Forklift Truck Inspections In Staffordshire
Lift Truck Thorough Examinations
If a truck on your Staffordshire site is running past the date on its last report, it should not be lifting. Send us the trucks and attachments you have, with the site postcode, and we aim to come back with a quote within 48 hours.
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Tell us what trucks you have and where the site is. We aim to come back with a quote within 48 hours.
Forklift Truck Inspections In Staffordshire
Lift Truck Thorough Examinations
Report lapsed, or renewals slipping? Send your truck list and site postcode and we aim to quote within 48 hours.
Servicing And Examination Are Two Different Jobs
A forklift needs two different things done to it, and they are easy to confuse because both end in paperwork. Servicing keeps the machine running. Thorough examination is the statutory check under Regulation 9 of LOLER, carried out by a competent person and ending in a written report. HSE draws the line in plain terms: work done under a preventive maintenance scheme or a scheduled service does not amount to a thorough examination.
Examination is the only one of the two we do. GSB has no workshop, sells no parts and holds no maintenance contracts, so there is nothing in the report that benefits us. Send us a list of your trucks and we will tell you what is due and what it costs.
When A Staffordshire Truck Falls Out Of Date
For a truck lifting goods, Regulation 9 allows twelve months between examinations. Two situations bring that down to six. A machine fitted with a working platform or man-cage is lifting people, not goods. And lifting accessories, the slings, chains and shackles, run on a six-month cycle of their own.
Attachments are worth a separate thought. Fitted permanently, they are examined with the truck at its interval. Taken on and off through the week, the clamps, rotators, jibs and fork extensions become items in their own right, due at least every six months.
Two events override the calendar. A machine assembled or installed on site is examined before its first lift, and any truck that has been overloaded, has struck something or has gone over is examined before it works again.
Lift Trucks We Examine Across Staffordshire
Staffordshire runs a wide spread of machines: counterbalance and reach trucks in the distribution sheds off the M6 and the A50, smaller electric trucks in the ceramics works around Stoke-on-Trent, telehandlers and rough terrain machines out towards Uttoxeter and the Moorlands.
We examine all of them. Counterbalance trucks in diesel, LPG and electric, reach trucks, very narrow aisle machines and order pickers, powered pallet trucks and stackers, side loaders and multi-directional trucks, rough terrain forklifts, telescopic handlers and truck-mounted forklifts, along with the attachments that go on and off them.
On every machine we cover the lifting side that LOLER puts on the report, the mast, rams, hydraulics, chains, forks and carriage, and then the brakes, steering, tyres and operator restraint, which sit under PUWER. A report covering half a truck is not much use to whoever has to act on it. For work equipment beyond the trucks, see our PUWER assessments in Staffordshire.
GSB Inspection Services
Covering All Of Staffordshire
We cover the county end to end, from the Moorlands down to Tamworth and Burton upon Trent, and across the city of Stoke-on-Trent. We are based in Stoke-on-Trent ourselves, so Staffordshire is home ground rather than an outlying patch.
Multi-site operators are welcome too. Where you have trucks at several Staffordshire sites, or a mix of sites here and elsewhere in the Midlands, tell us at the enquiry stage and we will look at how best to group them so your renewal dates stay together rather than drifting apart through the year.
What Happens When Our Engineer Is On Site
Most visits are less disruptive than people expect, provided the trucks are actually free when our engineer arrives.
1
Trucks off the floor.
Machines out of the aisle and not mid-shift, keys to hand, and attachments laid out rather than in use. A truck stuck on a job is the single biggest cause of a return visit, and the one thing that turns a half-day into two.
2
One person who knows the fleet.
Someone who knows where every truck and attachment lives, roughly how hard each one works, and whether anything has taken a knock since the last examination. Previous reports to hand help, though we can work without them.
3
Each machine is worked through systematically across its lifting components and safety-critical parts, with functional checks where the condition of the truck calls for them. Attachments are examined as items in their own right.
4
What we do not do
We examine and report. We do not carry out repairs, servicing or remedial work, and we do not run a 24/7 emergency callout. Visits are planned, including out of hours where that is what gets the trucks standing still.
Independent Forklift Inspections, Resourced For Staffordshire Contracts
Most firms examining forklifts in this country also sell, hire or repair them. Most firms that are genuinely independent of all that are one person with a van. GSB is neither, and that combination is the reason operators move to us.
We sell inspections and nothing else. No trucks, no parts, no attachments, no maintenance contracts. When our competent person records a defect there is no repair quote behind it, which is what the LOLER Approved Code of Practice is getting at when it expects the examiner to be sufficiently independent and impartial to give an objective opinion.
We also have five engineers, which is enough to take on work at the scale most independents turn down. We hold multi-site contracts with manufacturing groups where we examine across every one of their UK locations and keep the renewal dates aligned between them, and we are equally happy examining a single truck for a one-site business. Both are ordinary work here.
Your Report Of Thorough Examination, And What To Check Before You Buy
There is no such legal document as a LOLER certificate. What Regulation 10 requires is a report of thorough examination, and Schedule 1 sets out what has to be in it. Format is open; contents are not.
Each report is tied to one machine by make, model and serial number, and records the safe working load, the date examined, the date the next falls due, who carried it out, and any defect with the time allowed to put it right. Anything that should take a truck out of use is raised with you on site before the engineer leaves, and where a defect is or could become a danger to someone, the competent person must also send a copy of the report to the enforcing authority. That duty sits on the examiner, not on you.
A complete quote should cover the competent person’s time on site, the written report per item with defects and timescales, the next due date, documentation you can hand to an insurer or an inspector, and travel. If a quote does not say so, ask, because the report is the part that proves compliance and an examination without a usable one leaves you where you started.
Three questions are worth putting to every firm you ask, ours included. Who is carrying out the examination and on what basis are they a competent person. Whether they hold professional indemnity and public liability insurance. And whether they are independent of the supply, hire and maintenance of the equipment they are examining. A cheaper quote usually differs on one of those rather than on the work itself.
Our Commitment To Your Safety
We Are A Proud Associate Member Of The Safety Assessment Federation (SAFed)
As an associate member of the Safety Assessment Federation (SAFed), GSB Inspections works to the competency standards and technical guidance SAFed publishes for the thorough examination of lifting equipment, alongside HSE’s Approved Code of Practice L113 and the guidance in L117 covering rider-operated lift trucks. It commits us to examining against a published standard rather than an in-house checklist.
What A Forklift Thorough Examination Costs In Staffordshire
We do not publish a rate, because the work is scoped to your equipment and your site. A headline price would mislead more readers than it helped. What follows is what we actually price on, so you can budget before you speak to anybody, ourselves included.
1
How many items
Every truck and every accessory is examined in turn, so the count matters more than anything else. Ten slings take longer than one, and a fleet of twenty trucks is not twice the work of ten.
2
What the machines are
A sling is examined quickly. A reach truck or a telehandler takes in mast, chains, hydraulics, carriage, brakes, steering and operator restraint, and that difference shows up in time on site rather than in any rate card.
3
Which interval applies
Anything lifting people, and any lifting accessory, is examined every six months rather than twelve, so it comes round twice as often across a year. That changes the annual cost rather than the visit cost.
4
Machines at height, in confined spaces, or needing isolation and permits take longer. So does working around a live operation, or out of hours where that is the only way to get the trucks standing still.
5
Where the site is
Travel is part of the cost. A Staffordshire site is close to our Stoke-on-Trent base; a single machine at the far edge of our coverage carries more travel per item than a fleet does.
6
What else is on site
Examining your lifting equipment, pressure systems, work equipment and LEV on one planned visit is more efficient than four separate trips, and it is priced that way. Tell us what else you have and we will look at it together.
GSB Inspections Reviews
Client Satisfaction
Gary has been doing our certifications for the last few years. Very professional and very reliable. A**
Rob Scanlan
Well what a great service Gary provides, always does a very thorough job, can't recommend enough, we always Gary really great guy.
Daz Griffiths
Great bloke, reliable, informative, pleasure to deal with.
Gary Jackson
Been using GSB for a year, great service keeping all our plant and machinery in certification
James Plant
Gary has been doing MPi ltd's lifting certifications, air compressor tank and roller shutter door inspections for a number of years now. I have always found him a pleasure to... read more
matt page
Excellent service, very thorough and practical
Kerry Callear
Prompt and professional friendly service.
Apples & Pears Nursery
Excellent service & communications
Gary Jackson
Inspected transferable winch units with, greatly appreciated, additional guidance covering separate requirements for accompanying D shackles and inspection schedule. Very diligent service and great value.
Andrew Piekarczyk
Service, communication, support and advice has been excellent, Garry has gone out of his way to support our school with issues arisen from council maintenance, he has gone out of... read more
Miss H Morrey
My first contact was with Gary and he dealt with my query and questions brilliantly. He explained the process, it was easy to sort and it went smoothly. Expected contact... read more
Mrs B
Excellent service very competent knowledgeable and professional staff Would highly recommend
Carl Eades
Great service. Would highly recommend and will use again.
Jade Furey
Useful Staffordshire Resources
Website: hse.gov.uk
HSE’s hub for lift trucks, including its guidance on thorough examination and the distinction between examination, servicing and the operator’s pre-use check. ACOP L117 covers rider-operated lift trucks specifically.
Website: gov.uk
For warehousing, wholesale distribution, retail, offices, hotels and catering, health and safety enforcement sits with the council rather than HSE. In Staffordshire that means Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Newcastle-under-Lyme, South Staffordshire, Stafford, Staffordshire Moorlands or Tamworth, or Stoke-on-Trent City Council within the city.
Commerce House, Festival Park, Stoke-on-Trent, ST1 5BE
Telephone: 01782 202222
Website: staffordshirechambers.co.uk
Representing businesses across the county and the city, with health and safety guidance and training among the member services.
Website: safed.co.uk
The trade association for the UK’s independent engineering inspection industry. SAFed publishes the technical guidance its members work to for the thorough examination of lifting equipment. GSB Inspections is an associate member.
Got Questions? (FAQs)
Twelve months is the longest interval for a truck lifting goods, under Regulation 9 of LOLER. It falls to six months where a truck is fitted with a working platform or man-cage, because it then counts as equipment used to lift people. Lifting accessories such as slings and chains are on a six-month cycle in their own right. A competent person can set shorter intervals through an examination scheme where a truck works hard enough to justify it.
They are separate duties. HSE states that an inspection carried out as part of a preventive maintenance scheme or a scheduled service is not a thorough examination. Servicing keeps the machine working; examination is a statutory check by a competent person ending in a written report under Regulation 10. A truck can be in excellent mechanical order and still have no valid report behind it.
It depends on the main activity at your premises, under the Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority) Regulations 1998. Councils enforce in warehousing, wholesale distribution, retail, offices, hotels and catering. HSE enforces in manufacturing, construction and similar. So a distribution site is usually dealing with its borough council and a factory with HSE. Your duty under LOLER is identical either way.
Take the truck out of use until it has been examined. The regulations set no grace period, and the report is the first document an inspector or auditor will ask for. Tell us when you enquire and we will be straight with you about the earliest date we can offer.
Attachments permanently fitted to a truck are examined with the truck at the truck’s interval. Attachments that come on and off, such as clamps, rotators, jibs and fork extensions, are separate items needing thorough examination at least every six months. Slings, chains and shackles are lifting accessories and follow the same six-month cycle.
Not in law. The statutory document is the report of thorough examination required by Regulation 10, and Schedule 1 sets out what it must contain. People commonly call it a certificate, and providers often print it as one, but what matters is that every Schedule 1 item is present and that the report identifies the specific machine.
A competent person, meaning someone with the practical and theoretical knowledge of lift trucks to detect defects and judge what they mean for continued safe use. The LOLER Approved Code of Practice also expects that person to be sufficiently independent and impartial to give an objective opinion, which is why the examiner should not be the same party that maintains or sells the equipment.
The whole truck. LOLER covers the lifting side: mast, chains, forks, hydraulics and carriage. The brakes, steering, tyres and operator restraint sit under PUWER. LOLER does not replace PUWER on a lift truck, so our engineers work through both rather than handing you a report covering half a machine.
Yes. We hold multi-site contracts where we examine across every UK location a customer operates, and we coordinate the dates so renewals stay aligned rather than drifting apart site by site. With five engineers we can resource that alongside single-truck jobs for one-site businesses. Tell us how many sites are involved when you enquire and we will plan it with you.
A truck assembled or installed on site needs thorough examination before first use. Where a machine arrives complete with a Declaration of Conformity less than a year old and has not been assembled on site, that first examination is not required, but the twelve-month clock still starts running.
Not until it has been examined. Any exceptional event liable to affect the safety of the machine, an overload, a collision, a tip-over, triggers a thorough examination before the truck goes back into service, regardless of where it sits in the calendar.
No. Inspections are the only thing we sell, so there is nothing for us to gain from the length of a defect list. The report goes to whoever maintains your fleet, which is usually an arrangement you already have in place.
GSB Inspection Services
Forklift Inspection Service Areas In Staffordshire
This is not an exhaustive list. We examine lift trucks across the whole county and the city, and we are constantly expanding our reach. If your site sits outside these areas, send us your truck list and we will tell you plainly whether we can cover it.
- Stoke-on-Trent
- Newcastle-under-Lyme
- Stafford
- Cannock
- Lichfield
- Tamworth
- Burton upon Trent
- Uttoxeter
- Leek
- Stone
- Rugeley
- Burntwood
- Biddulph
- Kidsgrove
Require A Forklift Inspection In Staffordshire?
No brokers, no call centre, and nothing to sell you off the back of what we find.
Send your truck list and site postcode using the form below, or email info@gsbinspections.co.uk. We aim to come back with a quote within 48 hours. Mention any machine already running past its date.
info@gsbinspections.co.uk
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