26.09.2016

Voluntary road inspection scheme for UK cranes

In the UK the CPA -which represents crane rental companies - has written to the Department for Transport this week, announcing that its members are ready to move ahead and introduce a voluntary programme to inspect and test mobile cranes for road-worthiness along the lines of a proposal already made to the ministry.

The open letter to Helen Grech at the Ministry is as follows:

“Hi Helen,
Yesterday we had our annual Crane Interest Group Open meeting where representatives of the major crane companies were present. We updated them on our proposal to the Department for Transport for a voluntary scheme to cover the testing and examination of the mobile cranes which were on a bespoke chassis. We have not heard back from you yet but our members proposed that we should set the wheels in motion to create a voluntary scheme.

We will form a committee to investigate the issues involved. Understandably we feel that the Department for Transport needs to be aware of our plans to start work on the project and we firmly believe that representatives from the Department, probably the DVSA, should take part.

It will be a short while before we have our first meeting and we would appreciate your comments as to whether you could support us with our plans. This initially will be a scheme for CPA members, but should it be accepted as a scheme backed by the Department for Transport, then the scheme could ultimately be used by all mobile crane companies/owners.

We look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Kind regards
Colin Wood
Chief executive”

The move follows some high level prosecutions of crane companies that had been involved in fatal road accidents due to a maintenance or repair issue with the crane.

Vertikal Comment

The key to a voluntary programme working is for the association to make membership be contingent on signing up the scheme. And eventually introducing an audit programme with unannounced checks of its members procedures etc… Otherwise it will be a division between the good companies
– most of who already diligently check their cranes on a regular basis – and the offenders who do not and who are hardly likely to follow a voluntary system. If there was a system that highlighted those who complied and those who have not then not only would it make a difference but it would add to the benefits of membership.