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Buying or Hiring a Spider Lift (MEWP) for Tree Work: UK Checks and Rules (2026)

What to check before you buy or hire a spider lift or other MEWP for tree work in the UK: the six-monthly thorough examination report, basket and ground controls, hours, outriggers and leaks, operator training and overhead lines.

By TreeBay · 18 Oct 2026 · 5 min read

This guide was drafted with AI.

This is general information, not legal or financial advice. Rules and schemes change, so check the official sources linked in this guide before you rely on it.

In this guide
  1. Buying or Hiring a Spider Lift: What Matters Most
  2. The Thorough Examination Report
  3. Checks Before You Buy
  4. Checks When You Hire
  5. Training and Safe Use
  6. Buying vs Hiring

Buying or Hiring a Spider Lift: What Matters Most

Before you buy or hire a spider lift or any other MEWP, see its latest thorough examination report: a platform that lifts people must be examined at least every six months. Then check that both the basket and the ground controls work, including the emergency lowering, and that the outriggers, tracks and hydraulics are sound. And make sure whoever operates it is trained on that model.

A spider lift is a tracked mobile elevating work platform (MEWP) with outriggers, often narrow enough to get through a garden gate. In tree work it's often used for crown reductions in gardens a road-going platform can't reach. This guide is for arborists buying a used one, or hiring one by the day or week.

The Thorough Examination Report

A MEWP is lifting equipment for lifting people, so the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER) apply. It must be thoroughly examined by a competent person at least every six months (or to a written examination scheme), and after anything that could make it unsafe (LOLER reg 9; HSE: MEWPs).

  • Hiring: a machine from someone else can't be used in your business unless it comes with physical evidence that its last thorough examination was done (LOLER reg 9(4)). Ask the hirer for the current report before it arrives.
  • Buying: ask for the latest report and the ones before it. Look at the date (more than six months ago means it needs examining before you use it for work, unless it's on a written examination scheme), and at any defects listed and whether they were put right. If you buy it from a private seller, or it comes without its last report, have it thoroughly examined before you first use it for work.
  • Keep it going: if you buy, book the next examination before the current one runs out, and keep the reports.

Checks Before You Buy

Run it through a full cycle with the seller, at height, not just on the trailer.

  • Basket controls and ground controls — Both must work. Basket controls can fail while the ground controls still work, so test each set on its own. Test the emergency lowering too: someone on the ground has to be able to bring the platform down.
  • Hours — Ask for the hour reading and the service history, and compare it with the machine's condition. A low-hour machine that looks worn needs explaining.
  • Outriggers and levelling — Every outrigger should deploy and retract smoothly. If the machine has an interlock that stops the boom rising until it's set up and level, check that it works. HSE says outriggers "must be extended and chocked before raising the platform", on "firm and level ground" (HSE: MEWPs).
  • Boom and slew — Watch for jerky movement, play in the slew ring, or a boom that creeps down when it should hold.
  • Hydraulics — Look for leaks at hoses, rams and the slew ring, and for damp or recently cleaned patches.
  • Tracks and undercarriage — Worn or cut rubber tracks, missing rollers and damaged track frames are costly.
  • Basket — Cracks, damaged floor, a working gate, and the harness anchor points still in place.
  • Engine and power — Check whichever it has (diesel, petrol, battery or mains). On fuel, see our red diesel guide.
  • Paperwork — The thorough examination reports, service records, the operator's manual and a receipt with the serial number.

Checks When You Hire

  • The current thorough examination report (above).
  • A handover: the hirer should show the operator that make and model's controls, set-up and emergency lowering.
  • The machine's working envelope: will it reach, and can it get on site? Check access widths, ground conditions and anything overhead.
  • What happens if it breaks down on a job, and who pays for damage.

Training and Safe Use

  • Training: HSE says operators should hold a certificate or card from a training course, and get familiarisation training on the make and model they'll use (HSE: MEWPs). The International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) runs a well-known scheme, but no law names a particular one: it's the training that's required, under the duty to make sure anyone using work equipment is trained for it (PUWER 1998 reg 9).
  • Chainsaw from a MEWP: that's its own City & Guilds unit, 0039-38. See our NPTC chainsaw tickets guide.
  • A rescue plan: HSE says to "Have a plan for rescuing someone from a MEWP and practise it", with someone on the ground who knows the emergency procedure and the ground controls (HSE: MEWPs).
  • In the basket: where there's still a risk of falling, HSE says a harness with a short lanyard must be clipped to an anchor point the manufacturer provides.
  • Overhead lines: HSE says not to operate a MEWP close to overhead cables, and lists collision with them among the main hazards. Find out where the lines are before you set up.

Buying vs Hiring

Hiring makes sense while the work is occasional: the hirer usually handles the thorough examinations and servicing, and you pay only for the days you use it. Buying makes sense once it's busy most weeks, and you have the space to keep it and the budget for examinations, servicing and repairs. Either way, make sure the operator is trained on that machine before it's used on a job.

When you're ready, browse hire and leasing listings or machines for sale on TreeBay, or list your own.

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