Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA)

The Construction Plant-hire Association is the trade association for UK plant hire. This guide covers its hire conditions, its crane interest groups and where to find its lifting guidance.

Overview

What the Construction Plant-hire Association is

The Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) is the trade association for the UK plant hire industry. It publishes standard hire conditions for plant and cranes, and its interest groups write technical guidance on cranes and other plant.

In short

The CPA was founded in 1941 and represents plant hire companies across the UK.
Its 2021 hire conditions, for members to use, cover plant hire and contract lifting.
Its Crane Interest Group and Tower Crane Interest Group write guidance on crane supply and use.
Some of its guides are free to download and some are for members only.

Full name	Construction Plant-hire Association
Abbreviation	CPA
Type	Trade association for the plant hire industry
Founded	1941
Remit	Plant hire across the UK, with regional groups across Great Britain
Northern Ireland	The CPA describes itself as UK-wide. Its regional list names no Northern Ireland region.
Website	cpa.uk.net

Role

What the CPA does

The CPA has a seat on the board of the employer-led Plant Sector Representative Organisation.

Its best-known work is the CPA hire conditions. The current set dates from 2021, and only CPA members may use them:

CPA Model Conditions 2021, for business-to-business hire
Contract Lifting Services Conditions 2021
Mobile and Crawler Crane Supplementary Conditions 2021, and Tower Crane Supplementary Conditions 2021
consumer conditions for plant hired with or without an operator

Interest groups

The CPA’s interest groups

Technical work is done in the CPA’s special interest groups. The Crane Interest Group is, in the CPA’s words, the original and largest of them, and HSE‘s page on lifting operations in construction links to it. Other groups cover tower cranes, construction hoists, suction and vacuum excavators, and rail plant. The groups publish best practice guides and technical information notes, some of them written with HSE.

Publications

What the CPA publishes on lifting

The CPA’s lifting guidance is on its website, mainly its mobile and crawler crane guidance page and its publications library. Its guides on lifting work include:

Best Practice Guide for Crane Hire and Contract Lifting (CIG 9801)
Guidance on the Tendering, Supply, Management and Operation of Mobile Cranes (CIG 2308)
Maintenance, Inspection and Thorough Examination of Mobile Cranes (CIG 1001)
Guidance on the Planning and Control of Lifting Operations in Wind (CIG/TCIG 2507)
Tendering, Management and Operation of Tower Cranes (TCIG 2602)
Requirements for cranes and other mobile lifting equipment next to Network Rail lines (CIG/TCIG 2503)
The Management of Lifting Operations with Lorry Loaders, with ALLMI
Ground Conditions for Construction Plant

Lifting

Why the CPA matters for lifting and machine moving

Under crane hire, the hirer plans the lift and carries the responsibility for it. Under a contract lift, the crane company does. The CPA’s conditions and its best practice guide CIG 9801 cover both, and our guide on crane hire or contract lift goes into the difference.

Each crane type also has its own part of BS 7121, the British Standard code of practice: mobile cranes, tower cranes, lorry loaders and bridge and gantry cranes, with BS 7121-1 setting the general rules.

A yellow mobile crane with its boom and fly jib raised alongside a tall office building clad in pale panels — A mobile crane rigged with a fly jib beside a tall building.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland and further reading

Its hire conditions and guidance have no legal force of their own. Health and safety law sets the duties on a lift, including LOLER and PUWER in Great Britain, and in Northern Ireland the 1999 Northern Ireland regulations.

Sources and further reading

Questions

Common questions

What are the CPA hire conditions?

Standard plant hire terms, revised in 2021, with conditions for contract lifting and supplementary conditions for mobile and tower cranes used alongside the Model Conditions. They apply only when both parties agree to use them.

Where does CPA crane guidance come from?

Its Crane Interest Group and Tower Crane Interest Group, made up of member companies, sometimes working with HSE and other bodies.

Who can download CPA guides?

It depends on the guide. Some are free to download and others are for CPA members only, so check each one on the CPA website. The hire conditions are for members.