Knowledge
Inspection of lifting equipment
The truck-mounted crane, the overhead crane, the lift table and the slings. Most lifting equipment must be inspected recurrently by an accredited body — and equipment with an expired inspection may in practice not be used. Here is what applies and where it usually falls down.
Updated August 2026
What is covered
The Work Environment Authority's provisions on the use of lifting equipment govern this. The recurring inspection requirement covers cranes, overhead cranes, lift tables, vehicle lifts and vehicle-mounted cranes — in other words most of what a body-building workshop lifts with.
Lifting accessories are covered too: slings, chains, lifting beams and the like. They are not always inspected the same way as the equipment itself, but they must be checked and discarded when damaged. A damaged accessory is the most common reason a load starts moving.
Intervals differ between equipment types, and for some they run from when the equipment was first put into service. Look up the interval for your type in the provisions rather than assuming it matches the last machine.
Who may inspect
Recurring inspection must be carried out by an accredited inspection body. It is not something the workshop does itself, and not something a supplier does in passing during a service visit unless they hold the accreditation.
That does not make your own checks unnecessary — quite the opposite. Daily checks before use and recurring in-house inspections are a separate requirement resting on you, and they are what catches damage between inspections.
What happens when the inspection has expired
Lifting equipment with an expired inspection should not be used. If an accident occurs with equipment that should have been inspected, the position is serious for the employer, both towards the authority and towards the insurer.
Findings at inspection are normally graded by severity. Some allow continued use with a remedy within a set time, others require the equipment to be taken out of service immediately. The report decides that, not a judgement made on the spot.
Remember that a vehicle-mounted crane follows the vehicle. If the vehicle is sold or moved between workshops the inspection interval goes with it, and whoever uses the crane is responsible for its validity.
What usually goes wrong
The inspection is missed because nobody owns the date. The equipment has a validity period, but if it only lives in a report in a binder nobody gets reminded.
The second gap is that daily checks are never documented. Someone looking at the hook every morning is good, but in an investigation what was not written down did not happen.
The third is the accessories. The equipment gets inspected while the slings hang there year after year, with nobody checking markings or damage.
Workshop checklist
This is what stops anything falling between the cracks.
- Inventory every piece of lifting equipment and every accessory you have, including vehicle-mounted cranes.
- Record the date of the last inspection and when the next is due, per item.
- Find out the interval for each type — they are not the same.
- Set a reminder well before the expiry date, not in the same month.
- Decide who does the daily check and how it is documented.
- Go through the accessories: markings, damage, discard limits.
- Store inspection reports digitally so they can be produced immediately.
Common questions
- How often must an overhead crane be inspected?
- The interval depends on equipment type and use, and is set out in the provisions on lifting equipment. Check for your specific equipment — assuming everything shares one interval is common and wrong.
- May we inspect it ourselves?
- Not the recurring inspection. That must be done by an accredited body. Daily checks and in-house inspection are your responsibility and must be done by you.
- What about the crane on a customer's truck?
- The requirement follows whoever uses the crane. If you lift with it in your workshop you are responsible for it being validly inspected at that moment, even though you do not own the vehicle.
- Must daily checks be documented?
- It is strongly advisable. The requirement to check exists, and in an investigation the documentation is the only thing showing it happened. A simple signed checklist goes a long way.
Sources
Rules change. Always check against the source before acting — this page is an overview, not legal advice.
- Work Environment Authority provisions on the use of lifting equipment — recurring inspection, supervision and discard requirements
- Swedac — which inspection bodies are accredited
- The manufacturer's manual — equipment-specific intervals and check points
Keep the dates in one place
Enter inspections and in-house checks as recurring items with an owner and a reminder, alongside safety rounds and measures — so an expiry date becomes something the system watches rather than something someone must remember.