The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) develops consensus standards and assessment systems across many industries in the United States. ANSI announced in December of 2018 a major update to their standards regarding mobile elevated work platforms (MEWP) which go into effect in March 1, 2020. The new ANSI 92 standard was split into three sections: A92.20 covers design, A92.22 covers safe use and A92.24 covers training.

These updates require that all rental companies offer training to customers on the safe use of the equipment and the updates to the standards, something that Bear Rental offers for all of our equipment. All of our staff have undergone training for the safe use and training of the machines we offer.

This training includes fall protection requirements, fall protection anchor points, safe ue of accessories, hazards and emergency procedures. The new standards also state the all operators of MEWPs must be retrained to the new standards before operating machinery, being trained on the old standards is no longer acceptable.

Customers can expect to see changes in the designs of all MEWPs manufactured in 2020 and beyond. These new designs include load sensing systems, terrain sensing systems, toeguards, speed changes, gate changes and the creation of indoor use only machines.

The ANSI standards for scissor lifts and single personnel lifts do not require the use of personal fall protective equipment (PFPE) in addition to the guardrails on the equipment. However, Zartman Construction requires all employees to use PFPE while using these machines.

PFPE is required by ANSI standards when using a boom-supported MEWP and is enforced by OSHA.

This article is a very brief overview of the changes going into effect, we encourage you to purchase a copy of the standards in order to fully understand the new requirements.