New Tail Lift Guide

After nearly a decade, the legislation and regulations affecting lifting equipment still remain a mystery to many in the vehicle industry.  To combat this, and in response to a call from the industry, the IRTE and BES – two of the SOE’s professional sectors – have launched a new booklet aimed at explaining the legislation in simple and easy to understand terms.

Released at this year’s Commercial Vehicle (CV) Show at Birmingham’s NEC, the free guide covers simple – but important – questions including:

•    What is the law?
•    How does it apply to me?
•    How do I get my tail lift checked?
•    Who should check it?
•    And much more…

Known as LOLER (the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulation), the legislation came into force in December 1998. While ten years might seem like enough time to get to grips with the legislation, when you take into account that it covers everything from the tail lift on the back of the lorry delivering bread to your nearest supermarket through to 30 ton cranes – the sense of confusion is a little more understandable.

“Because of the broad range of equipment it covers, it is very ambiguous and very much open to interpretation,” said Dave Conman,  MD of Humberside Tail Lifts. “While the tail lift repair industry welcomes legislation which improves the safety of tail lifts, LOLER actually caused a lot of confusion within the industry because it could be interpreted in many different ways. As a result of this, tail lift operators often get conflicting advice from different repairers and from different sectors of the tail lift industry regarding LOLER and tail lift maintenance.”

While not a legal document, the new booklet has been created to offer a set of guidelines of industry best practice. In order to reach this agreed level, the IRTE and BES partnered with:

•    SAFed
•    HSE
•    And many of the leading manufacturers in the industry (a full list is available upon request).
  
“As the owner of a tail lift repair business, I have spent many hundreds of hours over the years on the telephone, and in meetings, discussing LOLER, answering customer queries on LOLER and attempting to clarify LOLER,” added Dave. “I am sure there are many other people within the industry who’ve also spent the same amount of time and effort that I have. Thanks to the SOE and the individuals who sat on the working group, we now have one document which clarifies key areas within LOLER and tail lift maintenance.”

The booklet is available from the SOE by visiting www.soe.org.uk > publications > technical guides or by calling 0207 630 1111 and asking for the technical department.

Technical queries regarding this guide can be directed to davidconman@humbersidetaillifts.co.uk