Tail lift examinations and safe use

Plenty of delivery vans and lorries carry a tail lift at the back. Drivers use it to raise and lower heavy loads.

In the UK, the people who run these vehicles have legal duties to keep each lift examined and safe. This page sets out those duties, from the guidance published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

A tail lift is lifting equipment

HSE lists vehicle tail lifts among the equipment covered by the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998, known as LOLER. The duties fall on employers and self-employed people who provide lifting equipment for work, or who control how it is used.

The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) apply as well. Under PUWER, operators maintain the equipment and inspect the parts that do not lift.

How often a lift needs a thorough examination

A thorough examination is a systematic and detailed check of the lift and its safety-critical parts. A competent person carries it out and writes a report. HSE says this should not be the person who does the routine maintenance, because they would be judging their own work.

Unless the lift has an examination scheme, LOLER sets two intervals.

At least every 6 months for equipment used to lift people.
At least every 12 months for all other lifting equipment.

A competent person can draw up an examination scheme instead, with its own intervals. A longer interval has to rest on a rigorous assessment of the risks. A lift also needs examining after anything that could affect its safety, such as damage, a long spell out of use or a major repair.

Checks between examinations

HSE's guidance on workplace transport describes daily safety checks by drivers, signed off at the start of each shift. Regular maintenance inspections can be planned by time or by mileage.

Under LOLER, a lift may also need inspections between thorough examinations where a risk assessment finds a significant risk. These normally include visual and functional checks.

A thorough examination is separate from maintenance. HSE says operators should carry out maintenance without waiting for an examination's results.

When a report finds a defect

Each report gives the date of the next examination and lists any defects that are, or could become, dangerous. If a defect puts people at risk of serious injury, the examiner tells the operator straight away. The examiner also sends a copy of the report to the enforcing authority.

The operator must take the lift out of service until that defect is put right. For a defect with a deadline in the report, the lift must be repaired by that date or not used after it.

Operators keep the report of each in-service examination until the next one is made, or for two years, whichever is later.

Using the lift safely

HSE's guidance says competent people should plan, supervise and carry out every lifting operation. For a routine job such as using a tail lift, a standard plan can cover the task, and the operator reviews it from time to time.

Only trained people should use lifting equipment. Each lift should be marked with its safe working load, and nobody should go over it. Guards or skirting plates may be needed where something could be caught in a tail lift's mechanism.