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Reliable Forklift Testing and Thorough Examinations in Kent

If you own or operate a forklift truck, including trucks on hire, you are required by law to ensure that it holds a Thorough Examination certificate. Failure to comply can leave you open to prosecution and could invalidate your insurance. At Rees Mechanical Handling, we offer this forklift testing service to ensure that you’re not working with faulty equipment. Get in touch with our team in Sittingbourne, Kent, for further details.

What is a Thorough Examination?

Like an MOT for a car, a Thorough Examination is a detailed inspection of all the safety-related parts of a forklift truck. In addition to the brakes, steering, and tyres being checked under PUWER 98, all the lifting components, hydraulics, chains, and forks are inspected in accordance with LOLER 98. These regulations apply to all forklift trucks that are older than one year. From this point onwards, a Thorough Examination is legally required at least once every 12 months. Some trucks may require Thorough Examinations more frequently. If you are in doubt, check this with your truck supplier or maintenance provider. Another similarity with car MOTs is that the Thorough Examination is not part of the maintenance process. It must be carried out and reported on separately from routine maintenance. Generally speaking, the employer of the operator of the forklift truck (the owner or user) is responsible for ensuring that Thorough Examinations are carried out on time by a competent person, and also keeping records.

What Is Inspected as Part of a Thorough Examination?

Your Thorough Examination comprises an inspection of lifting equipment, as required by LOLER 98, and other safety-related components or equipment, as required by PUWER 98. These inspections must be undertaken by a competent person, who is required to examine these items, check them for serviceability, and report accordingly.
Please note that this is distinct from a maintenance inspection of the truck, and the competent person has different duties to fulfil under the law. Although a Thorough Examination covers both regulations, it is a single examination.

Who Can Carry out Thorough Examinations?

The LOLER 98 and PUWER 98 regulations simply require that Thorough Examinations be carried out by a competent person. For your reference, the following are likely to be able to carry out a Thorough Examination on a forklift truck:
  • An Experienced Forklift Truck Engineer
  • A Specialist Inspector Working for an Insurance Company or Equipment Inspection Company
Please note that an “insurance inspection” is not necessarily a Thorough Examination and if you rely on such inspections you should make sure you receive a document headed “Certificate of Thorough Examination”. Rees Mechanical Handling employs experienced and qualified Thorough Examiners to help you fulfil your legal obligations.

How Often Does My Equipment Need a Thorough Examination?

The regulations require routine Thorough Examinations periodically. These guidelines have been issued to HSE Inspectors. A Thorough Examination is also required if the forklift truck has been involved in a major incident or if it has had significant repairs or renovation.

Minimum Intervals between Examinations

  • 12 Months: Any Truck Working up to 40 Hours per Week, without Attachments Other Than a Sideshift (Mandatory)
  • 6 Months:
  • Any Truck Used for Elevating Persons, No Matter How Infrequent (Mandatory)
  • Any Truck Working between 40 and 80 Hours a Week
  • Any Attachment Not Permanently Fitted to a Truck
  • 4 Months:
  • Any Truck Working More Than 80 Hours per Week
  • Any Truck Working in Arduous Conditions Such as:
  • Marine Environments
  • Chemical Environments, Manufacturing, or Processing
  • Cement/Aggregate Processing, Where Abrasive Particles Are Present
  • Brine Processes
Please Note: When an attachment is permanently fitted to a truck, the attachment will be Thoroughly Examined as though it were part of that truck at the same time interval.

Do Hand Pallet Trucks Require Examinations?

Hand pallet trucks and low lift trucks (i.e., non-stacking powered trucks with forks or a load platform that lifts up to 500mm from the ground, including those with an operator platform that elevates up to 900mm from the ground) do not require Thorough Examination.
However, in order to comply with PUWER 98, these types of equipment still require a formal safety inspection at least once per year. The results of such inspections should be recorded, and records retained for future reference.
There is no set format for such records and the standard inspection sheet used by a fork truck maintenance company should be quite adequate. It would not be wrong to use a Report of Thorough Examination if nothing else suitable was available.

What If My Equipment Fails Its Thorough Examination?

Failure is not the right word. At the time of the Thorough Examination, the competent person will make a report listing any defects they have found.
If there are no defects then the forklift truck can continue in use. With defects that do not create imminent risk, a timescale may be given within which the faults must be rectified. The defects must be rectified within this period, but meanwhile, the equipment may continue in use.
Alternatively, the equipment may be taken out of use until the faults have been rectified. The competent person will check that the defects have been rectified, within the given period, at the time of the next Thorough Examination.
Where there is a defect that could imminently be of danger to persons, the competent person may recommend that the equipment not be used until the fault has been rectified. In these circumstances, the equipment must be taken out of use immediately. It may not be used again until the defect has been rectified.

Comprehensive Testing and Examinations

Experienced in forklift testing, we deliver legally compliant Thorough Examinations.
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