Hiring equipment in does not hire out the duty that comes with it. Both LOLER 1998 and PUWER 1998 place their duties on the employer whose employees use the equipment, and extend them to any person who has control of the equipment to any extent. During a hire, the person with day to day control is usually you, the hirer. The hire company has duties of its own, but they do not displace yours, and a contract between two businesses cannot reassign a statutory duty.
That is the general position. What it means in practice depends on the type of hire, its length, and what the equipment is, so it is worth working through the parts that actually determine who does what.
What must arrive with the equipment?
LOLER contains a provision written specifically for this situation. Where lifting equipment is obtained from the undertaking of another person, the employer must ensure it is accompanied by physical evidence that the last thorough examination has been carried out. In other words, the report should turn up with the machine.
If it does not, you have a problem on day one. You are about to put into service a piece of lifting equipment you cannot demonstrate has been examined, and the absence of the evidence is itself a failure to meet the requirement. Asking for it after an incident is far too late.
Check that the evidence actually relates to the item in front of you. A report is tied to a specific machine by serial number or a unique identifier, so a serial number that does not match the plate on the equipment is not evidence of anything. This is the single most common thing to go wrong, and it takes a minute to check.
Who is responsible when an examination falls due mid-hire?
This is where most confusion sits. A short hire that ends well before the next examination is due raises no question at all. A long hire that runs through a due date does.
The duty to ensure the equipment is thoroughly examined at the required interval attaches to whoever has control of it at the time. On a long hire, that is normally the hirer. Many hire companies will arrange the examination themselves as part of the service, and some contracts say so explicitly, but the existence of that arrangement is something you should confirm rather than assume. If the hire agreement is silent, the safe assumption is that it falls to you.
Work out before the hire starts where the next due date falls relative to your hire period. If it lands inside the hire, agree in writing who is arranging it, and diarise it. Equipment that runs past its due date mid-hire is unlawful to keep using, and the fact that somebody else owns it is no defence.
Does it matter whether the hire includes an operator?
Yes, and it changes the analysis considerably. Broadly there are two arrangements.
Plain hire supplies the equipment alone. You provide the operator, you plan and supervise the work, and control sits clearly with you. Your duties under both LOLER and PUWER are close to those for equipment you own.
Hire with an operator, sometimes arranged as a contract lift, supplies equipment and the person to run it, and often the planning and supervision of the lifting operation with it. Control is then shared or sits largely with the supplier, and the allocation of duties follows the reality of who is directing the work rather than the label on the invoice.
The label is not decisive. What matters is who actually controls the equipment and the operation. If you are directing how and where the machine works, you hold more of the duty than the paperwork may suggest.
What should you check on delivery?
A short, consistent check at the gate catches nearly everything that goes wrong later.
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Report of thorough examination present | Required for lifting equipment obtained from another undertaking |
| Serial number matches the equipment | A report for a different machine is not evidence |
| Next examination date is after your hire ends | If not, agree in writing who arranges it |
| Any defects listed and their timescales | You need to know what you are accepting |
| Accessories examined separately | Slings, chains and shackles are examined in their own right |
| Operator manual and controls familiar | PUWER requires adequate information, instruction and training |
| Visual condition on arrival | Damage in transit is easier to raise now than later |
Lifting accessories deserve a specific mention, because they are frequently overlooked on hire. Slings, chains, shackles and eyebolts are lifting equipment in their own right and are examined at intervals not exceeding six months, whether or not they arrived attached to something else. A thorough examination of the crane or the forklift does not cover the accessories used with it.
Do your own duties stop at the report?
No. PUWER duties apply to hired equipment throughout the hire in the same way they apply to equipment you own. The equipment must be suitable for the work you are using it for, maintained in efficient working order, and used only by people who have received adequate information, instruction and training.
That last point is the one that most often gets missed on a short hire. An operator competent on one machine is not automatically competent on a different make or model with different controls, and "they have used one before" is not a training record. Where the equipment presents a specific risk, PUWER also requires inspection at suitable intervals and a record of it.
If you are unsure which regime a particular hired item sits under, our guide on LOLER, PUWER and PSSR sets out the boundaries, and the inspection frequency guide covers the intervals.
Where Safe-Lee fits
We examine hired and owned equipment alike, and we carry out no repairs, hire or sales, so there is no commercial interest in the outcome of an examination. The work is carried out by a qualified competent person at Safe-Lee, led by Lee Charnock, EngTech MSOE MBES, and reports are issued in one to two working days, which is usually what matters when a hired machine is sitting idle on a chargeable day rate.
If you take equipment on long hire and want the mid-hire examinations covered independently rather than by the company that owns the machine, that is straightforward to arrange across Manchester and the North West. Speak to us about LOLER thorough examinations or PUWER inspections, or get in touch to talk through a specific hire.