Law, standards and responsibilities

Several layers of rules govern MEWPs. At the top is occupational health and safety law, which sets general duties and, in most jurisdictions, specific requirements for elevating work platforms. Below it are national consensus standards for design, safe use and training, which the law often adopts by reference. Below those are the manufacturer's operating manual and safety decals, which apply to the specific machine. A supervisor needs to know enough about each layer to recognize when a job does not comply.

The consensus standards

The United States and Canada both rewrote their MEWP standards in the late 2010s, aligning them with international ISO standards. In the United States the ANSI/SAIA A92 suite replaced the older A92.3, A92.5, A92.6 and A92.8 standards with three standards that work together.

OSHA's construction rule for aerial lifts, 1926.453, still adopts by reference the 1969 edition of ANSI A92.2 for design, and OSHA has not formally adopted A92.20, A92.22 or A92.24. They still matter: OSHA uses them as evidence of recognized industry practice under the general duty clause, rental companies and manufacturers build and train to them, and many owners and general contractors require them by contract.

Groups and types

The new standards classify MEWPs by two simple ideas that matter for training, fall protection and set-up. They are described in detail in lesson 3.

• Group A: the center of the platform stays inside the tipping lines in all positions, as on a scissor lift or vertical mast lift. Group B: the platform can move outside the tipping lines, as on a boom lift.
• Type 1: travel is allowed only in the stowed position. Type 2: travel with the platform raised is controlled from the chassis. Type 3: travel with the platform raised is controlled from the platform.

The roles

The standards assign duties by role rather than by job title. One person can hold several roles; a small contractor may be owner, user, supervisor and operator all at once. The table summarizes the main duties.

The supervisor role is new in the current standards and deliberately so. Many incidents investigated before 2018 involved a trained operator directed by someone who did not understand the machine's limits: a foreman who said to drive the scissor lift across a muddy yard, or a manager who wanted the job done in a wind that the operator thought was too strong. The standards now expect supervisors to be trained in the selection, hazards and rules for MEWPs, which is the purpose of this course.

Provincial and federal law

In the United States, the OSH Act and OSHA's standards apply in most private workplaces, and 22 states and territories run their own OSHA-approved plans that may be stricter, such as California's Title 8 rules for aerial devices. The general duties are the same everywhere: employers must provide a workplace free of recognized hazards, follow the specific standards and train workers; workers must follow the employer's safety rules.

Reading the rules together

When the law, a standard and the manufacturer's manual say different things, follow the most protective requirement that applies. A few common situations show how this works in practice.

Two principles stay constant. First, the manufacturer's limits are not optional: no regulation allows a platform to be used beyond its rated load, slope, wind or configuration limits. Second, anything that changes the machine, such as adding a material rack, extending the platform with planks or welding on a bracket, needs the manufacturer's written approval or an engineer's equivalent certification. OSHA's 1926.453(a)(2) and the CSA and ANSI design standards all say this in different words.

Records matter here. If an inspector or investigator asks how you knew the operator was competent, a signed familiarization record, a copy of the training certificate and a completed pre-use checklist answer the question. A verbal assurance does not.

Rental machines and shared responsibilities

Most MEWPs on construction sites and in facilities are rented, which splits the duties between two organizations. The rental company is usually the owner. It must deliver a machine that has been inspected and maintained, with its manual, decals and records, and it must provide the information needed for familiarization, such as the location of the controls, the safety devices and the emergency lowering procedure. Many rental companies offer to familiarize operators on delivery, and that should be accepted and recorded.

The renting employer is the user. It takes on the duties of selecting the machine for the task, preparing the safe use plan, making sure operators are trained and familiarized, doing the pre-use inspection every shift and controlling the work area. When a machine develops a fault, the user must take it out of service and call the owner; the user should not repair it unless the rental agreement and the manual allow it and a qualified person does the work.

On multi-employer sites, the constructor or general contractor coordinates the work and often sets site rules that are stricter than the law, such as restraint on every MEWP or secondary guarding on every boom. Subcontractors bring their own machines and plans, but the site's rules apply to them. Supervisors should know which company is responsible for each machine on site and who to call when something goes wrong.