Occupation: Excavator (JCB) operator and owner
It’s as if Kerala cannot even function without a JCB these days. We are called upon for all manner of activities, from digging foundations to clearing fields, to tearing down buildings, and everything in between. We do the work of a 100 men in a fraction of the time it takes them to complete the project. That makes us cheaper to employ and quicker on the job and I think that’s why we are popular and why we have a steady flow of customers.
However, the job does have some notoriety to it, especially if the customer hasn’t taken prior permission from the panchayath/village office for digging earth, for example. If there is no permission and if someone complains that what we are doing is ‘illegal’, the vehicle will be impounded, no questions asked. To get it back is a lengthy process, which involves many legal steps and lots of money.
The job also comes with a time limit. At the most you can be an excavator operator for 10 years. Handling an excavator is not like driving other vehicles – you have to take a special excavator license. The entire time you are in the driver’s seat, your body is vibrating. Sustained vibration over a period of years leads to pain in the joints. That’s why almost all operators move on to other things after a while.
I didn’t start off operating JCBs as a job per se. My uncle had one. He taught me the ropes and I started operating it out of interest, having had a fascination for the vehicles since my childhood days. Truth be told, I was a bit of a layabout in my youth and this was my uncle’s way of ensuring that I start earning my living! I was an operator for eight years.
I’m 35 now and I was lucky enough to have made enough money to buy my own JCB – and get someone else to operate it. Occasionally, I do get into the driver seat, for tasks that require skill and a deft hand; tasks such as clearing vertical slopes of undergrowth. The machine has a front and back hydraulic system and if you are not careful in such instances, where it’s a balancing act at best, the vehicle itself can topple over. I also train people who want to get their excavator license.
My biggest concern now is renting out the machine. Thankfully, over the years I have built up a network of contacts. Sometimes you get three to four projects a day, with the standard rate of Rs. 700 for machine rent and Rs. 750 for the operator, per job. Other times, especially during rainy season, we go days without a project. Currently, I have taken a long-term contract with a construction yard near my home in Medanada, opposite Infosys. Admittedly, it’s not as lucrative as taking up daily wage projects but it does keep the money coming in and I don’t have to worry about finding money to pay for the loan that I had taken to buy the vehicle. However, original parts for the vehicles are not available in the city, after the company’s official retailer shut shop. We now have to source parts from Tamil Nadu, which is costly and which often takes a long while to be shipped.
Now that I have a family – wife, Thushara, and two kids Gautham and Rithu – to support I need a steady source of income. My plan is to buy a few more excavators. Hopefully it will happen soon.
(A weekly column on the men and women who make Thiruvananthapuram what it is)
