LOLER training is an in-depth piece of legislation based lessons intended to ensure lifting activities are conducted safely, requiring adequate planning, safe systems of work, constant supervision, and thorough equipment inspections.
Lifting equipment accidents can be deadly and cause millions of pounds worth of property damage, oftentimes leading to deaths and catastrophic property losses. Proper LOLER training courses such as those from specialists at Elite Cranes aims to minimise these accidents by giving participants a good understanding of LOLER requirements.
Risk Assessment
Lifting equipment poses serious workplace risks for its operators and employees alike, with accidents often being fatal or life-altering in nature. Due to this legal requirement under LOLER and PUWER Regulations, all organisations that employ lifting equipment have an obligation to reduce risks as much as possible; following HSE recommendations such as planning ahead with adequate skills, supervision, and check and inspection is one way.
To ensure the safety of lifting equipment, regular examinations are required, typically every six to twelve months, per LOLER legislation and should be conducted by a competent person. This course has been specifically developed to support those nominated as LOLER competent persons within an organisation, offering a comprehensive look at equipment types, risk assessments, and recording results from comprehensive examinations, as well as creating lift plans.
LOLER Training Course Guide
In 2023 there are simple online training courses available that will assist individuals and companies who own, operate, or have control of equipment that lifts things. This could include anything from cranes on construction sites to forklifts used in warehouses or hoists used to move patients in hospitals and care homes. This course will give an understanding of all applicable duties and responsibilities placed upon those with such equipment ownership or control.
re is a useful table summarizing key information about LOLER training:
| FAQ | Description |
|---|---|
| What is LOLER? | Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations introduced in 1998. Aims to ensure lifting operations and equipment are safe. |
| Who needs training? | Anyone involved in lifting activities – operators, supervisors, managers, slingers, etc. |
| Training levels | Basic, job specific, refresher training. Level depends on role. |
| Course content | Legislation, lift planning, equipment checks, slinging, signaling, safe working loads, hazards, inspections, etc. |
| Delivery methods | Classroom teaching, practical demos, e-learning, on-site coaching, simulations. |
| Certification | Provided by accredited LOLER trainers/training companies. Valid for 2-3 years typically. |
| Assessments | Theory and practical tests to verify understanding. On-site evaluation of operators. |
| Employer duties | Provide suitable training, evaluate competence, maintain training records. |
Course Format
The most popular courses comprise of several short quizzes and one final 20-question multiple-choice test, which you must pass to complete the course. The test is marked instantly, so you’ll know instantly whether you passed or not; your answers and scores are saved on our Learning Management System (LMS), so you can reprint your certificate, track progress towards future assessments or set reminders—all included in the one-time fee of your course!
Most courses will be tailored for people appointed as LOLER Competent Persons for an organisation and responsible for planning or approving all lifting operations within their workplace to ensure compliance with LOLER regulations and company procedures. Additionally, it may help those with other responsibilities concerning the use of lifting equipment and accessories within the workplace.
Planning for LOLER Training
If you must use a crane or hoist at work, planning its operation to ensure its safety is essential. This involves inspecting equipment for defects, taking all applicable safety precautions, and using only trained professionals—an obligation under LOLER/PUWER regulations.
Professional LOLER training provides you with the knowledge and tools necessary to comply with regulations, ensuring all lifting operations are planned by qualified individuals, appropriately supervised, and completed safely. Furthermore, this course covers conducting thorough examinations of lifting equipment as well as documenting their results.
Regulations apply to any company or person who owns, operates, or controls lifting equipment; this may range from large cranes on construction sites to fork trucks in warehouses and hoists used to move patients across care homes. They also cover any temporary users of lifting equipment, like contractors or agency workers.
Doing a safe lift requires creating and following a detailed plan by all employees involved in the process. This requires identifying the resources required, assigning tasks to individuals, and taking into account any foreseeable health and safety risks. The level of detail in a lifting operation plan depends on both its complexity and the severity of the potential hazards involved.
LOLER regulations mandate that you keep records of all examinations, inspections, and tests conducted on your equipment. When requested by inspectors, these must include certificates, documentation, EC Declarations of Conformity results, as well as the results of other inspection or testing services provided. Using software systems like RiskMach can simplify this process with uniform data output to help meet all LOLER obligations with ease.
Supervision
Supervision is essential to successful LOLER compliance. Employees using lifting equipment need to be closely supervised in order to create plans that prevent accidents from happening, such as having competent people available to help load and unload, keeping records of thorough examinations and supplementary testing, and making sure everyone understands all safety procedures and knows how to use equipment safely.
LOLER regulations are more than a legal obligation; businesses have an ethical duty to uphold them as part of providing a safe working environment for employees and anyone who comes in contact with the equipment, from employees themselves through to visitors or passersby. To do this effectively, it requires creating risk assessments, conducting inspections, and training employees on how to use equipment correctly.
As part of your research on LOLER compliance and other safety regulations that pertain to specific equipment types, it’s also important to be familiar with their differences from similar regulations that may also apply. For example, roller shutter doors, stair lifts, and escalators don’t fall under LOLER since they do not qualify as lifting equipment as defined by HSE; similarly, ships don’t fall under LOLER but instead fall under the Merchant Shipping Act terms.
The best LOLER courses should intended to assist those whose jobs require them to use lifting equipment to become familiar with its requirements and reduce the chances of an accident occurring. One-off courses such as those from Elite Cranes take approximately 80 minutes and once complete, you will instantly have access to a downloadable certificate—all approved by IOSH as per universal CPD guidelines.
Once you’ve passed the assessment for this course, you can instantly download your LOLER certificate in PDF format from our certification database and send it straight to your email. This makes for quick and easy verification should a health and safety inspector, employer, or client request proof of your qualification.
Inspection
Alongside proper planning and supervision, LOLER requires that lifting equipment be regularly inspected to ensure its safety and functionality for its intended use. Failure of lifting equipment could result in serious injuries or even fatalities; hence, all lifting equipment should be inspected every six to 12 months in accordance with HSE regulations.
Someone with the necessary training and experience in safely inspecting lifting equipment must conduct the examination and find any flaws that could jeopardise its compliance or safety. This may include members of staff as well as anyone who has completed LOLER training. All details of the inspection must be documented thoroughly, with copies given out to anyone using or renting it from your business.
A competent person conducting the inspection must be able to detect defects that might compromise the safety or regulation of equipment and make an objective evaluation as to their significance. They should have knowledge about both how it operates theoretically and its usage in practice in order to make accurate assessments about how best to assess it.
Once a defective part has been identified, it must be repaired as soon as possible before the equipment can be put back into service. A competent person must make note of both the defect and how it was remedied; any repairs not completed within the specified time should be recorded as such in subsequent inspection reports and could require temporary withdrawal until proper repairs can be made.
Compliance with LOLER could result in stiff fines for businesses that do not comply, and one way of mitigating them is by investing in LOLER-compliant training for all employees who use and operate lifting equipment. By doing this, companies can demonstrate workplace safety as an ethical responsibility that should not be disregarded; using online LOLER courses such as Human Focus’s offering ensures they are mitigating risks while adhering to legal requirements in order to minimise accidents.