Your fleet management software says the truck is fine. LOLER might not agree.

Fleet systems are built around the vehicle. Service intervals, the annual test, tachograph data, driver defect reports: all of it hangs off a registration number.

The tail lift bolted to the back of that vehicle, or the crane sitting behind the cab, is governed by a separate set of regulations with its own clock. A truck can be entirely roadworthy and still be carrying lifting equipment that is out of examination.

The lifting equipment is already on your fleet

The Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 apply to any work equipment used for lifting and lowering loads. HSE’s own examples include motor vehicle lifts, vehicle tail lifts and cranes fitted to vehicles, alongside the forklifts and telehandlers in the yard. Every sling, chain, hook and eyebolt used to attach a load counts as well.

That means the tail lift and the vehicle-mounted crane need LOLER examinations in their own right, separate from anything the chassis goes through. Not everything that appears to lift is in scope. Tipper bodies sit outside LOLER, as do pallet trucks where the consequences of a load falling are very low. That boundary is where fleet registers tend to go wrong, in both directions.

Two calendars, not one

The default intervals are twelve months for most lifting equipment and six months for anything used to lift people and for every lifting accessory, unless a competent person has drawn up a written examination scheme setting different periods.

Accessories are a common gap. A chain sling tracked on the same annual cycle as the crane it hangs from is already outside its interval.

Dates on a calendar are not the only trigger. An examination is also required after damage or failure, after a long period out of use, and after major changes such as the repair or replacement of critical parts. A crane back from a hydraulic rebuild needs re-examining before it works again, whatever the certificate on file says.

A service is not a thorough examination

Maintenance is a PUWER duty. A thorough examination is something else: a systematic examination by a competent person, followed by a written report containing the items set out in LOLER Schedule 1, including the date of examination, the date the next one falls due, and any defect that is or could become dangerous.

The independence requirement is easy to miss. HSE guidance on thorough examination states that the competent person should not be the same person who carries out routine maintenance on the equipment, because they would then be assessing their own work. If one supplier services the tail lift and signs off the examination report, that arrangement will not survive scrutiny.

Where fleets get caught

The common failures are administrative rather than mechanical:

• Third-party maintained vehicles where nobody has established who holds the duty
• Lifting accessories put on the same annual cycle as the equipment they attach to
• Hired-in or subcontracted vehicles arriving without a current report
• Equipment returned from a critical repair and put straight back into service
• Reports held by the maintenance provider and not producible when an inspector asks
• Examinations signed by the same engineer who services the equipment

A register keyed to the item rather than the vehicle solves most of this. Each piece of lifting equipment and each accessory carries its own due date and its own document trail, so when a truck changes hands or a sling moves between vehicles, the record follows the equipment. None of that needs new software. It does need one person who owns the lifting register, and it should not be the person who owns the vehicle maintenance schedule.