Your first-day checklist

Your manufacturer's manual prevails. This sheet gives the order of the steps; every figure must be read in your own manual, as it changes from one model to the next.

1. 1

   On delivery

   • Walk around it BEFORE you sign
   • Load chart PRESENT and legible
   • Manual, last inspection report and logbook
   • Guardrails, gate and anchor points checked
2. 2

   Unloading

   • Firm level ground, clear of edges
   • Never correct your line on the ramps
   • Platform stowed and low
   • Once loaded: chock and lash to the marked points
3. 3

   BEFORE EVERY shift

   • Full visual inspection + function test
   • Repeat at every change of operator
   • Self-closing gate, guardrails in place
   • Emergency stop: every function dead
   • Locate the GROUND-LEVEL emergency lowering
4. 4

   Before raising

   • Machine level, outriggers firmly down
   • Load-bearing ground: no trench, no cover, no unknown slab
   • Load and occupants within the chart
   • Wind: above the manual’s limit, you do not raise
5. 5

   What kills

   • Power lines — keep the minimum approach distance
   • Tip-over: side slope, an outrigger sinking, overload
   • Crushing against an obstacle overhead
   • Falls: harness where the manual requires one
6. 6

   Statutory inspections

   • Thorough examination on a fixed cycle — six-monthly in France
   • By a competent person, report kept
   • Operator training specific to the type
   • Authorisation to operate comes from the employer