No, proprotionality would dictate that if this truly was a one off you would specifically hire a trained operative to operate the equipment to undertake the task. Easier to tell a trained operator what outcome you require rather than hoping your employee can pick up the skills to operate the equipment.

Just watching a programme on ship wreck treasure diving - woud you hire a professional diver or give one of your employees a hired scuba kit with brief instruction?

Why do you think insurers have so many travel insurance exceptions for anything other than sitting on a beach?

The recent "mexico crocodile incident" came from an inexperienced "guide" (aka instructor)

hardworkingdude - this is one of those QQ where if you argued the case one way, I could argue it in the opposite direction and vice-versa.

Your user profile indicates that you are in England so the Work at Height Regs would apply. These don't prescribe exactly what training is required to use a scissor lift and as you indicate some proportionality should be taken into account in working out what is reasonably practicable.

You don't say what the simple task is but it might well be that hiring in someone who has an IPAF training certificate might also mean getting in someone who can do the task more efficiently and more effectively than getting one of your own staff to do it.

Add in the need to consider the suitability for your worker(s) to work at heights and various other issues and your risk assessment starts to become a drawn out affair. AND if you were to apply an hourly rate to each of those involved in developing a risk assessment to justify getting the work done by people who have only read the manual (and to the time they take to do that), it would soon be cheaper to hire someone in (unless your workforce are so underemployed that there is no "opportunity cost" - the cost of what they could be doing instead! - though against that you could calculate the benefit of your staff getting some upskilling).

By the way a MEWP (scisser lift) and Cherry Picker are not the same.

Originally Posted by: firesafety101

By the way a MEWP (scisser lift) and Cherry Picker are not the same.

 MEWP is a Mobile Elevating Work Platform

such as

a vertical "scissor" Lift

self propelled Boom (Cherry Picker)

Vehicle mouinted Boom

trailor mounted boom

You may find this document useful https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/geis6.pdf

The selection, management and use of mobile elevating work platforms

Edited by user 13 July 2021 08:53:26(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Originally Posted by: Kate

Or more succintly, a cherry picker is a type of MEWP.

I have been accused of many things over the years Kate but you can probably guess being succint is not one of them.