A forklift thorough examination and a forklift service are not the same job, and treating them as one is among the most common compliance gaps on warehouse sites. Servicing keeps the truck working. The examination decides whether it is legally safe to keep using. Here is where the line sits.
What Is a Forklift Thorough Examination?
A forklift thorough examination is a systematic assessment of lifting equipment by a competent person, carried out at set intervals to establish whether the machine is safe to remain in service. It is a legal duty in its own right, and it produces a written report. A service visit does not replace it.
A forklift sits under two sets of rules. LOLER covers the lifting parts: mast, chains, forks and carriage. PUWER covers the rest of what can hurt someone, including brakes, steering and tyres. A proper examination deals with both.
Why Servicing Does Not Cover the Duty
A service exists to keep the truck running. Fluids, filters, worn components, adjustments. The engineer is looking for what is about to fail and fixing it before it costs a shift.
An examination answers a different question entirely: is this machine safe to continue in use? The HSE puts it plainly, stating that regular inspections carried out as part of a preventive maintenance scheme or scheduled service are not a thorough examination.
In practice the confusion starts with the paperwork. A maintenance contract arrives with the word “inspection” on it, someone files it, and the site assumes the statutory duty is discharged. Often it is not.
What the Examination Actually Looks At
On a standard counterbalance truck, a competent person should work through:
- Mast channels, rollers and chain wear, measured rather than eyeballed
- Forks, checked for heel wear, cracks and blade angle
- Lift, tilt and attachment hydraulics, including hoses, rams and seals
- Overhead guard, load backrest and operator restraint
- Brakes, steering, tyres and other non-lifting items under PUWER
- Data plate, safe working load markings and the previous report history
Findings are recorded and rated by severity. Anything serious should reach the duty holder on the day, not in a report that lands the following week.
Who Can Carry It Out
The competent person needs the practical and theoretical knowledge to spot defects, and enough independence to make an impartial call. HSE guidance is that this should not be the person who carries out routine maintenance on the same equipment, since they would be assessing their own work.
Getting the Intervals Right
Regulation 9 of LOLER sets the defaults: every six months for lifting accessories and anything used to lift people, every twelve months for other lifting equipment, unless a competent person has drawn up an examination scheme.
Warehouses tend to trip up on the accessories rather than the trucks. Slings, chains, shackles and lifting beams sit in a rack, get forgotten, and lapse quietly while the fleet stays current. If it lifts, it belongs on the register.
Booked separately from the service, with the two sets of records kept apart, whether a site is compliant stops being a matter of opinion.
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