Excavator safety is a constant priority on construction and industrial sites, and companies work really hard to ensure that their excavation procedures and practices are tight and reliable.
But equally important for excavator safety - outside of performing risk assessments, pothole records and utility service locating - are the processes and practices in place for ensuring that the excavator itself is in good working order.
The most reliable document and procedure for this is an excavator inspection checklist. This checklist provides even the most experienced excavator operators with a standardised and reliable framework for performing all of the essential checks and inspections on an excavator.
The excavator inspection checklist template which you see to the right is a great example of what this should look like.
The template comes pre-built with sections for the pre start walkaround, start up, powered systems and general inspections. It can be used for excavator daily checklists or the frequency which suits you and your company.
In addition, this template can also be accessed and completed on a mobile or tablet device, as well as on the computer.
Performing excavator inspection checklists can be time-consuming and frustrating for excavator operators when using old school documents like word, excel and PDF - but this document speeds up checklist completion - and takes care of syncing the record and organising that record back into a secure database.
This ensures that excavator hours are spent on excavating, and not on managing checklists manually.
- Engine and rotating parts should be properly covered.
- The Track frame should be in good and working condition.
- Crawler belts and shoes should be in good condition.
- Boom and arm should be free from defects like corrosion, bend, etc.
- Hydraulic cylinder and hoses should be in good condition.
- Bucket, cutter pins should be free from defects, damage, corrosion, bend, etc.
- Teeth should be free from defects, damage, corrosion, bend, etc.
- The side mirror should be in good condition.
- Head & tall light and indicators are in working condition.
- Windshield/glass should be in proper condition.
- The wiper should be in running condition.
- The swing horn should be in good condition.
- Fire extinguisher in operator cabin.
- Operators have suitable licence/experience certificates.
Excavator Inspection Checklist