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AUTOMOTIVE LIFT INSPECTION

An automotive lift is a critical piece of equipment in a service garage or home. An annual automotive lift inspection is a perfect opportunity for you to evaluate your lifts maintenance condition and review your overall compliance status.

Mass Equipment Solutions is an engineering company with extensive experience in the Automotive Lift industry from design, testing, manufacturing and validation. We specialize in inspecting automotive service garage lifts, parking lifts and custom car lifts that are different from the standard automotive service garage hoist. Your Inspector will be a highly qualified engineer or technician with experience and knowledge. We are fully insured and take inspection seriously.

Our engineers and technicians have intimate knowledge of the ANSI ALI ALOIM standard as well as the Occupational Health and Safety Act. We also provide you with a detailed electronic inspection report using Liftspec ©, that includes images and comments to make evaluating your lifts service needs easier.

REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS FOR AUTOMOTIVE GARAGES

The Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) Industrial Establishment regulation (Reg 851) requires lifting devices be thoroughly inspected as often as necessary but not less frequently than recommended by the manufacturer and in any case, at least once a year. The Ministry of Labour enforces the act and can engage in progressive enforcement and even prosecution with penalties. Insurance companies, banks and other agencies are expecting that you are complying and could use non-compliance against you in a claim.

Performing regular inspections raises safety awareness, identifies potential issues, reduce downtime and improve overall efficiency of an organization. A yearly inspection by a qualified individual further strengthens safety awareness and is an opportunity for the employees and owners to ask questions about their equipment.

What is a yearly inspection?

A yearly inspection of an automobile hoist involves a visual and physical inspection by a trained, qualified and experienced professional inspector. This person will arrive on site and require the unobstructed use of your automobile hoist/s in order to conduct their inspection. A typical inspection could cover a variety of the following:

  • Documentation such as operator manuals and instructions, warning decals, training logs
  • Guarding
  • Visual examination of the structure for any signs of overloading
  • Physical inspection of critical hardware
  • Inspection of swivel, sliding and pivot joints for excessive play
  • Anchor bolt torque check
  • Visual inspection of surrounding concrete for cracks
  • Visual inspection of electrical system
  • Inspection of control buttons, warning lights and sirens
  • Verify function of the safety limit switches
  • Supervised operation of the lift with onsite trained operator
  • Inspection of the hydraulic system loaded and unloaded
  • Inspection of the mechanical safety systems
  • Inspection of the chain and wire rope systems
  • Visual inspection of in ground pits (if accessible)
  • Physical inspection of lifting arm stops and restraints.

OUR ELECTRONIC INSPECTION REPORT

The last thing you need is more paper to sort through, store and manage. We make your life easier by providing you with an emailed link to a pdf report of your inspeciton. Easily download the file and save it. Images are included in the report as links with comments. Pass / Fail status are easily identified with gree/red colors.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Choosing a lift inspector or inspection company is a crucial task for an automotive service business or dealership. Considering most of the service work on a vehicle requires an automotive lift, it can be said the lift is a VIP when it comes to income generating equipment in your facility. Wouldn’t you agree it’s worth getting an in-depth, informed look at the maintenance condition of your lifting equipment?  Here are some suggestions on how to choose an inspection company

1.      Ask about training

       When you first talk to your inspector, ask them about their background and training. The Occupational health and safety act requires that an inspection be performed by a competent person (a person with knowledge, training and experience). Before you book an appointment for an inspection, ask about your inspectors training and experience. If you’re talking with an office manager or scheduler and they can’t tell you about their inspectors qualifications then ask for the supervisor to call you back and get the details from them.  If you don’t like what you’re hearing, call another company.

2.      Are they certified?

 The Automotive lift industry has it’s own third party certification program for automotive lift inspection services provided by inspectors. This program is sponsored by ALI (Automotive Lift Institute), learn more about ALI here. Choosing a certified lift inspector will give you a level of peace of mind knowing that your inspector has undergone a prior review process. Verify their inspection credentials online through this link. 

3.      Ask them about your involvement in the inspection. 

An automotive lift inspection conducted according to the established ANSI ALOIM standard requires a review of safety, maintenance and operator documentation as well as the physical inspection of the equipment. Your inspector should request various documents during the inspection and ensure they are up-to date. This documentation is critical to promoting safety awareness and demonstrating your due diligence if there ever were to be an accident at your facility involving your lifting equipment.  If your inspector doesn’t come and ask you for any documentation, then you have surely gotten a poor inspection and are left at risk. A good inspector will ask for your documentation and if you don’t have any, will provide you with the help to get them in order. 

4.      Tools, do they carry a flash light? 

A lot can be said about an inspector by looking at their toolkit. A good inspector will arrive at your location on time and equipped with clean, organized set of tools needed to properly conduct the inspection. Pay close attention to see if they carry a flash light. Automotive lifts have hidden areas that are tough to inspect without a flashlight, a mirror and in some cases a scope camera. You are paying for this service, don’t settle for less.   

Don't be afraid to ask you inspector about their technical background. Inspecting a lift requires knowledge of electrical, hydraulics, pneumatics, structures, welding and other specific fields that you get from specialized training or extensive experience in the field. It is your duty to ensure you are contracting a qualified person to perform this critical task, make sure they are what you want by asking a few of these prime questions:

1. How many years have you been inspecting for?

2. Are you a certified lift inspector?

3. Do you have a technical diploma or degree?

4. Do you have any manufacturer training? 

No one knows it all, products, designs and manufacturing quality change continuously and it is important to determine if your inspectors are keeping up. 

A good inspector will have a detailed checklist of items that need to be inspected on the Automotive lift during the inspection. The inspector should be following the checklist, documenting observations, taking pictures and maybe even taking video. After the inspection is complete, you should be given a report that indicates the condition of various key items on your lift along with recommendations for maintenance or repair.

At Mass Equipment Solutions, we use LiftSPEC’s electronic lift inspection software that provides us with checklists developed in accordance with the ANSI ALI ALOIM standard, which is the nationally recongnized standard for automotive lift operation, inspection and maintenance. Our inspectors are trained to fill in as much information as possible on your lift and take pictures to support their recommendations. The completed report is furnished to you in pdf format through email and contains a summary of all the inspections along with a summary of the repairs needed. Click here for a sample report.

We have decided to focus our efforts and specialize in inspection. Further, without having a service department, our customers can be assured that we do not benefit financially from our recommendations on repair/maintenance. We feel this type of a relationship could be beneficial for any automotive repair organization that currently employs a separate service team to overview their repairs/maintenance as we can provide an independent 3rd party review of your equipment.

SCHEDULE AN INSPECITON

Please fill in the information below and we will return your call before the end of business that day. Inspections are schedule a minimum of 1 week in advance. For questions or to speak with someone please call 1-866-250-6277

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