The short answer on hiring an EWP
Check that the machine suits the job on height, outreach and access; that its certification is current and you can see it; that somebody maintains it properly; and that there is a specific answer to what happens if it stops. The day rate tells you least.
The truck that turns up, the paperwork behind it and what happens when something goes wrong are the three things that decide whether a hire was worth it. None of them are visible in a day rate.
These are the questions we would ask if we were hiring a machine from somebody else.
1. Hiring an EWP: is the machine right for the job, or just available?
The most common failure is not a bad machine. It is the wrong machine, sent because it was the one in the yard. Working height, outreach and access all have to work, and a machine that solves two of the three is a machine that cannot finish your job.
Before you accept a machine
Give the height to your hands, the distance from where a truck can stand, and what is in between. If the answer comes back without those being asked about, the quote is a guess.
2. Is the certification current, and can you see it?
A tower is only worth hiring while the paperwork behind it is valid. The safe-use standard sets out inspection intervals and the periodic major inspection regime[1], and an insulated machine additionally has to hold a current electrical test.
| Document | What it proves | When to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Current electrical test certificate | The insulated rating is still valid | Before the machine leaves the yard |
| Service and inspection record | The machine is maintained, not just parked | At quoting stage |
| Compliance plate photograph | Rating, capacity and build date are what you were told | Any time, and it should be easy to get |
| Log book | The machine’s actual history | On arrival |
The tell
Ask for the current test certificate and see how long it takes. On a well-run fleet it is in the cab and the answer is immediate. If it takes days, that tells you something about the rest of the fleet, and about what will happen when you need something urgently.
3. Who maintains it?
There is a real difference between a fleet maintained in-house and one that goes out to whoever is available. Not because outside workshops are worse, but because of what happens to the queue when your machine breaks down. A fleet with its own workshop can move your machine to the front of it. A fleet without one joins the same queue as everybody else.
In-house workshop
Faults get diagnosed and fixed rather than booked in. On our fleet that means arborists, mechanics, auto electricians, hydraulics and spray all under one roof.
Service schedule you can see
Electrical test every six months, covers-off inspection every three, annual load test. Ask what the intervals are and ask to see the last one.
Age and history of the fleet
Not a dealbreaker on its own. A well-maintained older machine beats a neglected newer one. The maintenance record is the thing to ask about.
Who answers the phone
When the machine stops, the number you call and who picks up matters more than anything else on this list.
Anybody can hand you a truck on a good day. What happens on a bad one is the whole product.
4. What happens when it stops?
Every machine has a bad day eventually. The question is what the hire company does about it, and it is worth getting a specific answer rather than a reassuring one.
- Who do I ring, and when are they available?
A person, a number, and honest hours. - What is the first thing that happens?
Most faults are solved on the phone. If nobody offers that, ask why. - If it needs a look, who comes and how soon?
Somebody being able to attend matters more than a hotline. - If it has to come away, what do I get?
This is the important one. A replacement machine, or a credit and a gap in your programme. - Is that in writing?
A backup machine that only exists as a verbal assurance is not a backup machine.
5. Wet hire or dry hire, and do you have the ticket?
A boom-type machine over 11 metres requires an operator with a high risk work licence[6]. If you do not have one, that decides the arrangement for you. If you do, dry hire is usually the better value on a long programme. We cover it properly in wet hire or dry hire.
6. Is it insulated, if the job needs it to be?
If any part of the work sits near live conductors, this is not a preference. Work near the network is planned against the No Go Zone framework[4], and an ordinary boom cannot be used inside those clearances at all. Ask explicitly rather than assuming the words “cherry picker” cover it.
7. Is the access measured, and measured at the tightest point?
More hires come unstuck on access than on anything else, and almost always because the wrong point was measured.
Two figures decide it. The stowed width is what has to get the truck to the point of work: through the gate, down the side, into the car park, between the buildings. The deployed width, with the jacklegs out, is what the machine needs once it is there. On the Redmond Gary TF17M those are 2.44 metres and 3.45 metres.
The mistake is measuring the driveway entrance and forgetting the meter box halfway down, or measuring the gate and forgetting the branch over it. Walk the whole route and measure the narrowest and lowest point on it.
Then look at where the legs will sit. Jacklegs concentrate the machine’s weight into four points, so soft ground, a service pit, a septic lid or a recently backfilled trench all matter. So does slope: the GMJ LL22.350 carries a maximum operating incline of five degrees.
Five minutes with a tape before you book prevents the most expensive kind of wasted morning.
8. Does the basket carry what you actually need it to?
Height gets the attention and capacity is what stops the work.
The safe working load covers everything that goes up: the people, their tools, their harnesses and anything they cut, remove or carry back down. Two people in heavy gear are most of the way through a 250 kg limit before anything else goes in.
Across our fleet those figures run from 181 kg to 350 kg. That range is the difference between a job that runs with two people and one that does not, and on tree work what comes down matters as much as what goes up.
Basket tie-down points are worth a specific mention here, because they look like they would take a harness and they will not. They are rated for equipment only. Anchor points are at the top of the turret and the top of the fly jib, and there are D-rings inside the basket.
9. What is the minimum term, and does it match the job?
This one is simple and it saves a conversation.
Standard dry hire runs on a minimum of three months. Over that term you get the better rate, a machine that is yours for the duration, and a settled cost you can quote your own work against.
If the job is shorter than three months, wet hire is the route. It comes with an experienced ticketed operator, there is no contract, and it exists precisely so a short job is not forced into an arrangement that does not suit it.
If you are somewhere in the middle, or the length is genuinely uncertain, say so. Every client’s situation is different and we will work out something that suits rather than turn the job away.
10. Can you actually see the paperwork?
The single most useful test of a hire company is how quickly they can put the records in front of you.
For any machine: the compliance plate details, the three-monthly safety inspection, and the twelve-monthly load test on the boom, basket and legs. For anything line-adjacent: the electrical test, which should be within six months and comes with a measured leakage figure rather than just a tick.
A company that maintains its own machines can send you those in a phone call. A company that outsources everything has to go and ask, and how long that takes tells you what the breakdown response will look like.
Ask for a photograph of the plate too. It settles the working height, the safe working load, the maximum incline and wind speed, and the insulation level all at once, and it overrides any brochure that disagrees.
What a good hire company should ask you
It runs both ways. If none of these questions come back at you, that is information too.
| What they ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| How high is the work, and to your feet or to the top? | Working height and platform height are about two metres apart |
| How far back will the truck have to stand? | Outreach decides as many jobs as height does |
| What is the tightest point on the way in? | Stowed width, not the width at the entrance |
| What goes in the basket, including what comes down? | Safe working load covers people, tools and material |
| Is anything live nearby, and at what voltage? | Decides the insulation rating, and whether approvals are needed |
| What is the ground like where the legs go? | Jacklegs concentrate the weight into four points |
| Does your operator hold the ticket for this machine? | Decides dry hire versus wet hire |
| Has your operator run this model before? | Familiarisation is a separate obligation from licensing |
| How long do you need it? | Three months or more for dry hire; wet hire for shorter |
Hiring an EWP: the five minutes that saves the day
Everything above condenses into one habit. Before you book, walk the job with a tape and write down six things.
The height of the work. The distance the truck will have to stand back and what sits in between. The narrowest and lowest point on the route in. The weight going into the basket. The voltage of anything live nearby. And how long you need the machine.
That is the whole brief. With it, hiring an EWP takes one phone call and the right machine turns up. Without it, the machine that arrives is the one that matched a guess.
We ask these questions because we are in the trees ourselves and we know which ones actually decide a job. If nothing in the fleet suits what you describe, we will tell you that rather than send something that nearly does.
What to expect on the day the machine arrives
The delivery itself is short, but there are a few minutes in it that are worth using properly.
The truck drives to site under its own power, so there is no float to meet and no crane to book. It sets up on its own jacklegs in minutes, with the wheels lifted clear of the ground so the braking does not rely on the tyres.
Use the handover. We will run through the machine with your operator: the control layout, the interlocks, the jackleg sequencing, the load chart, the emergency lowering and the ground controls that override the basket. If your operator has not run that model before, say so when you book rather than on the day, and we will allow the time.
Then do the pre-start yourself before anyone goes up. That check is yours on a dry hire, and it is the one part of the paperwork chain nobody else can do for you.
It is also the moment to raise anything about the site that has changed since you booked. Ground that has been rained on, a service that has been exposed, an access route that is now blocked by someone else’s delivery. Better said then than worked around later.
Hiring an EWP for the first time
If this is the first time, the thing worth knowing is that nobody expects you to arrive with the vocabulary.
You do not need to know whether you want a boom lift, a cherry picker or a travel tower. Describe the job in plain terms: what you need to reach, what is in the way, what you will be carrying up, and what is nearby. The machine follows from that.
Hiring an EWP goes wrong far more often through a missing measurement than a wrong term, and the measurements are the part you are in the best position to get right because you can see the site.
Ring and describe it. We would rather spend ten minutes on the phone than send the wrong truck.
Which machine suits which job
Every tower in our fleet is an insulated EWP, so the question is never which one is better. It is which one carries what your job needs. Three figures decide it — working height, outreach and basket capacity — and a fourth, the insulation rating and the conditions it holds in, decides whether the machine can be near the line at all.
Working heights below come off the compliance plates rather than brochures. Where a manufacturer does not publish a figure it is shown as on request rather than estimated, because a made-up spec on a hire page is a safety problem rather than a cosmetic one.
| Machine | Working height | Outreach | Basket | Insulation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GMJ LL22.350 | 23.5 m | 13 m | 350 kg | 66/33/LV on the plate |
| Redmond Gary TF17M | 19 m | 13 m | 325 kg | 132 kV — dry, wet and precipitation |
| Sherrin 18 m | 18 m | 11.1 m | 350 kg | 132 kV, Glove & Barrier build |
| GMJ TT16.300 | 17.5 m | On request | 250 kg | On the plate — ask us for your job |
| Terex Hi-Ranger LT40 | 13.8 m | 9 m | 181 kg | ANSI Category C under A92.2 |
| Versalift SST-37 | 12.8 m | 8.5 m | On request | Fitted as an option — ask first |
| Altec AT30C | On request | On request | On request | On request |
The tallest tower we run, and the one that goes out when nothing shorter will reach — 13 metres of outreach still intact at full height, on a basket that takes two people and what they bring down.
Rated 132 kV dry, wet and in precipitation, which is the rating that matters when the job does not stop because the weather turned. Long outreach for its height.
A Glove & Barrier build on a 350 kg basket. The one to ask about when the work is close-quarters on live gear rather than simply near it.
A mid-height tower that gets into ground the bigger machines cannot. Ask us for the plate figures against your specific job rather than working off a brochure.
Compact and quick to set up, rated ANSI Category C under A92.2. Suits tight residential access where a full-size tower simply will not fit.
Low travel height, which is what gets it under a carpark header or a low branch line. Insulation is fitted as an option, so confirm it before the job is booked.
A compact telescopic tower. We publish figures off the compliance plate rather than the brochure, so ask us and we will send the plate for the unit going to your job.
Every tower above travels to Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton and Gippsland — driven to site under its own power, not floated in on a separate truck.
Which one to take when the forecast is against you
This separates the fleet more than height does, and it is the question people ask last.
An insulation rating holds under stated conditions. Most insulated towers carry a rating for clean, dry conditions and a lower one for wet. The Redmond Gary TF17M is the one certified across dry, wet and precipitation at 132 kV, which is why it is the machine that goes out when rain is forecast and the work cannot wait.
That is not a mark against the others — it is what that particular machine has. For everything else in the fleet the rated conditions are on the plate, and the practical answer is to tell us the job and the forecast and we will tell you which tower is rated for it. We would far rather have that conversation on the phone than have you find out on the day.
Two things do not change with the weather: the six-monthly electrical test that confirms the machine is safe to be working with and around live power lines, and the fact that a replacement tower comes out if yours has to leave you.
Tree work near the line, and work on the line
Nearly everything our towers go out on is one of two jobs, and they pull in different directions.
Tree work near a live service is about reach and what comes down. You are standing off the conductor and working over or around it, so outreach matters more than raw height, and basket capacity matters because limbs come back with you. The GMJ LL22.350 and the Sherrin 18 m both carry 350 kg for exactly that reason.
Work on the line itself is about the insulation rating and the conditions, and often about getting into a tighter spot at a lower height. That is where the Terex Hi-Ranger LT40 earns its place — a light Class 5 chassis with a fibreglass boom that goes where a bigger truck cannot.
We are arborists as well as machine specialists, and the towers are out on our own tree jobs every day. That is why the fleet is shaped the way it is rather than standardised on one model.
Whatever you call it — insulated EWP hire, travel tower hire, cherry picker hire, a bucket truck, a boom lift or a man lift — describe the job and we will match the machine to it.
Insulated EWP hire across Victoria
Every tower is a truck, so it drives to you under its own power and sets up on its own legs. There is no float to book and no crane at either end, which is why distance behaves differently for us than it does for hire companies working off floated plant.
We hire right across Victoria. Beyond the towns above we run into Dandenong and the outer east, right through Gippsland where we are based, and up into the north-east — the Wangaratta and Wodonga side of the state is no trouble at all, we are over that way regularly. If your job is somewhere not listed here it is almost certainly still covered: insulated EWP hire across Victoria.
Tell us the job. We will tell you the tower.
Wet hire or dry hire, anywhere in Victoria, with a replacement machine behind it from the first day.
Frequently asked questions
What should I look for when hiring an EWP?
What paperwork should the hire company provide?
How do I know if a hire company maintains its own machines?
What happens if the hired machine breaks down?
Do I need to organise transport for the machine?
How far ahead should I book?
What is the most common reason a hire goes wrong?
How much weight can go in the basket?
Can I clip my harness to the basket tie-down points?
What is the minimum hire period?
What paperwork should I ask to see?
How quickly should a hire company produce those records?
What happens if the machine breaks down mid-hire?
Do I need a licence to operate it?
What happens when the machine is delivered?
I have never hired one before. What do I need to know?
Read next
Valley Wide Tree Services / 1800 GO TREES
Insulated EWP hire, Victoria
We run and maintain our own fleet of insulated elevating work platforms from a workshop in the Latrobe Valley, and we have been putting machines on Victorian jobs for years. Everything here is written from running them, not from a brochure.
Sources & references
- Standards Australia — AS 2550.10, Cranes, hoists and winches: safe use of elevating work platforms: The standard covering inspection intervals, operator requirements and the periodic major inspection regime that a hire fleet’s service schedule is built on.
- WorkSafe Victoria — Elevating work platforms: The Victorian regulator’s guidance on selecting, setting up and operating an EWP, including the duties that sit with whoever controls the workplace.
- WorkSafe Victoria — Safe work practices using elevating work platforms: The regulator’s practical guidance note. States that a boom-type EWP with a boom length over 11 metres requires the operator to hold a high risk work licence.
- Energy Safe Victoria — Working around powerlines: The No Go Zone framework that decides how any work near overhead powerlines is planned, and the clearances that apply to plant and people.
- Elevating Work Platform Association of Australia: The national industry association for elevating work platforms, and the body behind the Yellow Card operator familiarisation programme.
- WorkSafe Victoria — High risk work licence: What a high risk work licence covers in Victoria, who needs one and how it is obtained.
General information only, current at the time of writing. Requirements change and every site is different. Confirm the rules that apply to your job with the relevant authority and with whoever controls the workplace before work starts.
