Third party attachments and modifications are everywhere in the Elevating Work Platforms (EWP) industry, from simple pipe racks and anchor points to comprehensive secondary guarding and electronic sensors.
While these post-manufacture enhancements can make life easier and safer for operators and hirers alike, introducing and using them without a comprehensive eye to their safe use can create new risks at the same time as they fix old risks.
Hire companies are the meat in the safety sandwich as users evolve to using new equipment, so while your safety obligations and liabilities might be shared if multiple parties are involved in the modification process, they do not go away.
Any EWP that enters the marketplace has already undergone rigorous engineering assessments, design registration, safe work assessments and operational documentation. These processes ensure that manufacturers, owners, hirers and operators have taken all reasonably practicable steps to ensure the safety of all those involved in the EWP's operations.
Steps to meet your safety obligations with modified EWPs
Once a platform is modified after manufacture, it becomes a new piece of equipment that may need to undergo a fresh round of safety checks again. That means you need to ensure:
- the modification does not move the equipment beyond the design standards for its class or the specifications of the original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
- you obtain confirmation, as far as possible, from the OEM that the modified equipment remains within the design parameters from the manufacturer
- you have confirmation from the third party supplier or through an engineering or other appropriate review that the modifications do not materially alter its specifications and safe operation methods
- your manuals, safe work method statements, training arrangements and hiring documentation reflect the new design, the operational changes that flow and address any potential risks arising from the design
- users are aware of the changed design and the need for them to review their existing practices when operating the modified equipment.
When you supply or use a modified equipment, as operator or dry hirer, you are effectively asserting that all practicable steps have been taken to ensure that the use of the new modified equipment will not create risks to health and safety. This means you are responsible for bringing together the old plant, the modification, the third party supplier and the review process for the new modified plant.
Liability for non-compliance
As always, with responsibility comes liability. If a modification contributes to an accident and you have not had confirmation from the third party manufacturer or OEM that the modified equipment has been properly assessed, you could be held liable along with the manufacturer and designer because you have not taken all reasonably practicable steps to ensure safe operation of the equipment.
Likewise, failing to modify manuals and hiring documentation to ensure users know how the modification changes the safe work methods for the plant, can render the hirer liable even if the delay in changing your manuals has been caused by the manufacturer's delay in getting the information to you.
Takeaway
The extent of the steps you, as a hirer or operator, need to take to meet your legal obligations will depend on the significance of the modification and how it could be used or misused. While your hiring documents may limit your contractual liabilities to clients, your fundamental safety obligation to take all practicable steps, and the liabilities that flows from it, remains unchanged, even when using modified equipment.
This article was originally published in Hire & Rental news.
This publication does not deal with every important topic or change in law and is not intended to be relied upon as a substitute for legal or other advice that may be relevant to the reader's specific circumstances. If you have found this publication of interest and would like to know more or wish to obtain legal advice relevant to your circumstances please contact one of the named individuals listed.