Maintenance Responsibilities, Record Keeping and Equipment Documentation
Maintenance keeps the hoist in the condition assumed by the risk assessment. The PCBU is responsible for arranging and resourcing maintenance; the operator is responsible for pre-start checks, reporting defects and not operating faulty plant. Maintenance must follow the manufacturer's schedule and be performed by competent persons, with isolations and lock-out/tag-out applied. Major inspections and periodic third-party inspections are separate from routine servicing and must be current before use.
Documentation a candidate should be able to name: the plant registration or design verification where required; the logbook; pre-operational inspection records; maintenance and repair records; periodic and major inspection reports; commissioning and alteration records; operator licence and training records; the risk assessment and safe work procedure; and records of incidents, near misses and corrective actions. Records must be legible, dated, attributable and retained for the period the regulator requires.
Traps: assuming a current service sticker proves the periodic inspection is current; accepting an undocumented repair; and treating the logbook as optional. A hoist without traceable inspection and maintenance history is not verifiably safe.
Rule of thumb: three questions before use - when was it last inspected, what was found, and who fixed it? If you cannot answer all three from the records, treat the hoist as unverified and stop.
Worked example: a repair is made to a rope termination on a Friday. The entry should record the date, the defect, the part replaced, the person and their competency, the test performed afterwards, and the return-to-service authorisation - then the next pre-start check confirms it.