Most lifting equipment and lifting accessories will also fall within the scope of the Machinery Directive, as implemented by the UK Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations. Such equipment must have been subject to conformity assessment and be appropriately CE marked and accompanied by a Declaration of Conformity (DoC) before being placed on the market or brought into use. This includes lifting equipment whose only source of power is directly applied human effort (eg manually operated chain blocks and car jacks).
Source: http://www.hse.gov.uk/wo...ment-machinery/loler.htm

So yes they are covered by LOLER.

9. (1) Every employer shall ensure that before lifting equipment is put into service for the first time by him it is thoroughly examined for any defect unless either—
(a)the lifting equipment has not been used before; and.
(b)in the case of lifting equipment for which an EC declaration of conformity could or (in the case of a declaration under the Lifts Regulations 1997) should have been drawn up, the employer has received such declaration made not more than 12 months before the lifting equipment is put into service;

and

(3) Subject to paragraph (6), every employer shall ensure that lifting equipment which is exposed to conditions causing deterioration which is liable to result in dangerous situations is—
(a)thoroughly examined—.
(i)in the case of lifting equipment for lifting persons or an accessory for lifting, at least every 6 months;.
(ii)in the case of other lifting equipment, at least every 12 months; or.
(iii)in either case, in accordance with an examination scheme; and.
(iv)each time that exceptional circumstances which are liable to jeopardise the safety of the lifting equipment have occurred; and

So basically, if it has never been used before, no problems just get on with it. If it has, then the employer has a responsibility to ensure that it is tested. This doesn't mean that you (as the employer) have to get them tested, but you do have to ensure that the hire company has tested it. In practice, I wouldn't be changing a tyre on a hire car, I would call them out anyway but then I am lazy!

It is a good question though, and one I had to research a fair bit! I never considered car jacks were covered by LOLER at all so good call!

Hope that helps

This HSE Operation Circular (for the MVR trade) http://www.hse.gov.uk/fo...lops/ocs/800-899/803_69/ says the following:

"There is a long history of fatal and serious injuries resulting from the failure of vehicle jacks, e.g. trolley and bottle jacks. Where they are used as part of garage equipment, they should be regarded as lifting equipment and subject to thorough examination by a competent person. However, jacks provided as part of the equipment of a motor vehicle will not normally be regarded as subject to LOLER unless they are to be used as part of garage equipment."

So I take that as a no.

There do seem to be odd loopholes and exceptions to LOLER that can be hard to find - another similar one is the linkages on the back of tractors - they lift stuff, they're used at work, but they aren't under LOLER. That one at least is explicit in the ACOP, the car jack one isn't (so I agree, good find).

"In most cases LOLER will not apply to work equipment which does not have as its principal function a use for lifting or lowering of the type associated with ‘traditional’ lifting equipment such as cranes, fork-lift trucks or accessories such as chains or eyebolts. The three-point linkage, for example, raises a tractor attachment, such as a plough, in order to clear the ground. This type of motion is not lifting for the purposes of these Regulations."

The exceptions seem to hinge on someone's interpretation of 'of the type associated with traditional lifting equipment', which is pretty rubbish, in my view - it basically boils down to "LOLER applies to all the stuff that we think LOLER applies to", which is of no use to anyone. A car jack has no other purpose than lifting and lowering a load, that is clearly its principal function.

That's that then. Thankyou Heather.

I have found that over the years the LOLER legislation to be like RIDDOR, quite grey in some areas, especially in MVR and in the Healthcare industries.

For example, a hospital profiling bed will lift and lower a person and some of these beds are designed to go right down to floor level, however these are exempt from LOLER as with some other pieces of equipment uses in healthcare, for example stair lifts (sometimes covered and sometimes not dependant on use).

As been described above, vehicle jacks stored inside the vehicle (still lifting equipment) are exempt but vehicle jacks used in MVR are subject to the legislation. Vehicle hoists in MVR are subject to 6 monthly 'through examination' whether they lift people or not. Vehicles lifting 'skips' are exempt.

FLT are subject to annual inspections, however if their is a 'man cage' in the area it is recognised that they are examined 6 monthly, this is because they 'could' use the cage to lift a person.

A hand operated pallet truck (lifting equipment - as it lifts the pallet) however exempt from LOLER.

Hoists, winches, shackles, slings, etc. used in vehicle recovery work may not be subject to the regulations, however, the minute they are use to recover a vehicle on a slope, the equipment becomes lifting equipment and is then subject to the legislation.

Escalators also do not come under LOLER even though they lift/lower people from one level to another.

Public passenger lifts (e.g. in a shopping centre) do not come under LOLER but passenger lifts in a workplace do.

Please Note; the above comments I have made are from my experience over the years and mostly have come from the insurance company who have used their own interpretation of the regulations and guidance on what they choose to examine or not.

Hi Toe

We stray off topic a little but I agree that there are some grey areas but I think most can be foreseen.

Lifting equipment isn't straight up defined by whether it undertakes a lifting function or not, but whether the principal use of the equipment is to lift as opposed to something else.

So hand pallet trucks primary function is not to lift, but is to undertake horizontal movement of a load. A hospital bed's primary function is a bed. It doesn't matter that it technically does some lifting as part of its function as that isn't the total definition. Same for dentists chairs. Appropriate inspection arrangements under PUWER still apply so its not like they're missed.


That makes some of the greyer areas slightly easier to digest.

Public passenger lifts in a shopping centre (normally run as a business!) and escalators are little more indefensible though as for why LOLER does not apply (most of the time!).



Car jacks? I guess the logic was that most vehicle car jacks are for non-work use. Maybe they didn't think through hire car / fleet car arrangements? Just as a comment, its only an HSE circular for the MVR trade, not for anyone else and doesn't constitute published guidance at the HSG level etc. Certainly interesting.