It is key that you do everything you can to make sure your employees are safe on the job site, especially when they are operating aerial work platforms. We here at Pro Trainers UK offer a variety of professional heavy machinery/safety training programs to teach and demonstrate critical safety tips for operating aerial work platforms effectively.

Here are 10 important safety tips you need to make sure your employees are well aware of (and following) whenever operating aerial work platforms.

Read the owners manual

It’s absolutely critical that employees operating aerial equipment understand the capabilities and limitations of the machinery they are working with. The owners manual plays a critical role in training.

Hold regular safety meetings

It’s not enough to train everyone on safety once a year or even once every quarter. Hold regular and frequent safety training every week or every month to make sure everyone is up to speed.

Pre-operation inspections are mandatory

Aerial equipment needs to be inspected fully before each and every shift, without exception. Make sure that your employees understand the importance of inspecting equipment before using to avoid unnecessary accidents.

Double check for workplace hazards before moving machinery

Complacency kills, which is why it is so vitally important that you double check for any and all potential workplace hazards before moving aerial equipment.

Always use fall protection equipment

Safety harnesses and anchor points need to be taken advantage of every single time you are going to get inside of aerial work equipment. This has to be mandatory and followed with no exception.

Never raise work platforms on unsteady surfaces

Regardless of the situation, you can never raise aerial work platforms on surfaces that are anything but perfectly level, perfectly firm, and secured with outrigger equipment.

DO NOT raise equipment near active power lines

Raising aerial equipment anywhere near active or energized power lines is a sure fire recipe for disaster and a reason that a lot of aerial operators lose their lives every year. Do not under any circumstances do this.

Do not sit, stand, or climb on safety rails

There may be a temptation to relax on or use guardrails/safety rails as a booster, but you have to avoid the temptation to compromise this critical piece of safety equipment in this manner.

Do not exit aerial work platforms that are elevated

Make sure that you maintain yourself in the aerial work platform unless you have been trained to exit the elevated platform and are using all of the necessary safety equipment to do so.

Don’t climb down elevated platform equipment

Even if you’re aerial equipment has “locked up” in the elevated position do not use the equipment as a climbing apparatus.