typical day based on 8 hour shifts or shorter times?
Do you have to stay in one spot or can you wander around (while maintaining control) a bit to keep circulation flowing?
The pay rates are mentioned in the ads, are they realistic or just a ploy to get suckers in and rip them off?

Thanks
Ian

[GBC]

It will depend on the shift - they are all different depending on the client and the closure. Long term closures you'll see them with chairs and often a shelter. Short term ones can see them very busy.
We hire them a bit which is the extent of my knowledge although I do also have a license, but more for planning closures. They have an award, and they all know their rights. We always look after ours because they tend to keep you alive better if you are nice to them - seriously.

[Bird]

There was a thread on outerliimts years ago on this, and one bloke was earning more than 5 times what I do take home with penalty rates, danger money, other lerks and perks and night shift.. He was involved in a major project in Melbourne CBD..
he said the training back then was a 2 day course... Had me very interested as this was when the Eastlink was happening and Monash widening V104949494 was happening

For the money he was earning, I'd supply the pies for them to throw at me.

I would expect the abuse to depend on where you are and what the project is.. if they are only held up short time, nobody cares (I don't in traffic)... but if its a 5klm delay, expect the works.

[terravista]

[quote

For the money he was earning, I'd supply the pies for them to throw at me.
[/quote]




I would be buying softer pies than the four-n-twenty gristle and grease bombs we used to get watching Richmond in the 70's. Unless they changed the recipe.

[Beepa]

Setting up and taking down signs and cones is the hardest work they do, plenty of getting in and out of vehicles, carrying signs etc. Other than that it seems pretty easy, some of the ones we get fall asleep in their car, others just hang around and won't shut up which is a bit distracting. They are supposed to have breaks often, standing around or sleeping is tough work. They may get allowances on different sites but the ones we get aren't paid that great and they are never guaranteed a full shift.

[xcvator]

After having worked with a lot of them, it's not a job I would take on. Most of them  ( in Vic ) have to work through agencies that have the road works contracts all tied up. Don't believe the "high wages" crap, the agencies charge out at $50/$60 p/h but that's a hell of a lot higher than what they actually pay and then you never know from 1 day to the next whether you're going to be working tomorrow.
If you can score a job with a company the situation might be different, but you'll have long, boring hours, rain, hail or shine, sorry I can't recommend it, some people can do it but I'm buggard if I know how   
Cheers Keith 

[GGV8Cruza]

I am in construction and use them weekly. I am also trained to hold a sign and plan.

They get paid well.for what they do and have good shift perks as well.

I can only do it for an hour or two as then you become very bored and you need to stay on your toes. Standing in the middle of the road these days with a stop go bat is dangerous. I have been clipped. Had to save pedestrians being bowled over and the school mums are the phone texting most dangerous things with 4 wheels.

Not being mean to anyone that does it full time but you need to be happy to stand in one place for hours on end. It takes a special person i find. You get breaks now and then if the site has someone like me or a general labourer to replace them

GG

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[4wd26]

There is always Shit jobs in anything
I did this while supplementing my $$$$ while studying at uni
Working for a labor hire firm was still pretty good$ but then I was working country northern nsw not in the city.  I got good gigs as I paid attention, took safety serious and wasn't drug affected turned up on time and was reliable

Some days in the rain I would wonder what I was doing, but other times when doing up rural dirt roads I could sit on my esky and be lucky to see 6 cars for the day (that was at 8am leaving for work and then returning home at 4pm)

Can suck if having to control the pacific hwy at Christmas time but work is work

Mind you if you have a broken leg I don't know if it would work, either for comfort or actually being able to do the job

[xcvator]

As GGV8Cruza said it can be a dangerous job. 1 girl, 1st day on the site, off set intersection got hit by a woman not looking what she was doing, got thrown about 10 feet, but was very lucky to walk away with only bruises, woman was charged with dangerous driving, didn't help the girl she hit though .
Think about it very hard, even have a practice run in a car park for 4 or 5 hours.
cheers Keith 

[NewieCamper]

Years ago I always said that if you lost your job go and get a traffic controllers ticket. Easy to get into and fairly good money. I have done it a few times as a fill in, not my main job and found that 'holding the bat' can be very boring, but mostly it was ok. Some jobs I've seen are completely boring as you are set to go, but only required every now and then when a truck arrives etc. it's reasonably safe when set up properly but you still need to keep your eyes open and do get the odd nutter that thinks you are personally holding them up for hours.

From memory (it's been a while but I'm still in the roadwork industry) you can't be on the bat for more than 2hrs without a break of around 10min. You also get industry standard smoko, lunch and tea breaks if your shift is long enough.

Recently in NSW it has got harder to get the ticket. Used to be a 1day course and your out there, now you need on road experience before you get your ticket. I've do some training, spend a shift or two on a live site and then get your ticket.

[prodigyrf]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-26/is-this-australias-happiest-traffic-controller/8561238

[Raym]

A number of years ago there was an Ombudsman investigation into the industry. The findings varied from good employers to some very disturbing practice where the 10minute break every 2 hours was not allowed. There were reports of controllers not having anyone on hand to relieve them for toilet breaks nor toilets supplied on site due to the overlap in responsibility for the controllers. The providers of the controllers would just assign the controllers to the job & leave the contractor running the work to provide their needs & the contractor would believe that the provider would look after their needs.

 More than one female reported  soiling their duds as they couldn't just walk away from the position. In addition to this was all the abuse, physical violence etc etc

Hopefully things are a lot better now that the responsibility issue is better legislated.

I know this report is old just some issues to be aware of.

[NewieCamper]

That's pretty bad. At least if you are a traffic controller there are plenty of providers and it should be relatively easy to jump ship if things aren't right and find a good provider.

I remeber when booking TC we always had to order the number of TC's required to run the job and a supervisor. The supervisor is meant to be the relief.

The biggest project I organised required 13 traffic controllers on one setup. I'm pretty sure there were a number of supervisors to cope with that.

[below sea level]

I currently do it. If you do it properly it's harder than it looks, but it's not rocket science. Besides standing in the heat, there's not a lot of physical work but it can be mentally draining if you're on a busy site.

I've answered your questions below based on what happens most often for me, but every answer is dependent on the job site you're on and the client your company is working for.

Is it standing up all day or is there breaks for meals, snacks and toilet breaks?

It's mostly standing up all day. Sitting is frowned upon and in most cases, even more dangerous. You're legally required to have 15 minutes of "other activities" every 2 hours to keep your mind active. This is normally a break, but the reality is that it doesn't always happen. If you're working for a good crew, they'll try to get you off the road while they're having their breaks but it's not always possible - you can't just walk away if half the road is missing.

Is a typical day based on 8 hour shifts or shorter times?

Most people are casual employees on an hourly rate. It depends on how long you're needed for. I usually get 7 - 8 hours, but you get the occasional short day as well as the odd 4 hour minimum. If the company has a couple of good contracts and you're a good controller, you can easily get over 35 hours per week.

Do you have to stay in one spot or can you wander around (while maintaining control) a bit to keep circulation flowing?

On most sites, you're in the same spot all day. I try to keep my legs moving to keep the circulation going.

The pay rates are mentioned in the ads, are they realistic or just a ploy to get suckers in and rip them off?

The pay rates can be up there if you're on a union site, but it's not easy to get on those and they tend to be even more boring. The states all have different awards but you can expect roughly $25 per hour, plus a daily travel allowance.

[Rodt]

All the answers have been given so I will now include a side note.

We struggle to find TC companies to even quote for work on our site (coal mine) as they have told us they wouldn't have enough people that could pass a D&A test  .

If you are a good worker that will show up on time in a fit state I don't reckon it would be that difficult to start getting some good hours. I actually reckon that if I get myself financially sorted to retire early enough I would do this to supplement my income in my tripping around Aus. Would need to spend a month or two in one place to be fair to the companies but would be happy to do that. However if my retirement financial plan works out (winning lotto) I won't waste my time.