One of the most common — and most expensive — mistakes in ordering access equipment is confusing working height with platform height. They sound like the same thing, and the two figures on a spec sheet are only a couple of metres apart, but ordering against the wrong one lands the wrong machine on site and a crew that cannot reach the job. This guide untangles the two terms, explains the convention that links them, and sets out how to specify a machine so it actually reaches what you need it to.
The two figures and what they mean
Platform height is the height of the platform floor above the ground when the machine is fully raised — literally, how high the deck you stand on gets. Working height is how high a person standing on that platform can reasonably reach to do work.
The gap between them is the person. A worker standing on the deck can reach above their own head, so the height at which they can actually work is greater than the height of the floor they are standing on. That difference is what the two numbers are trying to capture.
The two-metre convention
Across the access industry, working height is conventionally quoted as the platform height plus two metres. The two metres is a nominal allowance for the reach of an average adult standing on the platform — it is a convention for comparing machines on a common basis, not a precise measurement of any particular person.
So a machine quoted at a certain working height will have a platform height about two metres lower, and vice versa. Once you know the convention, the two numbers stop being confusing and become two views of the same machine: one describing where your feet get to, the other estimating where your hands can work.
Why the distinction trips people up
The trouble starts when a buyer takes a working height off a spec sheet and treats it as the height the platform reaches, or measures the job to the point they need to stand and orders that as a working height. Either way the machine arrives roughly two metres out from what the task actually needs.
- Order to working height when you meant platform height and the deck lands short, leaving the crew stretching or unable to reach at all.
- Order to platform height when you meant working height and you may pay for and transport a bigger machine than the job calls for.
- Compare two machines where one supplier quotes working height and another quotes platform height, and you compare figures that are not the same measurement.
- Assume the two-metre allowance suits every worker, when the real reach depends on the person, their tools and how far they can safely lean within the platform.
How to specify the right machine
The reliable way to avoid the mistake is to measure and describe the job, not to trade single numbers. Start from what the worker has to reach and work back to the platform they need to stand on.
- Measure the actual height of the work — the gutter, the light, the ceiling service — from the ground the machine will stand on.
- Decide the platform height that puts the worker at a comfortable, safe working position for that task, allowing for their own reach rather than assuming a fixed two metres.
- Confirm whether the supplier's quoted figure is working height or platform height, and convert using the two-metre convention if you need to compare like with like.
- Check outreach as well as height — a job away from the base needs horizontal reach, and reaching out generally lowers the height and capacity available.
- Confirm platform capacity for the workers, tools and materials that go up, because a machine that reaches the height but not the load is still the wrong machine.
Reach, capacity and the working envelope
Height is only one axis of the machine's working envelope. Every boom and platform has a chart showing how far it can reach out at a given height and what it can carry there, and those figures fall away as you extend outward. A machine that easily makes the height straight up may not make it at the end of a long horizontal reach.
This is why a single headline number, whether working height or platform height, never fully specifies a job. The safe way to choose is against the whole envelope — height, outreach and capacity together — so the machine can do the work at the position and load the task really involves, not just at its best-case point straight overhead.
Getting the spec right the first time
The two-metre convention is a handy shorthand, but it is a comparison tool, not a substitute for measuring the job. Describe the task — the height, the outreach, the load and the ground — and let the machine be chosen against that, rather than ordering a single number and hoping the convention lines up with reality.
If you are unsure whether a working-height figure will actually put your crew where they need to be, it is worth talking it through before the machine turns up. EWP Australia can help match a machine to the real reach and load of your job on 0416 689 689.
This guide is general information prepared by EWP Australia and is grounded in publicly available Australian Standards and Safe Work Australia material. It is not a substitute for the current published edition of the relevant standard or for site-specific engineering advice. Always work from the current standard and consult a competent person for your specific equipment and application.