Posted By Stuff4blokes Ian, as a non-Fellow please allow me to comment from a theoretical point of view with no practical experience of ladder management. From your email address I guess that you have several depots with many vehicles carrying ladders. Central management of these ladders would be a nightmare but no different to any other work equipment, which is probably managed on a local basis. Work equipment safety is an operational management responsibility with the users too having responsibility for recognising faults and reporting etc. If this is outsourced then there will undoubtedly be a sigh of relief from some managers. However, complacency will certainly follow. Unlike lifting equipment, the competency level for ensuring ladders remain safe is not high and should easily be be within most operational managers skillset within your organisation. Perhaps the issue is more motivational and behavioural. Managers are employed to manage and to manage safety. I suspect that the time required by your depot managers to carry out their simple inspections is not that great and would cost little. It also gets them out of their offices. The cost to outsource will probably be much greater. For me the much bigger issue would be the actual use of the ladders on site, but that wasn't your question!

Posted By andymak There still remains the issue of competancy of people checking the ladders, and the users doing a check before each use. Ideally ladders should be tested annualy and tagged. The BLMA offer good courses to ensure a level of awareness around what should be checked for each type of lsdder or steps that are available.