MEWP checks and LOLER inspection: what owning one involves

What counts as a MEWP, and which ones UK sites actually buy

MEWP stands for mobile elevating work platform. It covers any machine that raises a person on a guarded platform, so mast lifts, scissor lifts and boom lifts are all MEWPs. Most buyers ring up asking for a scissor lift or a cherry picker, but MEWP is the wording the regulations, the examination report and the insurer use, which is why it is worth knowing which rules follow the machine into your building.

For indoor work on a sound floor, three shapes cover most jobs. A single mast platform carries 150 kg to a 6 m platform height from £1,035 ex VAT and is lowered and pushed between positions with outriggers set each time. A dual mast version takes 300 kg to the same height from £1,830 ex VAT, which is the capacity two people with tools and materials need rather than one.

Scissor lifts trade a slim mast for deck area and the ability to drive. A mini electric scissor lift gives a 300 kg deck at 4.8 m working height from £2,120 ex VAT. A self propelled machine that the operator drives from the platform is from £4,000 ex VAT. All of them carry the same inspection duties once they are yours.

MEWP heights, capacities and prices compared

Platform height is the height of the floor you stand on. Working height is roughly 2 m more, because it assumes a person reaching from that floor. Quote both numbers when you ask for a price, along with the lowest doorway the machine has to pass under.

Capacity rules machines out more often than height does. A 150 kg platform is one person with hand tools once a toolbag and a few fittings are on board, so a job that needs two people starts at the 300 kg machines whatever the height.

LOLER: why the inspection interval is 6 months, not 12

LOLER 1998 covers lifting equipment, and it sets a shorter interval for anything that lifts people. Equipment used to lift persons needs a thorough examination at least every 6 months, or in line with an examination scheme drawn up by a competent person. Other lifting equipment is at least every 12 months. A platform that carries an operator falls in the 6 month column, and so does the harness anchorage on a boom machine.

A thorough examination is not the same as a service. It is a careful examination by a competent person, someone with the knowledge and independence to say the machine is safe, and it ends in a written report that goes to the owner. Keep those reports. If a report lists a defect that is or could become a danger to people, the machine comes out of use until the defect is put right.

PUWER 1998 sits alongside it and asks for the machine to be maintained in efficient working order, inspected where safety depends on the installation or the conditions, and used only by people who have had adequate training. In practice the two sets of duties produce one simple routine: a check before use, a service interval the machine's manual sets out, and a thorough examination booked in the diary every 6 months.

The pre-use check that takes five minutes

The pre-use check belongs to the operator, at the start of the shift or when the machine changes hands. It is quick, and it catches most of what goes wrong. Write it on a sheet that stays with the machine.

• Ground and route: level, sound, clear of gullies, covers and trailing leads, with no overhead service in the arc of the platform.
• Tyres and castors: no splits, no flats, and nothing wound round an axle.
• Outriggers or stabilisers where the machine has them: all of them down, levelled and locked before the platform leaves the floor.
• Guardrails, toe boards and the gate: in place, latching, nothing bent.
• Controls at both stations: up, down, drive where fitted, and the emergency stop.
• Emergency lowering: find the valve or lever and prove it works while the machine is only just off the ground.
• Battery charge and the charger lead, plus any hydraulic leak on the floor under the machine.
• Decals and the capacity plate still readable, and the examination report in date.

Anything that fails the check takes the machine out of service until it is sorted. A simple tag system, one tag on the control panel, saves an argument later.

Who can operate one, and what the paperwork should show

Operators need training on the type of machine they use, and familiarisation with the particular machine in your building, because the controls and the emergency lowering differ between types. A card earned on a scissor lift does not cover a boom, and the person who drives a forklift every day has had no training on a platform that lifts them.

There is a second person worth naming: whoever is on the ground and knows how to lower the platform in an emergency. On a quiet night shift that is the difference between an awkward ten minutes and a call to the fire service. Write the name on the method statement for the job rather than leaving it to chance.

The file that keeps you straight holds four things: the thorough examination reports, the pre-use check sheets, the service records, and the training and familiarisation records for each operator. Insurers and inspectors ask for the same four. Keep them in one place, dated, and the machine stays easy to defend.

What to check before you buy a MEWP

Most of the regret with these machines comes from measurements taken after the order rather than before it.

• Working height and platform height for the highest point of the job, taken with a tape rather than from memory.
• Platform capacity for everyone who will be on it, with tools and materials, not just body weight.
• Stowed height against the lowest doorway, shutter and beam on the route, and stowed length against your tightest corner.
• Floor loading, especially on a mezzanine or a suspended slab, and whether the wheels mark a finished floor.
• Turning and setting space in the aisle the machine has to work in, including room for outriggers where it has them.
• Power: electric machines need a charging point near where the machine sleeps, and somewhere ventilated to park it.
• Who will carry out the 6 month thorough examination, and what that costs you each year.
• Spare parts you would want on the shelf, and the warranty terms, set out in writing before you commit.

Send those figures with your enquiry and the quote comes back with the right machine on it. Price, carriage, VAT and lead time are confirmed on your written quote, and the price guide explains how the figures on the site are built.