# Aerial lifts

URL: https://hardhatbinder.com/en/toolbox-talks/aerial-lifts
Last updated: 2026-10-23

This week we have boom lifts and scissor lifts working on site. A lift gets you up fast, but a tip-over, a fall from the basket, or getting pinned against steel can happen just as fast. Let's go over what keeps you safe every time you go up.

## Key points

1. Only run a lift if you've been trained and authorized on that type of machine. If you're not sure how a control works, stop and ask.
2. Do a walk-around and test the controls before every shift. Check tires, hydraulic leaks, guardrails, the gate, and the emergency lowering. Tag out anything that's not right.
3. In a boom lift, wear your harness and clip your lanyard to the anchor point in the basket, never to the guardrail, a beam, or anything outside the lift.
4. Keep both feet on the platform floor. Don't sit, stand, or climb on the guardrails, and don't use planks, ladders, or buckets to get higher.
5. Check the ground before you set up or drive. Stay away from holes, soft dirt, drop-offs, and slopes, and use outriggers when the machine has them.
6. Know the load limit and don't go over it, counting people, tools, and material. Never use the lift as a crane.
7. Look up before you raise. Keep well clear of power lines, and watch for beams, ducts, and ceilings so you don't get crushed against them.

## Talk it over

- Where on this site is the ground soft, sloped, or near an edge where a lift could tip?
- What overhead hazards, like power lines or steel, do we have near our lift work this week?
- If someone gets stuck up in the basket, who knows how to bring it down from the ground controls?

> **Remember:** Inspect it, clip in, check the ground, and look up before you go up.

## Official sources

- [29 CFR 1926.453](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/section-1926.453) — Aerial lifts

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Source: HardHat Binder, operated by Leadspire LLC. Templates to be reviewed by a competent person before use; not legal advice; not affiliated with OSHA.