EWP & Crane Certification for Government & Public Sector

Why government fleets demand independent certification

Public sector plant is subject to a level of transparency that most private operators never face. Fleet records can be requested under freedom of information, questioned by auditors-general, and examined line by line following any incident. That environment rewards documentation that is complete, dated and traceable to a competent person, and it punishes gaps. Independent certification removes the perception that inspections are being marked off by the same team that operates the equipment.

Under the model WHS Regulations, a person conducting a business or undertaking must ensure plant is inspected and maintained so far as is reasonably practicable. For government, the PCBU is the agency itself, and the officers of that agency carry due diligence obligations personally. An engineering-led inspection regime backed by written reports is the clearest evidence that those obligations are being discharged.

• Defensible records that withstand FOI requests and audit scrutiny
• Clear separation between operator and assessor removes conflict of interest
• Written engineering reports supporting officer due diligence
• Consistent standards applied across geographically dispersed depots

The plant we certify across the public sector

Government fleets are unusually diverse. A single agency may run truck-mounted EWPs for signage and lighting work, cherry pickers for tree management, scissor lifts inside civic buildings, and vehicle loading cranes on works trucks. Each family carries a different standard and a different inspection cadence, and mixing them up is a common cause of overdue certifications.

We inspect and certify the full range, applying AS 1418.10 to elevated work platforms and AS 2550.10 for their safe use, AS 1418.11 to truck and vehicle loading cranes, and the AS 2550 series to mobile and articulated cranes. Where units carry insulated booms for work near live conductors, we add dielectric and electrical insulation testing to the scope.

Inspection cadence and the 10-year major inspection

Elevated work platforms follow a well-defined lifecycle. Routine and log book servicing occurs at manufacturer-specified intervals, an annual inspection confirms ongoing compliance, and a major inspection is required at ten years from date of manufacture and at regular intervals thereafter under AS 2550.10. For government fleets with mixed ages, tracking which units are approaching their ten-year milestone is critical, because an EWP that passes its ten-year date without a major inspection cannot be lawfully used.

We maintain a compliance calendar for each fleet, flagging annual and major inspections before they fall due so procurement and depot managers can plan downtime rather than react to a grounded unit. For cranes, we align periodic and major inspection intervals to the relevant AS 2550 part and the manufacturer's design life.

Managing dispersed depots and mixed fleets

The practical challenge for a state road authority or a large metropolitan council is not any single inspection but coordinating hundreds of assets across dozens of depots. Records held locally on paper drift out of alignment, and a unit transferred between depots can lose its history. We consolidate fleet compliance into a single register with per-asset status, so a fleet manager can see at a glance which units are current, which are approaching due dates and which are grounded pending rectification.

This register underpins fleet compliance audits, which we recommend annually for large public sector fleets. An audit reconciles the physical fleet against the compliance records, identifies assets that have slipped through the cracks, and produces a prioritised rectification plan.

Emergency services and specialist units

Fire, rescue and emergency management agencies operate access and aerial equipment where availability is not negotiable and failure has severe consequences. These units warrant additional scrutiny of structural welds, boom pins and hydraulic systems, often supported by non-destructive testing rather than visual inspection alone. We tailor the inspection scope to the criticality of the asset and the environment it works in.

Reporting that supports procurement and disposal decisions

Beyond pass or fail, government asset managers need engineering input into capital planning. A structural assessment on an ageing unit informs whether it is economical to rectify or whether it should be scheduled for disposal. A pre-purchase inspection protects the agency when acquiring used plant at auction or from another agency. Our reports are written to feed directly into asset lifecycle and budget processes, not just to satisfy the immediate compliance question.