Skyjack Launches New Mobile Game to Reinforce Load Capacity Guidelines
Skyjack is leveraging gaming technology to educate and raise awareness around load capacity and safety with its first mobile game, CAPACITIES. Launched February 20th, the game combines interactive fun that requires players to divert falling balls from overloading Skyjack mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs).
“We hope this mobile game will bring fun to all existing and potential Skyjack fans of all ages,” said Brad Boehler, Skyjack president. “More importantly, by digitizing MEWPs and showing the consequences of overloading their respective capacities, we’re educating people about safe loading practices in an innovative way.”
The game’s name is a play-on-words. In addition to incorporating the machines’ rated load capacities, each level is located in a different country where Skyjack currently has sales offices. The levels, from the easiest to the most difficult, are: Toronto, London, Paris, Chicago, Cologne, Shanghai, Sydney, Rio, and New York.
Each level should last about 60 seconds, during which balls of different colors, sizes and “weight” drop from the top randomly. The larger the ball, the heavier it will weigh in the platform. To avoid overloading the machine, users can swipe the clouds side-to-side to bounce the balls back into the air.
A scale at the top changes from green to yellow as the Skyjack lift reaches closer to its maximum capacity. The sign turns red when the machine is overloaded and its capacity is reached. Users advance to the next level when they avoid overloading the equipment during the level’s allotted time.
This game is set to help illustrate the importance of knowing how much weight operators can put into the platform, while highlighting the different ratings from one machine to the next, according to Corey Connolly, product manager, Skyjack.
“It is important for operators to know what the rated capacity is for any machine that they are operating,” said Connolly. “Especially with the upcoming changes to ANSI/CSA standards in North America, it will be imperative that operators understand how much weight they are putting on the platform. To meet the new standards, most models will come equipped with load sensing devices that will restrict machine operation if they are over capacity. This is a good way to reinforce our message”
Several of Skyjack’s best-selling MEWPs are featured in the game, including:
• The SJ12 vertical mast, which has a maximum load capacity of 500 pounds (227 kg);
• The SJIII 3219 scissor lift, which has a maximum load capacity of 550 pounds (249 kg);
• The SJ86 T telescopic boom lift, which has a maximum load capacity of 750 pounds (341 kg);
• The SJ6832 RT scissor lift, which has a maximum load capacity of 1,000 pounds (454 kg)
• The SJ9250 RT scissor lift, which has a maximum load capacity of 1,500 pounds (680 kg)
CAPACITIES is available in English and ready to download on both iOS and Android devices. The first 200 users to beat the game will receive a limited edition CAPACITIES hat. Skyjack is also sending out gifts to the top 200 people as they advance and share their progress on the mobile game. More details will be released on Skyjack’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.
