Having recently joined a new company, I was horrified to discover that amongst other things, they had not had any preventive maintenance or Thorough Inspections carried out for LOLER testing for almost two years. After convincing senior management that they MUST do this, the FLT company carried out the Thorough Inspections. Not surprisingly they failed, one on new tyres and one on the lifting chain that was stretched and required replacing. The companies quote/report states that they have 30 days to repair these issues but did not put them out of service. We are currently awaiting the repairs to be carried out.

Now senior management are pressuring me to say they can be used to lift a man basket. I am remaining firm that in my opinion they are illegal and unsafe to use for this and they should both be put out of service until the repairs are made. Am I wrong or being too harsh? I believe that we are contravening many regulations including HASWA, MHSWR, PUWER as well as LOLER.

Hi Douglas,

with regards man-baskets they are not illegal, however, granted they are not the most safety option in many instances.

there is some good guidance out there on the use of them but like most guidance can be contradictory.

"For example guidance say than are ok for reactive works like changing a light bulbs, then guidance will say they are not ideal for PPM works - what if you are re-lamping a few bulbs - its still changing a bulb... this is guidance and its about how you use this in relation to the task at hand & risk presented by the task."

Are they safe in your environment? That's down to your assessment of use considering many factors to include, environment, floor surfaces, condition of equipment both truck and man cage, competence of use etc etc. Many more.

Rather than standing firm and going toe-to-toe, undertake the assessment and produce facts if they are there on the unsafe condition of equipment and its use. Your argument will carry much more weight......

just a thought.

thanks anyway DP, really struggling to get senior management to understand the seriousness of their actions. Not just with this but many issues on H&S

Thanks JohnW and Ian Bell2, its nice to hear that my thinking is correct. Sometimes when you are the only one saying something, it can be quite lonely

If I am reading this right - no lifting equipment is to be used with out a current statutory examination, so… does the forklift and man cage have these?

If a category B or C defect has been identified then the FLT can be used for the period stated in the inspection (30 days) or until fixed. If it has a category A defect the equipment cannot be used until the defect has been rectified (and notification to the HSE).

Back to the man cage – these have to be inspected every 6 months. Now if the FLT is lifting the man cage then the FLT inspection are to be dropped to 6 month duration.

To answer your question – a competent person has carried out the inspections on the equipment and has recommended that defects are repaired within 30 days and have not put the equipment out of action.

Douglas

What Toe has advised is legally correct as per LOLER. The fact is that, despite having not been examined for 24 months, it still ultimately HAS now been inspected and you've restarted the clock.

That's the legal side of things at least.

As to the mechanical, I can't speak to the likelihood or otherwise of the defect causing an incident. That's why you employed a competent person to check it. If you wish to disagree with their verdict and err on the side of caution then that's your call.