

The Person In Charge is defined as a specifically identified person who is designated by their company as having the required level of competency to plan and supervise the specific lifting and hoisting operation. 'Person In Charge: one competent person who has overall control over the crane operation and acts on behalf of the organization requiring the load to be moved (the employing organization)'. ISO 12480 gives the following definition of the Person In Charge: To overcome this the term Appointed Person, or Person In Charge as he is being called within the International Association of Oil & Gas producers (OGP), is introduced in this Standard.

When broken down into stages, the planning of a safe lifting and hoisting operation, no matter how complex, can be relatively straightforward, but someone shall take responsibility for it. The ISO 12480 Standard establishes required practices for the safe use of cranes, including safe systems of work, management, planning, selection, erection and dismantling, operation and maintenance of cranes and the selection of drivers, slingers and signallers. Thankfully, ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) provides a very useful Standard to help employers to understand and comply with this legal requirement. This regulation places a legal duty on any employing organisation to properly plan and appropriately supervise each and every lifting operation. 'All lifting operations must be properly planned, appropriately supervised and carried out to protect the safety of workers'. When used correctly and with a fully trained and competent lifting team, cranes are also one of the safest items of equipment.Įuropean Directive 2009/104/EC - use of work equipment – Annex II, article 3.2.5 reads as follows: Good planning and supervision protects cranes and the people working around them.Ĭranes are today some of the most versatile pieces of equipment to be found working on many oil & gas installations, industrial and construction sites. If something goes wrong, the consequences are likely to be disastrous - severe damage to property with risk of injury or loss of life is a real possibility. Without sufficient planning and supervision, crane accidents will happen one day or the other! ISO 12480: the Standard to ensure safe lifting and hoisting
