Crane Hire or Contract Lift: What Is The Difference?

The difference between crane hire and a contract lift is not the crane. It is who plans the lift, who supervises it and who insures it. This guide explains both and how to choose.

Overview

Crane hire and contract lifting in short

Crane hire or contract lift? The difference is not the crane. It is who plans the lift, who supervises it and who carries the risk if something goes wrong. On crane hire you get the crane and operator, and the lift stays your responsibility. On a contract lift we take on the lifting operation: we plan it, supervise it and insure it.

In short

Crane hire: we supply the crane and operator. You appoint the appointed person, produce the lift plan, supervise the lift and insure it.
Contract lift: we plan, supervise and insure the lifting operation, with our own appointed person.
Choose crane hire if you have a competent appointed person and a lifting plan of your own.
Choose a contract lift if you do not, or if the lift is complex, public facing or high risk.

Both are used every day in the UK, and both are covered by standard industry terms from the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA). This guide explains what each one covers, what you have to provide, how to choose and what changes on the price.

Crane hire

What is crane hire?

Crane hire, sometimes called plant hire with operator or CPA hire, means we supply the crane and a trained operator. Everything around the lift stays with you as the hirer.

On a crane hire job you are responsible for:

Appointing a competent appointed person to plan and control the lifting operation.
Producing the risk assessment and the written lift plan, and selecting the crane for the job.
Supervising the lift on the day, including the slinger and signaller.
Checking the ground is able to carry the crane, and telling us the weight of the load.
Insuring the crane while it is in your possession, along with the load and any damage the lift causes.

Our operator runs the crane and will not carry out a lift that is unsafe, but the operator does not take over the planning or the supervision. Crane hire is normally contracted under the CPA Model Conditions with the supplementary conditions for mobile and crawler cranes or for tower cranes.

Contract lift

What is a contract lift?

On a contract lift we take on the lifting operation as a whole, not just the machine. It is contracted under the CPA Contract Lifting Services conditions.

On a contract lift we are responsible for:

Providing the appointed person. Ours are in house, so the person planning your lift works for us.
Surveying the site, selecting the crane and writing the lift plan and method statement.
Supervising the lift, and supplying the slinger and signaller.
Insuring the lifting operation, including the crane and the goods being lifted, up to the limits set out in the conditions and confirmed in your quotation.

You still have things to provide, and they matter: accurate weights and dimensions, information about the ground and anything below it, access to the site, and any permissions such as a road closure. If the information we plan from is wrong, the plan is wrong.

Compared

Crane hire and contract lifting side by side

	Crane hire	Contract lift
Plans the lift	You	Us
Appointed person	Yours	Ours
Selects the crane	You, with our advice	Us
Supervises on the day	You	Us
Slinger and signaller	You	Us
Insures the crane and the load	You	Us
Ground and access	You	You, with your competent person confirming the ground against our outrigger loads and mat details
Standard terms	CPA Model Conditions	CPA Contract Lifting Services conditions
Usual price	Lower day rate	Higher, because more is included

Demag AC 100-4L and Terex AC 140 Compact set up side by side for a tandem lift — A tandem lift with two cranes. The more a lift depends on planning, the more it points towards a contract lift.

Choosing

Which one is right for your lift

Most of the decision comes down to two questions: do you have a competent appointed person, and how much risk does the lift carry?

Crane hire usually suits you if:

You are a contractor with your own appointed person, lift plans and trained slingers.
The lift is routine and repeats, such as regular deliveries into the same compound.
You already carry insurance for hired-in plant and for the loads you lift.

A contract lift usually suits you if:

You do not employ an appointed person, which is the case for most factories, building owners and one-off clients.
The load is valuable, awkward or irreplaceable, such as a machine tool or a package with a long lead time.
The lift is over a road, a railway, a building or the public, or needs a road closure.
You want one company accountable for the lift from the survey to the load landing.

Whichever route you take, the lifting operation has to be planned by a competent person, properly supervised and carried out safely under regulation 8 of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER). The HSE’s LOLER guidance sets out what that means, and the BS 7121 codes of practice describe the role of the appointed person. Hiring a crane does not pass that duty to the crane company. A contract lift does.

The 450te crane on full outrigger spread, seen from above — A 450te crane on full outrigger spread. Crane size, set-up space and time on site move the price on both routes.

Cost

What each one costs

A contract lift costs more than hiring the same crane for the same day, because the price includes the survey, the planning, the appointed person, the supervision, the extra crew and the insurance. Crane hire looks cheaper on the quotation, but only because you are providing those things yourself.

The real comparison is the total cost of getting the lift done safely. If you would have to buy in an appointed person, train or hire slingers and extend your insurance, a contract lift is often the cheaper route as well as the simpler one. If you already have all of that in place, crane hire is usually better value.

What moves the price either way is the same on both: the weight and radius of the lift, the crane it needs, how long you need it, access and ground conditions, and whether the work needs road closures or out of hours working. Our guide to what affects the cost of crane hire goes through those factors, and What size crane do I need? explains how the crane is chosen.

Paperwork

What you get in writing

On a contract lift we issue the paperwork for the lifting operation before we arrive on site, so you can pass it to your own health and safety team or principal contractor:

The lift plan and method statement, with the crane chosen and its position.
The risk assessment for the lifting operation.
Proof of insurance for the lift.
The crane’s current thorough examination report and the operator’s certification.

On crane hire we provide the crane documents and the operator’s certification, and the lift plan and risk assessment are yours to produce. Ask for what you need early, because a principal contractor will usually want to see it before the crane is allowed on site.

Questions

Common questions

What is the difference between crane hire and a contract lift?

On crane hire you get the crane and operator and you remain responsible for planning, supervising and insuring the lift. On a contract lift the crane company does all of that and takes responsibility for the lifting operation.

What is an appointed person?

The competent person who plans the lifting operation, decides how it will be done and controls it. The role is described in the BS 7121 code of practice for the safe use of cranes. On crane hire the appointed person is yours; on a contract lift, ours.

Do I need insurance to hire a crane?

For crane hire, yes. You insure the crane while it is in your possession, along with the goods being lifted and damage caused by the lift. On a contract lift we insure the lifting operation, up to the limits in the conditions and your quotation.

Crane hire vs contract lift: which is cheaper?

Crane hire has the lower day rate, and a contract lift has the lower total cost once you count the appointed person, the lift plan, the slinger and signaller and the insurance you would otherwise provide yourself. If you already have those, crane hire wins on price.

Is a contract lift safer than crane hire?

Neither is safer in itself. Both must be planned and supervised by a competent appointed person. What changes is who does that work, so a contract lift removes the risk of an under-resourced plan when you have nobody in house to write one.

Can I switch from crane hire to a contract lift?

Yes, and it is worth asking early. It changes what we survey, what we quote and what your insurers need to know, so it is much easier to decide before the crane is booked than on the day.

Which do most of our customers choose?

Clients who lift regularly and have their own appointed person tend to choose crane hire. Factories, building owners and anyone lifting something valuable or unusual tend to choose a contract lift.

Get a quote

Talk to us about your lift

Call us on 0800 008 6096 or email office@synergy-lifting.co.uk. Tell us what you are lifting, where it has to go and what the site is like, and we will tell you which route makes sense and quote for it.

Find out more about our crane hire and contract lifting and machine delivery and installation services.