OSHA general industry
Ladder
A ladder is equipment in the osha general industry category. Portable and fixed ladders requiring periodic inspection and removal from service when defective.
Also called: step ladder, extension ladder, fixed ladder.
Governing standards
Required artifacts
| Artifact | What it does |
|---|---|
| Inspection tag | An inspection tag is a compliance consumable affixed to equipment that records who serviced it, when, and under what licence. |
| Service label | A service label is a compliance consumable applied directly to equipment recording a test, a certification, or a next-due date. |
Which of these you actually need, and on what cycle, depends on your jurisdiction. We publish that only where we have read the governing clause and can cite it. Where we have not, the page says so rather than guessing.
In stock for ladders
What it is
Portable step, extension or fixed ladders in aluminium, fibreglass or timber. Fibreglass near electrical work because it does not conduct. The most common piece of access equipment in any building and the least respected.
Why it gets inspected
Ladders are damaged by transport and storage rather than by use. A ladder that spends its life on a truck rack takes more abuse driving between jobs than standing at one, and a cracked rail is not obvious from the ground.
What happens on a visit
Check rails, rungs and steps for cracks and bends, spreaders and locks for function, feet for wear and grip, and the whole thing for oil and grease. A defective ladder is tagged and withdrawn on the spot, not at the end of the week.
What drives the tag count
There is no fixed interval - inspection is periodic and after any event that could affect safe use, which means your own written programme defines the cadence you will be held to. The tag mainly carries the defect marking required when a ladder is withdrawn, which is an event rather than a schedule.
What actually gets tagged, and where it goes
The inspection label goes on the side rail rather than the face, where it is shielded from the worst of the abrasion, and on a cleaned surface because adhesion on oxidised aluminium is poor. A defective ladder additionally carries a Do Not Use tag, which is a different artifact with a different purpose: the inspection label records that a check happened, the withdrawal tag stops somebody climbing it. Ordering only the first is how a defective ladder ends up back in the rack.
What a scan of ladders shows
Ladders are the most mobile equipment here and a fleet of visually identical ladders is effectively anonymous. The serial makes each one individually identifiable, so the inspection history attaches to the unit rather than to a location. It also closes the withdrawal loop: a ladder marked defective stays marked in the record even if somebody removes the physical tag, so returning it to service is a visible event rather than an unrecorded one.
Every artifact here is serialised, so the record survives the tag being replaced. The mechanics are on how inspection records work.
Sizing an order for a fleet of ladders
Count ladders across every truck, site and store, which almost always produces a larger number than the office expects. Labels are applied once and last the life of the ladder rather than being annual consumables, so the first order is the large one and subsequent orders cover new ladders and replacements. Order the Do Not Use tags at the same time in smaller quantity, because the moment you need one is not the moment to discover you have none.
Minimum is 100 units and every price is on the page, so a first order can be a test rather than a commitment. Why the minimum is 100, not 2,500.
Inspected on the same visit
Ladders travel with the rest of the site equipment. A crew running ladders is normally running scaffolds, and on larger sites lifting equipment and forklifts as well, all of it inspected on use-driven rather than calendar-driven frequencies. What these share is the identification problem: fleets of visually identical units moving between sites, where the record has to belong to the item rather than the location. Order them together and label the whole fleet in one pass, since applying labels is a single exercise you do not want to repeat per equipment type.
Ordering ladders: common questions
Do I need withdrawal tags as well as inspection labels?
Yes, and ordering only the inspection labels is how a defective ladder ends up back in the rack. They do different jobs: the inspection label records that a check happened, the withdrawal tag stops somebody climbing it. Order the second in smaller quantity at the same time.
Are labels an annual consumable?
No. They are applied once and last the life of the ladder, so the first order is the large one and later orders cover new ladders and replacements. This is the opposite of extinguisher tags, and budgeting for it annually overstates the ongoing cost considerably.
Why serialise ladders specifically?
Because they move and a fleet of visually identical ladders is effectively anonymous. The serial turns forty interchangeable units into forty individually tracked ones, which is the precondition for knowing whether the whole fleet has been inspected rather than whether some ladders have.