The A-Z Rigging Guide

Rigging is the art and engineering of moving heavy, awkward, or fragile assets – safely, precisely, and without causing any unnecessary damage. It’s thanks to effective rigging protocols that a 12-tonne press leaves a low-loader, threads through a doorway with millimetres to spare, and lands on shims exactly where the layout says it’s supposed to sit.

If you’re planning an equipment install, a plant move, or a one-off heavy lift, this guide explains what rigging services cover, who does what, the legal framework for safe lifting, what a good plan looks like, and how to choose a contractor who’ll deliver with minimal issues.

 

Rigging defined

In practice, rigging covers any job that needs engineered lifting or moving of plants and machinery. Typical requirements for these kinds of projects include new machinery installations, line changeouts, factory relocations, decommissions, removal for overhaul, and precision positioning on pads or rails. 

A proper rigging firm offers end-to-end capability in the service they provide: a site survey, engineering calculations, method statements, cranage and accessory selection, jacking and skating, floor protection, utilities isolation, final positioning and levelling, and, if required, mechanical/electrical hook-ups and commissioning support. The lift itself is only one step in a longer, highly controlled process.

 

The team you’ll meet on site

• Appointed Person (AP). This is the planner and legal “competent person.” They sign off the lift plan, risk assessment and method statement (RAMS), choose equipment, verify ground conditions and load paths, and have the authority to stop the job.
• Lift/Crane Supervisor. They will run the operation on the day, enforce the exclusion zone, check weather/wind, and manage any controlled changes to the plan.
• Slinger/Signaller (Banksman). They will be able to select and fit a range of job-specific lifting accessories, confirm the centre of gravity of the various objects that need lifting, the necessary sling angles, as well as direct the operator via signals or radio.
• Riggers/Machine Movers. They will be responsible for executing jacking, skating, gantry set-ups, skidding, and precision setting.
• Operators. These include a range of certified drivers of cranes, gantries, Versa-lifts and other key pieces of machinery.

Getting this kind of team together – one that’s able to plan, supervise, and execute – is how you manage to carry out a complex, multifaceted moves with minimal issues. 

 

The main equipment

There is a core selection of equipment that’s typically needed for these kinds of projects, including: 

• Mobile cranes and lorry loaders. Ideal when you need to reach over buildings or into tight yards; must be planned to comply with the relevant crane regulations, with mats and within wind limits.
• Hydraulic gantry systems. Great for when headroom is restricted or floor loading won’t tolerate a crane. Gantries lift vertically from header beams on tracks, often paired with skates or air skates.
• Versa-lifts and industrial forklifts. Great for indoor picks and carries, especially when aisles are narrow but the underlying slab is definitely strong enough.
• Toe-jacks, skates and skidding systems. For inch-by-inch moves where rolling beats lifting; add steel plates or timber mats to spread the load.
• Spreaders, beams, shackles, chains and slings. These are the main accessories that make geometry and sling angles safe and easily repeatable.

A competent contractor will be able to pick the least risky tool that’s able to achieve tolerance while also being as quick and efficient as possible – this means understanding the appropriate margins, rather than just reaching for the biggest machine every time.

 

The legal framework

In most cases, you’ll find that three regulatory pillars underpin UK lifting work, including:

• LOLER 1998 (Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations): This stipulates that every lift must be properly planned, appropriately supervised, and carried out safely; lifting equipment and accessories require thorough examinations at defined intervals with written reports.
• PUWER 1998 (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations): This aims to ensure that the work equipment remains suitable, maintained, inspected, and used by trained people. This covers rigging ancillaries that aren’t “lifting equipment” in LOLER’s sense.
• BS 7121 (Code of practice for the safe use of cranes): While not technically a legal framework, it does constitute the accepted planning and execution standard: it covers roles (AP, supervisor, slinger), documentation, weather limits, communications, and change control.

If your plan explicitly references these, and the paperwork matches the behaviours you see on site, you should be able to be relatively confident that the team you’ve chosen is compliant with the relevant regulations and acting in a safe manner.

 

What a good lift plan includes

In terms of what will actually go into the making of a lifting plan, you can broadly expect the following: 

• Survey and constraints. There will be a verification of weights and centres of gravity (not just reliance on brochures), measurement of pinch points, routes from off-load to final position, oversail checks, buried services and slab strengths.
• Ground bearing pressure. Calculations for mats or tracks, so cranes, gantries and transport stay stable and within slab or soil limits.
• Equipment selection. Crane charts and configurations, gantry header beam limits and stroke, skate ratings, sling types and angles.
• Load path. A step-by-step method for lifting and moving the object: jack-and-pack stages, transitions to skates, temporary stands, and final resting place.
• Interfaces and isolations. Lock-out/tag-out for electricity, hydraulics, pneumatics and process lines, plus who owns each step.
• People and comms. There will need to be clearly named and easily identifiable AP, supervisor, slingers/riggers, and operators; signals and radio channels should be set out in the RAMS.
• Inspection and certification. In-date, thorough examinations for cranes and lifting accessories; PUWER inspections for other kit; pre-use checks recorded.
• Contingencies. Wind and weather limits, emergency lowering plans, stop authority, and a pause-and-re-plan trigger if reality starts to dramatically diverge from what’s written out in your plans.

The potential ramifications of getting a rigging project wrong are serious, and it’s important that you treat it with the care that it deserves. Make sure that you engage a competent rigging service provider early on, so that you can avoid any potential incidents further down the line.