Write three conditions into an aerial lift rental bid: platform support, travel speed, and personal fall protection.
Key takeaways
- Platform and support — keep the basket free-standing and outriggers on pads or solid ground
- Travel speed and movement — write the three (3) miles per hour vehicle-speed limit into the scope
- Personal fall protection — write "without climbers" into the scope for work inside the basket
Why your bid needs the conditions written in
You price an aerial lift rental by looking at the machine, the hours and the haul. Then the site turns out to be soft. Or the crew shows up in climbers. Or somebody rests a basket against a wall, and the whole plan you priced changes.
None of that shows up in a bare day-rate. Three conditions do: platform support, travel speed and movement, and personal fall protection. Write them into the bid scope, and the crew you priced for is the crew you get. So is the ground you priced for, and the same machine that stays on the job.
The Health and Safety Executive notes that the most significant MEWP dangers arise from operation and use of the machine rather than from their movement as a site vehicle. The conditions below cover both how the machine is used and how it moves on site.
Condition one: platform support
Both rules here are drawn from the California Code of Regulations, Title 8, Section 3648 on Operating Instructions for aerial devices.
The first is about the basket. A crew working against a wall will sometimes rest the platform on the structure and push from there. California forbids it: aerial baskets or platforms shall not be supported by adjacent structures. The lift must hold itself. Your bid scope should say the platform remains free-standing for the full task.
The second is about the feet. When the lift uses outriggers, those outriggers need pads or a solid surface underneath. Your scope line reads: outrigger pads provided by the renting party at each setup point; ground prepared and confirmed before boom operations begin.
Put plainly, you are pricing ground preparation, not just machine time. If the site is soft, somebody supplies the pads. If nobody names that person in the bid, it becomes an argument on day one. For the wider platform checks, see Guardrail, net, and platform specs: 8 bid checks.
Why estimators miss this: the pads are a site condition. Spell out who brings them, and where they go, and the day you quoted is the day you get.
Scope wording you can copy
Here is the plain version to drop in:
- "Lift basket remains free-standing. No resting or bracing against adjacent structures for any part of the task."
- "Outriggers set on pads or solid ground at every setup point. Client confirms ground conditions at each location before the boom goes up."
Both come from the same regulation, so you can cite the section in the bid cover note if the GC wants a source.
Condition two: travel speed and boom-up movement
The California rule is simple: the speed of the vehicle does not exceed three (3) miles per hour. Write it into the bid so the site plan and the haul plan line up.
Three miles per hour is a walk. It is not a drive. If your crew planned to move the lift across a campus in one shot between tasks, that plan needs to change. Your bid can price it two ways: either the lift travels at the limited speed and you price the hours that take, or the lift shuts down and repositions between tasks at the road speed the yard allows.
Estimators who skip this line usually end up absorbing the difference. The GC wanted a fast shift across the deck. The California rule caps vehicle speed at three (3) miles per hour. The crew's hours stretch, the rental day burns, and the change order arrives after the fact.
Also note: this speed limit governs the machine's movement, not the worker's footing. A crew walking in the basket is covered by the fall protection condition below, not by this one. Keep the two separate in your scope so nobody reads one line as covering both.
The Health and Safety Executive stresses that great care must be taken to select the most appropriate MEWP and ensure that use of the machine is properly planned and managed. Planning includes how far and how fast the machine moves during the priced hours. That plan belongs in the scope, not in a hallway conversation.
Condition three: personal fall protection inside the basket
Here is where bids get quiet, and where most of the disputes start.
California's rule is sharp: climbers shall not be worn while performing work from an aerial device. For the fall-protection items to count from plans, see Fall-protection takeoff: 4 items to count from plans.
That second half matters more than it looks. Once they step out, a different system takes over. Your bid should price the time it takes to switch between the two. Those minutes sit inside your quoted hours, or they sit in a change order.
Side-by-side: the three conditions
Each row is a line in your scope, a check on the pre-task plan, and a bullet in the toolbox talk. Keep the table in the bid packet if your GC wants one page to reference.
The platform standard behind these conditions
Your three conditions are not floating. They can sit on top of a platform standard.
WorkSafe New Zealand on its mobile elevating work platforms page names AS/NZS 1418.10 for MEWPs that comply with it. The standard applies to your job only where it governs the work. Machines built to that standard carry a defined set of safety features. The standard names what the platform provides. Your bid names how your crew uses it.
Two useful notes from that page for your bid cover sheet:
First, the guidance there has not been refreshed for current health and safety legislation. It still carries practical content worth reading, but check your local requirements separately before relying on it as your sole reference.
Second, the page points to a clarification notice attached to the best practice guidelines for mobile elevating work platforms, issued in August 2014. That notice sits beside the guidance, so pull both if a client asks for the guideline pack.
Scope lines that come out of this: "Rental lift configured as a mobile elevating work platform under AS/NZS 1418.10." "Crew briefed on platform safety features and load limits before first lift of the day."
What is not a MEWP in your bid
A small but real trap: not every lift-like machine on your quote is treated the same way. The WorkSafe page carves out several things from the MEWP category.
Lifts and elevators fall under their own standard, not this one. Telescopic handlers also sit outside the MEWP category unless they are configured as a MEWP. Horticultural work has its own guideline. And the fire service runs under its own rules.
Why this matters to your bid: if your line item is a telehandler with a work basket attached, say so and say how it is configured. If the machine is a scissor lift in a warehouse, that is a different animal from a boom lift on a deck. Name the configuration in the scope, not just the machine.
A line that works: "Rental unit specified as a boom lift, configured as a MEWP to AS/NZS 1418.10. Telescopic handlers are quoted only where configured as MEWPs."
Illustrative example: a 10-hour deck job
This case is illustrative, not a real job. A bid covers 10 hours of lift work across 4 setup points on a deck. The scope names pads at each setup point, a speed cap of 3 miles per hour, and no climbers in the basket. If the GC asks to move the lift across the deck between tasks, the estimator checks that request against the speed line and prices any extra hours. Anything outside these lines is a change-order item.
How to write the conditions into the bid
You have the three rules. Now put them where they get read.
Most bids have a scope-of-work section and a rates section. The conditions belong in the scope, one short paragraph each, in plain language. Here is a structure that holds up:
Platform conditions. Free-standing basket, outriggers on pads or solid ground, ground confirmed at each setup point.
Movement conditions. Vehicle speed at or under three (3) miles per hour. Repositioning plan noted if the task needs multiple drops.
Personal protection conditions. No climbers worn inside the aerial device for the lift task. Fixed-height work handled outside the lift under the site's fall protection plan.
Three paragraphs. It reads fast and it closes the gaps the estimator worries about at 6 pm the night before the bid goes out.
Add one line at the end of the three: "Site conditions outside these assumptions are change-order items." That line protects the hours you quoted. It does not create a fight. It sets the boundary for one.
Next step today: open your current bid scope and add the three paragraphs above before the next estimate goes out.
Related guides: Best value bid review: 6 checks before pricing work · Check 6 bid form fields the solicitation may require · Bid risk checklist: 7 checks on price, bonds and withdrawal.
The questions estimators get asked about these conditions
These come up on every bid review. Answer them in writing, ahead of time.
Does the three (3) mph limit apply to repositioning between tasks? The cited rule sets a three (3) mph cap on vehicle speed. For repositioning outside the rule's scope, ask your yard for its procedure on that specific unit before you commit to a repositioning window in your hours.
Who supplies the outrigger pads? The bid decides this, so name the party in the scope. The regulation says outriggers go on pads or a solid surface. If the site says it will not supply ground prep, price the pads as an add-on line.
What if the GC requires climbers in the basket? The California rule bars climbers while performing work from an aerial device. If a GC site rule requires them anyway, that is a conflict between two requirements. Raise it before the bid, not after. The answer may change your hours, your crew and your machine. Your safety lead and the GC's safety lead need to settle which requirement governs.
Does the free-standing rule apply to scissor lifts too? The free-standing rule applies to aerial baskets or platforms, so confirm its application to a scissor lift before you write the line into the scope.
Where do I confirm the platform's safety features? The WorkSafe page lists what machines built to AS/NZS 1418.10 carry. Ask your rental provider for the machine's compliance statement and keep it with the bid file.
A bid-day checklist
Before you hit send, run this list:
- platform line in scope: free-standing, no adjacent structure support
- outrigger line in scope: pads or solid ground, site confirms ground at each setup
- speed line in scope: travel at or under three (3) miles per hour
- fall protection line in scope: no climbers worn inside the aerial device
- configuration named: MEWP setup to AS/NZS 1418.10, telehandler noted if configured as a MEWP
- change-order boundary sentence at the end of the three conditions
Six lines. Two minutes. It saves the most expensive argument on the job: the one about what you actually quoted.
What to do if a site condition changes on day one
Ground softens. A drop point moves next to a wall. The crew brings climbers anyway. Each of these breaks one of your three conditions.
Handle them the same way: stop, log, price. Log the condition in writing with a timestamp. Note which of the three conditions it breaks. Send the notice before the work continues under the new condition. Price it as a change order against the line you wrote.
That is the whole reason you wrote the conditions in. A bid without them has nothing to change against. A bid with them has a clean, agreed baseline that both sides can reference.