That’s a Good Question: On site with Leighton

Ever wondered what’s actually happening when you see one of our crews working out on the network?

For the first in our That’s a Good Question series, we caught up with Leighton on site to answer a few of the questions people ask us about the work our crews do.

Why do crews sometimes look like they’re standing around?

Sometimes we’re waiting for switching — waiting for someone to go around and turn the power on.

Or we could be doing our tailgate meetings, discussing our hazards for the day.

There can be quite a bit happening behind the scenes before the physical work can start.

Why do crews arrive before the power goes off?

We come early so we can do our pre-start checks at the houses, at the meter boards.

It also gives us time to do our tailgate meetings, discuss the hazards for the day and get the switching underway.

Why don’t you always work on live power lines?

Some poles are just not safe to work on live. There might be a lot going on, or there could be damage to the hardware.

If you’re working on it live, something might break — and you don’t want it to blow up in your face.

And not everyone is a live-line lineman.

Why are there so many vehicles at one job?

All the vehicles have different roles to play in our job.

The crane truck is there to pull the pole out, and we’ve got the bucket truck that we work out of.

Then there are the utes for driving around town and doing the switching. You can’t drive a big truck through town to get to all the switching and stuff.

Got a good question?

There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to keep the electricity network running, and plenty of it isn’t obvious from the side of the road.

That’s a Good Question is our chance to answer some of the things people ask us about our network and the work our teams do.