End of ECB registering electrical contractors

[ians]

I am with sparks on this one, and to add, i would say the ball is full of water so hasnt quite reached the surface yet, to be picked up, lets hope its not so slippery wet when they do pick it up that it doesnt slip away again. The way i see it the DOL must have seen revenue being generated and wanted a piece of the action, Once they have blown the money i am sure they will need a bail out plan and look for someone else to pick up the pieces again or increase the fee.

I still dont understand how this benefits the contractor or the customer. Until all COC are registered and random checks are done on the COCs issued it is an absolute waste of our money. Why i say this i have still not sent in any documentation backing the fact that i am a master electrician, they asked me for it but i have never got around to sending off any documentation,yet i am registered...mmm makes you think.

[Dave A]

Why i say this i have still not sent in any documentation backing the fact that i am a master electrician, they asked me for it but i have never got around to sending off any documentation,yet i am registered...mmm makes you think.

Geez - talk about laying temptation in the path of others...

Mind you, when that hazardous location installation you signed off on blows... not worth it.

[ians]

My point is, if you gona put a camera on the freeway to catch people for speeding, you need to take the film out or have people to follow up and enforce the laws. Otherwise you are just wasting our money.

[Dave A]

Oh I agree absolutely. Regulation without appropriate enforcement only penalises the law abiding citizen - and that is the exact opposite of the fundamental purpose of regulation.

[ians]

Listening to electrical contractors talking, contractors have realised that there is no law enforcemant in the electrical industry and are starting to ask the question, why should they follow a set of rules when nobody else does. It costs money to abide by the rules and register with all the relevant institutions, bodies, etc. So unless you are a big company dealing with big corporate/industrial organisations who have rules in place and engineers who "monitor" work in their factories, the standard of work will continue to deteriate until such time DOL step up to the plate and take on the their responsibility of enforcing the law. Some people would say, as a responsible person you should be responsible and abide by the rules without have someone looking over your shoulder, reality check, money is tight, rules and regulations out the window and then there are the people who know they are not gona get caught so they do electrical work anyway.

How many people would wear seat belts and not text while driving unless they enforce the law and actually do something about it?

I was driving next to a young lady on the N3 yesterday at 120 km/hr, holding her iphone with one hand texting, and driving with the other, we were driving next to her counting the time she looked at the phone and how long she watched the road...2-3 seconds on the phone 1 second on the road, what amazed me was she could still continue to text when were got into the traffic, so clearly women can multi task, until she has an accident and kills herself and anyone else she takes down with her, my point you cant make rules and not enforce them.

[BlueArc]

The reason for the delay in registering was that I was a new company registering for the first time as an electrical contractor and everything had to be verified. Apparently next time I register it will be much shorter and I can do it via email. Clearly I was a fool for thinking two days was quick, but that being said I waited nearly a year for my unit standards letter from the ECA to arrive so in comparison 2 days it quick.
I also agree with ians comment about rules/laws not being enforced. I just sleep better at night knowing that I have all my ducks in a row when it comes to paper work etc. With regards to the cell phone story the WC is taking it pretty seriously. I business partner was caught talking on the phone while driving and he got a R500 fine plus the phone taken. He had to collect it the next week at the magistrates offices.

[Leecatt]

Listening to electrical contractors talking, contractors have realised that there is no law enforcemant in the electrical industry and are starting to ask the question, why should they follow a set of rules when nobody else does. .

Because its the responsible thing to do.
Just because there are some electricians out there who are taking advantage of the system, or lack thereof, it doesn't mean the rest of us have to drag ourselves down to their level.
I have many customers who give me repeat business because of my high standards and people talk to each other.

[ians]

I sleep like baby every night. I just dont give a sh!t anymore. Those days of being the bad egg at the eca meetings, where people look down at you because you report the crap work they do, instead of people seeing the person who does the kak as the bad person, hours wasted compiling reports and attaching photos, sent to the ECA, with the response from the ECA " whats all the fuss about" i am so over all that, i put my blinkers on and make some money.

Electricity is not as dangerous as people make it out to be, if you look at townships with cabtyre running across the roads, loaded with multiple shacks, the death rate caused by electricution is nothing to be concerned about, considering people are not too concerned about the 15000 people who are murdered ever year the farmers who are hacked to death by gangs and thats no big deal, a couple hundred if that electricuted, who's gona loose sleep over it.

[Dave A]

Ironically, your frank cynicism might help reduce the problem one day, Ian - as long as we all don't give up trying to straighten up the industry. The right mix of cynics and optimists can be a powerful motivating force for change.

[ians]

I wish you all luck, you gona need it, and a lot of it.

Heres a question to all the elctrical contractors out there, what are "you" doing to improve the industry, like me sitting on a website complaining about how bad things are or are you actually doing something about it, getting out there and making a difference?

I hired a person yesterday, 20 years experience in the electrical industry, worked on some big projects, you know what his qualification is, "YIP" you guessed it right ELCONOP 1, so sad. This is one of the reason this industry is in such a state, not just the lack of training because this fella knows his stuff (by the way i picked him up at one of the electrical wholsalers) but also the lack of recognition, in other words i believe he should be an electrician, but because the companies never sent him on the trainning courses he is paid a pathetic wage, i would also give you a crap installation, if you paid me as a elconop 1 and left me on a site and expected me to carry out electrician responsibilites.

Maybe it is time to recall all eleconop 1 and review their qualification, the problem, who is gona pay for it? I beleive this would be a good start to cleaning up this industry. Pay people what they are worth and enforce audits on staff, ie..an eleconop 1 should not be allowed to work in this grade for longer then 3 years (just using this figue as an example) without being regraded and tested.

oops, maybe i should rather just keep quiet, i could be seen as a sh!t stirrer again.

[Sparks]

You hit it on the head ians. The biggest problem is that there are guys running around who should not be in possesion of any papers other than toilet paper. Unfortunately pride has also emigrated and that makes matters considerably worse too.

[Leecatt]

I
Heres a question to all the elctrical contractors out there, what are "you" doing to improve the industry, like me sitting on a website complaining about how bad things are or are you actually doing something about it, getting out there and making a difference?

Well, to start with I do the very best job I can do, and I don't take any short cuts.
I will not sign a COC on a non compliant installation under any circumstances.
If the installation is too big for me, I work alone, then I pass it on to a mate of mine who I trust to do a good job.
If it means that I have to borrow money to get through the month then so be it.
I do a lot of security work these days and only use the best equipment, deep cycle batteries on motors etc
I have never had one callback where I made a mistake, in 12 years I have been in business.

What more one person can do to improve the image of this industry I dont know.
I do give a shit and I do care about the industry that supplies my bread and butter

Glad you asked

[ians]

Good for you, if only there were more people like you in the industry.

[Sparks]

Well, to start with I do the very best job I can do, and I don't take any short cuts.
I will not sign a COC on a non compliant installation under any circumstances.
If the installation is too big for me, I work alone, then I pass it on to a mate of mine who I trust to do a good job.
If it means that I have to borrow money to get through the month then so be it.
I do a lot of security work these days and only use the best equipment, deep cycle batteries on motors etc
I have never had one callback where I made a mistake, in 12 years I have been in business.

What more one person can do to improve the image of this industry I dont know.
I do give a shit and I do care about the industry that supplies my bread and butter

Glad you asked

It's like farting against thunder Leecat. But at least you know your nose is clean. Welcome to the minority. btw those that don't make too much noise are often the most violent

[ericlowry]

Hi, re registration of Co. I also got a letter from the ECB offering to do the Co registration for us for only R 350 per year!! so I send them R 350. Then a day later, this all happpened at the beginning of Nov, a letter from DOL telling me that the only the DOL is able to register the Co. So I check that the DOL is charging us R 120 per year. The ECB is making R 230.00 per registration out of the contractor shame on them and the contractor gets screwed. I paid the DOL and registered the company for 3 years at a cost of R 360, that's R 120 per year folks. Does this mean that the DOL is getting it's house in order?
The ECB can stick their "service" where the sun don't shine.
Can anybody think of a use for the ECB?
E