If your forklift truck, tractor, telehandler, or other piece of equipment passes its LOLER 98 inspection, you might assume it’s safe and legal to use. And in many cases, you’d be wrong.

Often, LOLER inspectors don’t check any non-lifting parts – which means you could still be open to prosecution under PUWER 98. In fact, to protect your business, it often makes sense to think PUWER first.

Equipment can pass its LOLER test, and still be dangerous

What do these stories all have in common?

• The Lincolnshire teenager crushed by a forklift with its safety systems disabled
• The Scottish worker burned by molten glass pouring through the unrepaired door of his shovel loader
• And the Bury farmer who reversed over his own three-year-old son in a telehandler with a missing rear-view mirror

All caused avoidable pain and suffering. All rightly produced convictions. And all had devastating consequences for the businesses and people concerned. But there’s something more specific.

All these accidents involved equipment defects that would not be picked up in the average LOLER inspection.

LOLER inspection is no guarantee against conviction for equipment defects

LOLER is short for the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998. It’s where you get your duty for equipment like forklifts and telehandlers to have a regular Thorough Examination by a competent person.

But technically, LOLER only applies to the parts used for lifting – such as the mast, hydraulics, or loader arm. If your insurance company sends a competent person, that’s often all they’ll inspect, assuming the rest has been covered by regular servicing.

That means your machine can have a compliant LOLER certificate, without anybody checking these safety-critical parts:

• Brakes
• Wheels and tyres
• Steering
• Counterweight fastenings
• Safety systems and mirrors
• Chassis and structural fastenings
• Seat and seatbelt
• Cab or overhead guard

If one of those goes wrong, and it causes an accident, your LOLER certificate is no protection. Because there’s a second set of regulations to think about: PUWER.

Protect your people and your business: think PUWER first

PUWER stands for the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. It’s a wider set of rules, covering any work equipment your employees use (whether you own it or not).

It gives you a legal duty to ensure any machinery you operate (which includes forklifts, telehandlers, tractors, and other equipment covered by LOLER) is suitable for the job, and – crucially – has been inspected to check it’s in a safe condition.

LOLER does not guarantee this. Especially now steer-by-wire and steer-by-fluid have made mechanical connections rare, a steering fault could easily cause a serious accident. Brake slippage under load is another common danger area. And a Derbyshire farm worker lost his leg when a counterweight fixing gave way.

None of these parts are covered by a LOLER inspection. But in each case, you would still be legally liable under PUWER.

In fact, if you search recent prosecutions on the HSE website, you’ll notice far more convictions cite PUWER than LOLER. Fines frequently run to hundreds of thousands of pounds – in addition to legal costs – not to mention the life-changing injuries done to employees, and all the lost time, productivity, reputation, and morale.

Even if an incident is not directly reportable to the HSE under RIDDOR, there’s still a chance you could be sued by an employee, their trade union, or their insurance company.

Overall, if you’re protecting your business, LOLER alone is not a helpful standard. You might find it more helpful to think of your PUWER responsibilities first – making sure the whole machine is safe – and include LOLER Thorough Examination as one part of that.

A true Thorough Examination covers both LOLER and PUWER

Checking equipment thoroughly takes time. If your Thorough Examination takes less than 45 minutes, the chances are you’re being covered for LOLER aspects only.

In theory, you could cover LOLER and PUWER by arranging two separate inspections. But this would double the paperwork, disruption, and engineer visits. It’s better to examine the whole vehicle to one high standard, with one clear paper trail, so you can prove the equipment is truly safe to use.

That’s what you get when a competent person works under the industry’s own approved Thorough Examination accreditation scheme, CFTS. They provide a clear examination process, developed in collaboration with the HSE, that satisfies LOLER and PUWER at the same time.  It protects your business from prosecution and – more importantly – protects your people from harm.

With hundreds of CFTS members nationwide, it’s easy to find an accredited examiner near you.