1. Have a designated place to park crane before the crane arrives. Keep area clear of items that will need to be moved before the crane can set up. This will keep your setup time to a minimum. Average space requirements for a boom truck are 26 feet wide by 36 feet long.

2. The items that the crane was hired to lift should be placed for easy access by crane. Do not place under trees, power lines, carports, etc. Do not place trusses near where they go on the structure, but where the crane can reach them and still place them on the structure. This will eliminate man hours and multiple crane setup.
 
3. Develop your own lift plan for the order of crane lifts. Keep the crane moving; idling cranes cost the same as working cranes!

4. If moving a single item (e.g. a hot tub, a shed, or boulders), place item on blocks so crane rigging can be attached easily.

5. Assisting the operator with setup and tear down will allow you more crane time on task.

6. If undertaking a large project that requires a lot of crane hours, it is sometimes better to break the hours into multiple visits with a shorter duration. For example, a roof needing 16 hours of crane time. It is better to schedule 4 hour periods over 4 days rather than 8 hour periods over 2 days. This allows you to deal with delays and not have a crane idling at your job site.

7. Call for an on-site survey if you are not sure. This eliminates you from being billed for a crane charge when no work could be performed.