Cranes and elevating work platforms are close cousins in the Australian Standards — both fall within the AS 2550 series on the safe use of cranes, hoists and winches, and both are subject to a tiered inspection regime built on the same principles. If you manage a crane, or run a mixed fleet of lifting and access equipment, understanding when a crane needs inspecting and how its certification works is part of the same compliance discipline you already apply to EWPs. This guide explains the crane side of that picture.
Cranes and the AS 2550 family
The AS 2550 series governs the safe use of cranes, hoists and winches, with parts addressing different equipment. AS 2550.10 is the EWP-specific part that this Knowledge Centre focuses on, but the broader series applies the same underlying philosophy to cranes: a machine must be planned, sited, operated, maintained and inspected safely across its life by competent people, with the design-and-manufacture side governed by AS 1418.
For an owner, the practical consequence is that a crane, like an EWP, carries an inspection regime rather than a single annual box-tick. The same concepts — competent person, critical components, tiered inspections, logbook records — carry across.
The tiered inspection regime
Just as with an EWP, a crane is subject to inspections at different depths and frequencies rather than one universal check. The regime combines the operator's own checks before use with deeper professional inspections that recur across the machine's life.
Broadly, a crane inspection regime spans:
- Pre-operational checks by the operator before use.
- Routine inspection and maintenance at regular in-service intervals.
- Periodic inspection by a competent person on a recurring basis.
- Major inspection at the interval set by the relevant standard and equipment class — commonly 5-year or 10-year depending on crane type and duty.
When does a crane need inspecting?
There is no single answer that fits every crane, because the intervals depend on the machine type, its duty and the relevant part of the standard. Rather than assume a universal figure, the right approach is to check the applicable standard and the manufacturer's requirements for your specific crane and read the intervals from there.
In general terms, a crane needs attention:
- Before each use, through the operator's pre-start checks.
- At the routine and periodic intervals the standard and manufacturer specify for the machine.
- At its major inspection, due against the machine's age at the interval set by the standard and equipment class.
- After any event that could affect structural integrity — damage, overload, or structural repair or modification.
Certification and record-keeping
As with an EWP, the credibility of a crane's compliance rests on documentation. The logbook and inspection history are the evidence that the machine has been maintained to the standard, and a gap in that record is a compliance gap regardless of the machine's apparent condition. Major inspections in particular produce engineering assessment, testing reports and certification that become a permanent part of the machine's history.
Keeping these records complete and current is what lets an owner demonstrate due diligence, satisfy an auditor, and prove the crane is legally able to work. It is the same record-keeping discipline that keeps an EWP compliant, applied to lifting equipment.
Getting a crane inspected
A crane inspection, like an EWP inspection, should be carried out by a competent person with expertise appropriate to the machine, and — for deeper assessments — the engineering capability to interpret findings and certify the outcome. Independence matters here for the same reason it does with EWPs: an inspection is only as trustworthy as it is free of pressure to reach a convenient result.
EWP Australia offers mobile crane inspections alongside its EWP inspection work, bringing competent assessment to the machine wherever it is located across Australia. To confirm when your crane is due, arrange an inspection or discuss certification, contact a qualified provider on 0416 689 689, or email info@ewpaustralia.com.au. Always work from the current published standard and your machine's manufacturer requirements rather than a general summary.
Events that trigger an inspection outside the schedule
The scheduled intervals are not the only trigger for a crane inspection. Certain events call for a machine to be assessed before it goes back to work, regardless of where it sits in its routine cycle. Ignoring these because 'the next inspection isn't due yet' is a serious mistake, because the whole point is that something may have changed the machine's condition.
A crane should be inspected before returning to service after:
- Any overload or shock loading event, which can damage structure invisibly.
- Physical damage from a collision, dropped load or similar incident.
- Structural repair or modification affecting load-bearing components.
- A long period out of service, where deterioration may have set in unnoticed.
- Relocation or reassembly, where set-up integrity must be confirmed.
Managing cranes and EWPs together
For a business running both cranes and elevating work platforms, the smart move is to manage their compliance as one discipline rather than two silos. Both live under the AS 2550 family, both use logbooks and competent-person inspections, and both benefit from a single register that tracks manufacture dates, next-due inspections and major-inspection timing across every machine.
Bringing cranes and EWPs into the same planning system gives forward visibility of when each machine falls due, lets downtime be staggered so capacity is protected, and ensures nothing slips past a due date. Because a mobile inspection provider can attend the machines wherever they are located, coordinating crane and EWP inspections together across a mixed fleet is entirely practical — and it turns compliance from a scramble into a routine.
The underlying message is that a crane is not a different kind of compliance problem from an EWP — it is the same problem wearing a different machine. The principles you already apply to keep an elevating work platform safe and legally working translate directly: know when it is due, have a competent and independent person inspect it, keep the records complete, and act on what the inspection finds. Handle a crane that way and its compliance becomes as manageable as any other machine in the fleet.
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.