Its been a while since I have managed contractors. As I remember we would never allow contractors to use our equipment even if they were qualified to do so. For example we have a cherry picker on site and a contractor wants to use it for a task, he has IPAF ticket too.

I can't see much wrong with letting him use it but is it down to insurance ? Or the fact that by supplying the kit you are denying them from ordering their own? Can this bite you on the bum letting contractors use company equipment? Or can you get them to sign something saying at your own risk etc..

Confused its been a while

It is a balance between available to do the task and having to wait whilst equipment is hired, delivered, used and then stuck at site pending collection.

As to the waiver/disclaimer - not worth the effort of writing as you cannot contractually exclude death or injury.

Personally I woud verify the training card, give them an equipment specific orientation and have one of the trained site operatives supervise.

Mersey

I don't see a big problem with a client letting a contractor use their equipment. Both client and contractor have statutory duties but that would be the case if the contractor brought in something else, just slightly different duties at the practical level.

As has been said it is not possible to contract out of statutory responsibilities so any waiver is a waste of effort.

PDarlow

Have to comment on the oft quoted statement that work at height is the No 1 cause of work-related fatalities. 

It isn't. Far, far more people die prematurely as a result of work-related diseases, mostly down to respiratory risks.An estimated 12 THOUSAND deaths in GB per year!!

That number should go down over time as it mostly relates to historic exposures often in processes that have been superseded or exported to less developed nations - outsource the risk. [Not going to comment on the ethics of this approach].

But, even for fatal accidents WAH is probably not the No 1 cause. That is almost certainly work-related transport but RIDDOR is worded such as to exclude most of the fatal accidents from the statistics.

There are just under 2000 deaths on the road in the UK each year. 

At one point, HSE estimated that perhaps 10% would be work-related - that would be more than the total number of fatal accidents that it records each year.

At the same time, RoSPA who are much more knowledgeable on road safety than HSE estimated that 25% were work-related, so that would be about 400 per annum.

Down in Devon and Cornwall, the Police estimated that in their patch the figure was 40% - which might well mean more in two counties per year than the total dying from WAH throughout Great Britain.

The London Olympics is often cited as having been done without any deaths. NOT true. There were so many deaths and injuries associated/expected with the offsite logistics that the CLOCS regime was introduced.