i was just wondering how you guys got started in the pumping industry??

Worked in the oilfield mostly drilling rigs for 8 or 9 years. Over a year ago things got pretty slow around here so I made the switch. No more 2-5 weeks in the bush in the middle of nowhere. I still freeze my berries in the winter but atleast I get to sleep in my own bed & most importantly get to see my son grow up.

Got my CDL at 18 started out by driving a mixer 2yrs into it my boss asked me if I wanted to run the pumps he liked how clean I kept my mixer, been a pump operator/mixer driver/loader operator/batch man/mechanic/quality control ever since.

as a labor in a construction company .......

I set scaffolding for 10 years and wanted something that is easier on the body. So pumping concrete sounded good to me. Been 9 years and still love it.

I told my father I wanted to goto college he said no your going to be a pump operator. Gee thanks dad

I told my father I wanted to goto college he said no your going to be a pump operator. Gee thanks dad

haha orgeonfan thats exactly how my boss an son are

Started pumping 6-7 years ago after driving mixers for a short time after I got bored of sitting in the mud as a heavy equipment mechanic.

I was a cook in a restaurant and looking for a new job. I answered an add in the paper that read: wanted a young ambitious person to learn the concrete pumping business. Over the next five years I got my licence and was trained on trailers, mobile line units, 28,32,36,38,42,47 booms and did sales for a stint. Shortly after being told I was not going to receive a raise the following year because of the aggressive pay rises I had received I purchased my own machine in 06. I always say someone has to pump the concrete it might as well be me!

Well, how did I become an operator? To make a long story short. I skip the part of when our lord created paradise till a few years back (not so interesting in this part). after being a car mechanic and manager in the fast-fit business I was looking for something else. My bro told me about concrete pumping, it is almost like doing nothing. Lot of waiting , drinking coffee and smoking. Anyone can do it but you never gonna learn. And here I am still learning being a pumpoperator. b.t.w, he never told me about freezin'my ball off and getting cold to the bone.

I do a lot of slope paving repairs for DOT . I need to remove and replace in the same day. Trying to guess when I would be ready then trying to get the pump and concrete was a nightmare. So I bought a good used pump and then all I had to worry about was the concrete truck. Later sold the used one and bought a new one in 07. Since then word has got out about my line pump and I pump a lot of stuff. A while back I pumped a abandoned 6" water line 1.5 miles from the same hook up. That's the kinda stuff I like to do.

well i was a comeerical an industrial insulator an my best friend ran a line pump an i was working 4 10's so i told him id help him on fridays an my first job was off a steep as hill with bout 200ft of 3in line doing a sidewalk behind a house an damn it about killed me i was so out of shape an i was only 19 then an i helped a few more fridays then was offered to come on full time an i just couldnt wait to start..3 years later im still wondering what the hell i was thinking

I was a concrete labor in nor cal good ol uncle Bob said to come to San Diego and he would make concrete pumper out of me. That was 1984 now were partners running 5 booms and 6 trailer pumps. I ran a trailer pump yesterday and it kills me now 300 feet down hill. Today 2 boom jobs easy money only had to travel 150 miles for 2 jobs. Still love it at 45.Pump Hard Guys Be safe!

Well i lsot my licence for d/d so had to get a job near home, used to ride to school and accross the road was a concrete pumping joint, so i walked in and asked for a job, 6 mths later my operator left and i started runnin my own pump at 17, asked for a pay rise, didnt get it, went to another company now im on a new 32 schwing most days and loving it, got my HR a month back too so who knows, love the cray crap though 

I was "taking a semester off" after my 3rd year of college. I had played 2 years of football at Fort Scott Community College, then 1 year at Missouri-Rolla. During my semester off I got engaged and my fiance's uncle was working for Ed Lothamer @ CPI in Kansas City. He got me started. I started running a 1977 Schwing 23 meter on a Ford 8000 in 1998. Over the course of the next 8 years ended up running every piece of equipment we had in KC, finishing with the 61 meter schwing. I got burned out in 2006 and started my own decorative concrete countertop business with another operator. That lasted 2 years before I realized I needed to get back to concrete pumping. In 2008 came back to work for ACI running the 52 Concord and eventually ended up moving into dispatch in the fall of 2009. Loving it. Hope everyone has a blessed Christmas season!

I was a finnisher for 3 years. Loved it but my knee was fucked up after that. Had to operate and the doctor said if I would continue I would be back after 1 year. Had my trucklicence already and love the concrete so 1+1= concretepumper :-)

I was out of work and a good friend I worked with selling truck and trailer part’s gave me the number for one for his friends who had just brought a squeeze line pump, ended up he had just started another young bloke, but said he would keep me in mind if it did not work out. About a year later I was landscaping and had a couple weeks of rain, the boss never rang to say if there was work or not, I just by chance gave my friend a call again to see how he was, and he mentioned that his friend was looking for another line hand as he had brought another pump and the line hand he had did some no shows. So I went over for an interview, I will always remember walking into his backyard and seeing the line pump and parked next to it was this huge red and yellow boom pump, anyway we sat out in his backyard, and he said you will have to take the good with the bad with this job, some days you could be home at 12pm some days you could be home at 12am, and if you can put up with the operator then you got yourself a job. I line handed for 2 years on the old 36m Putzy, I learnt a lot from the operator, more that I knew at the time. We ended up getting taken over by a bigger company and my operator end up getting the sack, apparently management said he was too hard to work with!! They didn’t go 2 years without listening to the radio once in the truck, and it was not broken…LOL But his stories made up for it I think!!. I got put with another operator on the same pump, I thought I knew my job 100% until one day he handed me the remote and said ”I think it’s time you learnt how to operate this thing”  and well I am still learning and living the dream;-)

After ETS from the Army a physiatrist told me I was nuts,so there it is.Concrete pumping for therapy.

so jonno u just rode with the operator an pretty much was just a labor hand to help him out??..i wish my company would do that..i dont care to do the work my self iitd just be really nice to have somebody to talk to on the long rides an long pours cause most concrete guys around here are mexicans so id just like to have somebody to talk to

Well in the pump industry I was working for a GC as his all around man. I can do carpentry, plumbing,electrical, block and, concrete finishing. So we at the time were filling the block the good old fashioned easy way, wheelbarrows and buckets. So one day I informed him they made these things call grout pumps and I told him to get one and if he didnt like it I would pay for it. So they did it in just over an hour, no muss no fuss and, so he decided he wanted his own pump and I became his operator. It was a Mayco that I named Satan because it was old and tired so, I worked on it almost as much as I pumped with it. My boss died and I wouldnt work with his partner who was pretty much a thief, So I called a company in a nearby state and told him I had run the Mayco for three years but didnt have my CDL yet and he told me to get over there and he would get me a CDL. From then on I have been on booms for 11 years. This is actually the only job I havent become bored with. Everyday is a new adventure.

Out of stupidity....lol was on a mixer then a mixer with a theam belt on it I was bumped off by a idiot and figured a change to pump would be good even on shitty days I still like to operate a pump only if it is a Putzmeister though.

On the flip side I have met some good people from the UK western Canada if any of you guys ever get to Cornwall in the UK check them out great guys and they feed you pasties it does not get much better than that  :o)

I got started cause my dad owned the biggest concrete pumping company back in the day when it was Hercules in Texas . So I got introuble at school so he made me run a Pump that's how I got to run my first pump .since then. I kinda just followed his foot steps and been running the pumps for last 16 years . But my dad was the person to make a lot of the changes to the industry he was the one who put the first pump on a garbage truck after that first one he made schwing put on for him they all came that way .any ways many of u may know my dad if u been in this business for a while u defiantly know who he is he is a real original pioneer his name is Tony tye. Thanks dad for getting me in this mess lol.