Service Goods Lifts
Small commercial goods lifts in shops, hospitality and offices, moving stock between the shop floor, stockroom and basement.
Goods Lifts, Freight Lifts, Pallet & Mezzanine Lifts
Goods Lift Inspections in London
Independent LOLER thorough examination of goods lifts in warehouses, shops, kitchens, factories and hospitals across London. A goods-only lift is examined every twelve months, and every six if people travel in it. The report, with photographs, comes the same day, and we remind you before the next one is due. We sell no repairs.
26+ Years Hands-On Engineering Experience
Independent of Maintenance Contracts
7 Days a Week, 6am to 6pm
Same-Day Reports, With Photos
Certificate expired or lift out of compliance? You're exposed to enforcement action, and your insurance may not respond, until it's resolved. What to do.
Written and reviewed by Mark Crowley, Director, Integrity Lift Compliance Ltd — 26+ years of hands-on lifting equipment engineering. NHS estates, commercial property and industrial lifting compliance.
Engineering Approach
What our goods lift inspection programme delivers
Independent, defensible statutory examination by an engineer with deep hands-on plant experience.
- Twelve-monthly LOLER examination for goods-only lifts
- Six-monthly where people travel in the lift, including accompanied goods lifts
- Suspension, brake, safety gear, gate and door locks, slack-rope and overload protection
- Report with photographs issued the same day, and a reminder before the next is due
- Independent of your lift company: all makes and models, no conflict of interest
- Scheduled around deliveries and shifts so the lift is out of use for as little time as possible
What a goods lift inspection covers
A goods lift inspection under LOLER is a thorough examination of everything that holds the load up and everything that stops it falling or moving with a door open. On a typical goods lift that means:
- Suspension: ropes, chains or belts, their terminations, and the sheave or drum they run on
- Brake: its condition and adjustment, and whether it holds the rated load
- Safety gear and governor: where fitted, that they trip and stop the car on the guide rails
- Gates, doors and locks: landing and car gates, their locks and interlocks, so the lift cannot move with a gate open
- Slack-rope and overload protection: the devices that stop the lift if a rope goes slack or the car is overloaded
- Hydraulic goods lifts: ram, cylinder, valves, hoses and any creep or leakage
- Car, guides and structure: the car or platform, guide rails and fixings, and buffers
- Marking and controls: rated load and goods-only signs, controls, emergency stops and any changes since the last report
Gates and their interlocks are where goods lifts most often fail. On a busy loading floor they are knocked by trolleys and pallet trucks every day, and a lift that can move with a gate open is one of the most serious findings there is.
Twelve months or six?
LOLER 1998 Regulation 9 sets twelve months for lifting equipment that carries goods only, and six months for anything that carries people. A goods lift that staff ride in, or one designed for an attendant to travel with the load, is on the six-monthly interval. If a goods-only lift is being used to carry people, that has to stop: the lift was not designed for it. We confirm which interval applies to each lift on the first visit.
How often do LOLER inspections need doing?What you get after the inspection
A Report of Thorough Examination with everything LOLER Schedule 1 requires — including the lift identified, the date examined, its safe working load, any defect with what must be done and by when, and the date the next examination is due — with each defect graded by severity. On top of that:
- Same-day report: issued digitally on the day of the inspection, not weeks later. HSE guidance for lifts says normally within 28 days
- Photographs: of what was examined and of any defect, in every report as standard
- Records and reminders: we keep each lift's record on file and remind you before the next examination falls due
If the lift is not safe to use, you are told in writing before we leave, and the enforcing authority is notified as the law requires. Because we sell no repairs, a defect on the report is never a quotation in disguise.
Assets We Examine
Asset classes covered under our goods lift inspection programme.
Industrial Freight Lifts
Heavy-capacity goods lifts in warehouses, food manufacturing and distribution centres.
Mezzanine Goods Lifts
Mezzanine and inter-floor goods lifts used to move stock between racking levels.
Pallet & Trolley Lifts
Pallet-handling and trolley-loaded lifts in retail and logistics buildings.
Accompanied Goods Lifts
Goods lifts designed for an attendant to travel with the load. These carry people, so they are on the six-monthly interval.
Older Gate Lifts
Goods lifts with collapsible or manual gates, where the gate locks and interlocks are the first thing to check.
Trusted by Critical Estates
Independent. Defensible. Genuinely Endorsed.
SAFed-aligned defect classification, and the endorsement below is a genuine NHS Trust quote — not stock marketing copy.
NHS
NHS
Critical estate passenger lift compliance experience
SK
Skanska
Construction & engineering compliance support
A·B·C
SAFed-Aligned Defect Grading
Defects graded A, B or C to the published SAFed severity scale — a grading standard we follow, not a membership we hold
DBS
Enhanced DBS
Director Mark Crowley holds an enhanced DBS check
NHS Trust Endorsement
“Exceptional response times and thorough documentation. Managing compliance across multiple critical medical estates is complex, but their team makes statutory lift auditing seamless.”
Phillip Nai
Critical Healthcare Estates Manager
Barts Health NHS Trust
Areas We Cover
Independent goods lift inspections across London.
Common Questions
Goods Lift Inspection FAQs
How often does a goods lift need a LOLER inspection?
Every twelve months if it carries goods only. If people travel in it, including an attendant travelling with the load, it is every six months. A written scheme of examination can set a different interval for a particular lift.
Staff sometimes ride in our goods lift. Is that allowed?
Only if the lift is designed and marked for carrying people, in which case it is six-monthly. If it is goods-only, nobody should ride in it. We tell you which it is on the first visit.
Is a goods lift service the same as the LOLER inspection?
No. A service keeps the lift working and is done by the maintenance company. The LOLER thorough examination is a separate legal check that the lift is safe to keep using, and is best done by someone independent of the maintenance. A service does not reset its date.
What fails most often on a goods lift?
Gates and their interlocks, because trolleys and pallet trucks knock them every day. After that, worn ropes and terminations, brakes out of adjustment, and slack-rope or overload devices that no longer work.
How soon do I get the report?
The same day, issued digitally with photographs. If the lift is unsafe, you are told in writing before we leave.
Can you inspect our goods lift without stopping deliveries?
Yes. We agree a time around your deliveries and shifts, and the lift is out of use only for the part of the visit when the brake, safety devices and locks are being proved.
Request a Survey
Tell us what needs inspecting and where. We'll reply within one business hour.
Already have an asset list or examination schedule? Email it to info@integrityliftcompliance.co.uk and we'll come back with a survey plan rather than ask you to retype it.
Survey Request Form
Further reading on goods lift inspections
How Often Are LOLER Inspections Required?
Six months for equipment that lifts people and for lifting accessories, twelve months for everything else, or in line with a written examination scheme drawn up by a competent person. That is the whole rule. What catches duty-holders out is rarely the interval itself — it is when the clock starts, what resets it, and the examinations that fall outside the cycle altogether.
Can My Lift Company Carry Out the LOLER Inspection?
It is one of the most common questions duty-holders ask, and the honest answer is not a flat no. LOLER does not name a prohibited person. What it requires is a competent person, and HSE expects that person to be sufficiently independent and impartial to make objective decisions — which is where a maintenance provider examining its own work runs into difficulty. This is about the structure of the arrangement, not about anyone's honesty.
Will the Examiner Leave My Lift Out of Service?
It is the question duty-holders ask least often and worry about most, and it is the real reason many let their maintenance contractor examine its own work. A thorough examination takes the lift out of normal service deliberately — that is what testing the safety gear means. Getting it back is specific to the installation in front of you rather than to the name on the doors.
Prefer to talk to an engineer?
07496 873972