Regardless of your reason for hiring a crane, you must be concerned about your safety and the safety of those who will be within the vicinity of the crane's work area.
Crane-related accidents are rare, but they're often fatal when they do occur. For this reason, you need to be proactive about preventing the occurrence of such accidents. Here are a few tips on how to go about it.
Don't Compromise On Insurance
Insurance cover is one of the various things you should look for in a crane hire company.
Worker's compensation insurance and public liability insurance are the two most important types of cover that a crane rental company should have. Crane operators are exposed to more serious risks as compared to other individuals within the vicinity of crane operations. Should an operator get injured whilst working on your property, you might be required to pay the resultant medical bills if the operator is not offered worker's compensation insurance by his or her employer.
In the absence of public liability insurance, you might be forced to pay for damage to property as a result of crane-related accidents.
Don't agree to hire from a company that lacks public liability insurance and/or worker's compensation insurance for its employees.
Closely related to this is the fact that the crane operators that the company provides should have the relevant licenses. Crane-related works are considered high-risk and operators should have a license that corresponds to the type of crane that you intend to hire. Crane rental companies will seldom tell you this upfront. Don't be shy to ask for physical evidence of the relevant licenses.
Crane Inspection Records
Crane-related accidents can be grouped into two categories. There are those that result from unprofessional mistakes made by the operator(s) and there are those that result from mechanical failure of cranes. By ensuring that operators have the required licenses, you'll have reduced the likelihood of accidents due to unprofessional mistakes.
To reduce the likelihood of accidents due to mechanical failure, you need to ascertain that the crane(s) you hire are in near-perfect working condition. Inspection records provide evidence that cranes are in good working condition. These records should be recent and they should include details of the inspecting body. Regardless of the number of cranes that a rental agency might have, there should be individual records for each crane.
You can't afford to compromise on safety when it comes to crane hire operations. Prevention is better than cure despite the fact that crane-related accidents are rare.
