Crane Hire and Contracting Lifting: What Do They Mean for You?

Posted on: 26 May 2016

During construction, you need a crane to move heavy equipment and materials from one place to another. Using a system of cables and pulleys, a crane conveniently clamps your load and shifts it slowly to the location that you want. This helps you to save time, considering that such work would take longer if it were done by hand. Notably, using cranes in any work site comes with a handful of challenges and risks. Therefore, you should be keen when seeking the services of a firm that leases cranes. You can either go for crane hire or contract lifting. The following is a discussion of what each service entails to help you make the right decision:

Contract Lifting

Under contract lifting, you commission all the work involved in the site to your service provider. Using a crane in a construction requires a thorough analysis of the jobsite. This will help to identify the specific risks involved at your workstation, the methods that will be used and any other equipment that you will have to pay for alongside the crane to accomplish the work successfully.

You should also note that you may need some paperwork done for you to use the crane on your construction site. For example, if you need to transport it to your site via road, you will need authorisation to carry an abnormal load on the road. By going for contract lifting, you let your service provider deal with all this work. They will assess the risks, determine the working methods and provide all the suitable personnel that will ensure that the work is done successfully.

Crane Hire

Under an agreement to hire a crane, the firm leasing the crane to you will provide the crane and an operator. If there is any paperwork such as the authorisation to carry the abnormal load via road, then you will have to fill it out yourself. In addition, you are also supposed to assess the risks, institute safety measures and determine the way you would like your work to be carried out. For you to get the right crane for your work, you need to know some important details about your load, such as its weight, height, the distance that the load will be moved and any access restrictions and obstructions on your site.

Ideally, you should go for contract lifting if you are doing the lifting for the first time. Crane hire is suitable for recurrent work that you are familiar with, having used a crane before. Here, you already know what to pay for unlike a case where you are moving a load for the first time.

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