LOLER compliance is imperative if your business owns or operates any kind of lifting equipment—from a simple chain block to a full overhead gantry. In simple terms, LOLER, which means the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations, places a legal obligation on employers to ensure their lifting equipment is strong, stable, and positioned to mitigate risk. Nevertheless, thorough examinations are still treated as a box-ticking exercise in most UK workshops and warehouses. This is a costly approach, both in terms of safety and unplanned downtime when equipment is condemned mid-job.
A thorough examination is not a routine visual check an operator does before using a piece of equipment. It is a formal inspection conducted by a competent person—someone with the right know-how to identify defects and render the equipment safe for use. This is conducted every six months for most lifting accessories, including slings and shackles, and eyebolts. Access platforms do not deviate; their examinations are also conducted every six months as do the general lifting machines. Getting these intervals wrong is one of the common compliance failures that HSE inspectors are known to report.
Documentation is just as crucial as your physical inspection of the pieces of lifting equipment because every type of lifting equipment is required to have an examination report, and the documentation of the remedial actions taken also have to be available. When equipment is bought, rented, or transferred to a new site, the records also need to be transferred. In an audit, some companies fail to demonstrate compliance because they have incomplete documentation, regardless of the fact that their equipment is functioning properly. Once set up, an asset register along with examination due dates is an effective way to prove compliance.
Having quality equipment to begin with, helps to simplify things further down the line. Lifting accessories which are made to standards and have an identifiable tag as well as a working load limit is going to be less likely to fail and easier to inspect. Cheaper alternatives may save you money at the time of purchase, but they will potentially create more work through the risk of failing inspections, because they are not properly marked and certified.
While it may seem that training is an additional expense, it is the other critical piece of the puzzle. For example, just because someone is operating the slings, hooks, and shackles, doesn’t mean they are using them correctly. They need to know what constitutes a rejectable defect. Is it a sling with stitching that is starting to fray? Maybe it’s a shackle pin that isn’t flush? Or a hook that is outside of the permitted throat gauge? We want to encourage staff to identify issues with equipment rather than wait until the next scheduled inspection. This helps capture issues before they become major problems.
When developing standard operating procedures for your business, it is important to incorporate LOLER compliance. Taking a proactive approach to include LOLER compliance saves time and money as it protects employees and equipment and prevents financial loss, legal implications, and damage to the reputation of the business from incidents. One of the easiest ways to maintain operational compliance and efficiency is to engage with lifting equipment suppliers before they need to be legally required to provide information on working LOAD limits and inspection intervals.