LOLER is the regulations document that covers all:
Lifting – Lowering – Suspending
It applies to everything in an equipment profile, from a carabiner to a crane. Its main focus for this piece is Regulation 8:
Organisation of lifting operations
8. (1) Every employer shall ensure that every lifting operation involving lifting equipment is:
(a) properly planned by a competent person
(b) appropriately supervised and
(c) carried out in a safe manner.
(2) In this regulation “lifting operation” means an operation concerned with the lifting or lowering of a load.
Explainer:
(a) Competent Person: The definition of competence is trained, supervised, and experienced. This can often be shown by receiving training in a controlled environment by an organising body, followed by the issuance of a certificate after a test. But as we all know, there are “Operators” and ‘operators’ when it comes to lifting and equipment. So, what else can we do? Supervision comes next, the less experienced must be led by the more experienced, until a sufficient amount of experience and knowledge is transferred. This, over time, develops experience.
(a2) Properly Planned: Planning a lift requires experience, knowledge, and qualifications. In this case, the qualification is ‘Appointed Person’, or as it was previously known, Person in Charge of Lifting Operations (PICOLO). As with everything in the safety world: if it isn’t written down, it doesn’t exist. So, what we need now is a ‘Lift Plan’ to demonstrate that we have planned the lift. This plan should show where we intend to place our lifting equipment and where we intend to place the item being lifted. It will also show the weight of the item and the safe working capacity of the lifting equipment at the distance required from the lift site to the lift destination. Still with me? OK.
If we follow the intention of the regulation in step (a) and the title of Reg 8, we will carry out every lift safely. Is it through a lack of understanding that we don’t — or is it laziness?
Why MyRAMSApp
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