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Thorough examinations and inspections of lifting equipment

Safe and successful lifting operations depend, in large part, on the continued safety of the lifting equipment and accessories that are used. Failures in this kind of equipment can result in significant or even fatal injuries. Health and safety law therefore places a number of specific obligations on those providing, controlling and using lifting equipment to properly manage these risks.

In addition to the requirements for safe design and construction, all lifting equipment should also be checked and maintained as necessary to keep it safe for use, so:

users may need to undertake simple pre-use checks (eg on lifting chains and slings), or make checks on a daily basis (eg for lift trucks)
in some cases, inspections and checks should be made on a regular basis, often weekly, but this may be on a monthly or quarterly basis (eg the checks undertaken by an operator on their crane)
employers should ensure that lifting equipment is thoroughly examined (normally once or twice a year but, in some cases, this may be more or less frequent)
These checks are necessary to verify that the lifting equipment can continue to be safely used. This page concentrates on thorough examination and inspection, and the reporting and record-keeping obligations of LOLER (regulations 9, 10 and 11)

What you should do

If your business or organisation undertakes lifting operations or is involved in providing lifting equipment for others to use, you must manage and control the risks to avoid any injury or damage.

Where you undertake lifting operations involving lifting equipment you must:

• plan them properly
• using people who are sufficiently competent
• supervise them appropriately
• to ensure that they are carried out in a safe manne

What is a ‘thorough examination’ under LOLER?

This is a systematic and detailed examination of the equipment and safety-critical parts, carried out at specified intervals by a competent person who must then complete a written report. This report must contain the information required by LOLER Schedule 1, including:

the examination date
the date when the next thorough examination is due
any defects found which are (or could potentially become) a danger to people
Where serious defects are identified, the competent person carrying out the examination must immediately report this verbally to the duty holder. This should then be followed by the written report, a copy of which must also be sent to the relevant enforcing authority.

When should thorough examinations be carried out?

In order to verify that lifting equipment and accessories remain safe for use, and to detect and remedy any deterioration in good time, thorough examinations are required throughout the lifetime of the equipment, including examinations:

• before use for the first time – unless the equipment has a Declaration of Conformity less than one year old and the equipment was not assembled on site. If it was assembled on site, it must be examined by a competent person to ensure that the assembly (eg a platform lift installed in a building) was completed correctly and safely
• after assembly and before use at each location – for equipment that requires assembly or installation before use, eg tower cranes
• regularly, while in service – if the equipment is exposed to conditions that cause deterioration which is likely to result in dangerous situations. Most lifting equipment will be subject to wear and tear and so will need regular in-service examination. Some may be exposed to significant environmental conditions which may cause further deterioration. You have a choice:
  • arrange for thorough examination to be carried out at the intervals specified by LOLER (every 6 or 12 months, depending on the equipment – see below), or
  • conduct examinations in accordance with an examination scheme, drawn up by a competent person
• following exceptional circumstances – liable to jeopardise the safety of lifting equipment, which may include:
  • damage or failure
  • being out of use for long periods
  • major changes, which are likely to affect the equipment’s integrity (eg modifications, or replacement / repair of critical parts)

This article is from the HSE and the full article can be read by clicking here

If you need any help or advice regarding your LOLER reequipments please don’t hesitate to contact us on 07477 488003 or see our specific LOLER Regulations page

A guide to safety inspection intervals
An inspection frequency would normally range between 4 to 13 weeks. See table
below for examples of operating conditions.
Operating Conditions Frequency.

A. Lightly loaded vehicles– easy operating conditions 13–6 weeks
B. General haulage–trunking 10–5 weeks
C. Arduous work–constant heavy loads
8–4 weeks D. Off road–difficult conditions 4 weeks
E. Vehicle 12 years or older 6 weeks41 of 112

Guide to maintaining roadworthiness

Experienced HGV vehicle operators

If you are an experienced operator, you are free to tailor these inspections to
suit the nature of your operations and vehicle characteristics. You may even
deploy more than one system across a fleet, where vehicles and the nature
of their work vary, even where one particular aspect of vehicles’ operations
require a greater inspection frequency than the whole vehicle fleet (see case
study 2). Systems will be judged primarily on their effectiveness in maintaining
roadworthiness.

It follows, therefore, that in order to maintain an inspection regime that is
sufficiently flexible to accommodate these changing criteria, it might be more
appropriate to adopt an inspection frequency determined by, for instance,
the vehicle’s mileage. However, if you modify your inspection schedule, it is
sensible to monitor the effect on roadworthiness on a monthly basis. If an
unacceptable increase in defects were seen then a change back to the original
schedule would be necessary.

The Vehicle Operator Licensing system (VOL) records a time based frequency
for both vehicles and trailers. Therefore, if a mileage-based frequency is
adopted, the expected maximum equivalent time-frequency should be entered
into the system (up to 13 weeks). Then ensure the mixed frequency box is
ticked on VOL to record that a varied inspection frequency is being used. This
same process should be used if a mixed time frequency is being used for
different vehicles or trailers on the fleet.

This is taken from the DVSA document, Burton Commercials offer fleet inspections no matter what the size of your fleet for mor information please click here