The insider

You can’t just put a sticker on an item of lifting or rigging equipment and call it certified. But there are things that you can do to meet the required standards. There are also a couple of different standards that you should be looking at, advises Ashley Thacker of Ranger Lifting. We are often asked […]

Think about what’s more important: where a product is from or its compliance with relevant standards.   Brace yourself: as good as Aussie-made product is, 90% of the lifting and rigging gear sold in Australia is imported from Europe, the States, Asia, or elsewhere. Much less product is manufactured here than people think. That’s why so […]

Seven things we have learnt in the last six months—and three things we would tell our pre-Covid selves. The best companies have treated this year as an opportunity; we are no different. It’s evident that businesses that were able to take decisive action eight months ago are better off now. It was important not to […]

There are many reasons why lifting gear breaks. Here, we look at seven common causes.   There is an unacceptable reality that even when lifting is a core function at a company or on a jobsite, it is not given the recognition is deserves in terms of safety and competence-based expertise. We see hundreds of […]

In the second part of a mini series about building a team, Ashley Thacker presents five important elements of a successful, long-term people development program. My last column in Lift & Hoist Australasia (LHA) magazine focussed on recruitment techniques and closed with references to the importance of nurturing talent and helping people grow in line […]

Only when everybody takes responsibility for safety can we reduce accidents associated with lifting and rigging equipment. Pre-use inspection is a good place to start. A single item of rigging gear gets passed through many hands. It is manufactured, shipped, stored, distributed, probably stored again, and then used to connect a hook to a load. […]