MEWP pre-use inspection, defined: the operator's recorded visual and functional check of a mobile elevating work platform before each use, separate from the periodic thorough examination by a competent person.
A MEWP pre-use inspection is the check the trained operator makes on a mobile elevating work platform (a scissor lift, articulated or telescopic boom, or vehicle-mounted platform) before using it, at the start of each shift or whenever the machine changes hands. It combines a walk-round visual check with function tests of the controls and safety devices, and it is recorded.
The definition matters because the pre-use inspection is the only check that happens on the day. The thorough examination under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) is carried out by a competent person at intervals, six-monthly for equipment that lifts people, and says nothing about a hose that split yesterday. The operator's check catches that, and the record shows the check was done.
How a MEWP pre-use inspection works
IPAF, the industry body that trains and certifies MEWP operators, publishes a pre-use inspection checklist and expects operators to use it, on paper or in its ePAL app. The check runs in two parts.
First, with the machine switched off, the operator walks round it and looks at:
- Documentation: the operator's manual for that model is on the machine, the thorough examination report or a current inspection sticker is present and in date, and the serial number on the compliance plate matches the chassis.
- Wheels and tyres: damage, wear, pressure on pneumatic tyres, wheel nuts tight.
- Engine and batteries: fluid levels, leaks, battery charge and connections.
- Hydraulics and hoses: leaks, chafing, cylinder rods scored or wet.
- Chassis, outriggers and boom or scissor stack: cracks, bends, pins and retainers in place.
- Platform or cage: guardrails, gate closes and latches, harness anchor points, floor condition, no unauthorised additions.
- Decals and signage: rated load and other safety decals legible.
Then, with the machine running and in a safe area, function tests: ground controls, platform controls, emergency stops at both positions, emergency lowering, drive and lift functions, alarms, limit switches, tilt and overload warnings, pothole protection and axle locks where fitted, and the stabilising system.
Any defect that affects safe use takes the machine out of service until it is fixed, and the operator records the defect, what was done and who was told.
Pre-use inspection versus thorough examination
Three different checks apply to a MEWP, and mixing them up is the commonest error on site:
- Pre-use inspection (this term): by the operator, before each use, recorded on a checklist. Required under PUWER's general duty to inspect work equipment where deterioration can lead to danger.
- Thorough examination: by a competent person under LOLER Regulation 9, at least every six months because the platform carries people, or in line with a written examination scheme. Produces a formal report.
- Servicing and maintenance: by the owner or hirer's engineers to the manufacturer's schedule. Not an inspection in the legal sense.
A valid thorough examination report does not excuse a missed pre-use inspection, and a clean pre-use check does not extend the six-month interval. See working at height inspection for how these fit the wider work-at-height duties, and pre-start check for the same idea on other plant and machinery.
MEWP pre-use inspection example: a hired boom on a cladding job
A cladding contractor takes delivery of a hired articulated boom on a Monday. The operator runs the pre-use check and finds the platform gate latch does not engage: the gate swings open under light pressure. Everything else passes. Under the site's rules that is a stop-use defect, so the machine is tagged out and the hire company is called. The operator photographs the latch, the machine's serial plate and the inspection sticker, and files the checklist with the defect box completed.
The hire company replaces the latch that afternoon and the operator repeats the check before first use. Two records now exist: the failed check with a photo of the fault, and the passed check after the fix. If anyone later falls from that platform, those two records, with their times, are the difference between a contractor who did the right thing and one who cannot prove it.
What a MEWP pre-use inspection does not do, and the mistakes operators make
It does not assess the ground or the job. Ground conditions, overhead hazards, wind and the rescue plan belong to the site risk assessment, not the machine check.
The recurring mistakes: ticking every box from the cab without walking round; skipping the function tests because the machine was fine on Friday; one operator's check covering a machine three people use that day; no photo of a defect, so the hire company disputes whether it was there at delivery; and checklists kept in the machine's document box, where they get lost or returned with the hire.
Where the pre-use inspection record goes
IPAF's guidance is to record evidence of the daily pre-use inspection, with the operator's name, card number, signature and date. The completed checklists are kept by the employer as part of the equipment file, alongside the thorough examination reports, and are the first thing an HSE inspector or the hire company asks for after an incident. A photo of the machine, its plate and any defect, attached to the record, turns a tick list into inspection evidence. A sensible inspection checklist follows IPAF's order.
The operator is already standing next to the machine with a phone. With Venta Capture, a product of VentaVid, they open a secure, personal capture link and follow the IPAF-style check as guided steps in the mobile browser, with no app: a photo of the plate and the inspection sticker, each section of the walk-round, a yes or no per function test, and a photo and short description of any defect. The submission arrives timestamped and sealed for the supervisor to review. See the Venta Capture pages.
In practice: see how field service teams use Venta Capture.