march2023 - S7

The industry safety standard for lift
operation, inspection, and maintenance,
ANSI/ALI ALOIM: 2020, requires
shops to make lifting points information
available to technicians. The lifting
points are provided by the OEMs. It
includes more than 250 undercarriage
illustrations as well as suggestions for
safely lifting vehicles.
The layout and content mirror the
paperbound version, with a few handy
benefits. For starters, the guide is always
on hand, and the technician merely has
to click on the link via their smart device
or computer. There's also no risk of paper
pages being damaged by grease blots,
coffee spills, or other shop messes.
Second, the document works like any
PDF, and has a search bar to quickly find
the right make and model to ensure the
correct schematic and lifting points are
being used. And the login can be shared
among three individual devices, so the
guide should be accessible for anyone
operating the lift.
Whether paper or digital, having the
latest guide is crucial, as the lifting points
can change during a vehicle redesign as
well as when electric models come out.
" As far as fleet managers' safety
responsibilities go, updating your lifting
point guide every single year is absolutely
one of the best practices, " notes Steve
Perlstein, president of Mohawk Lifts. He
stresses that incidents are likely to occur
when a two-post lift's arms are positioned
in the wrong place. Another issue is technicians
factoring in total vehicle weight,
and not axle weight.
" I don't know how many times a guy
has called us up and said, 'My 13,000lb
ambulance has bent the arms on this
15,000-lb lift,' " Perlstein notes. " But the
rear arms' capacity and the rear end of
the ambulance are what matter. Don't
overload the arms! " To calculate the correct
capacity per swing arm, he advises
to divide the weight per axle by two.
Perlstein also adds that the center of
ALI made its Lifting Points Guide available as a digital PDF.
gravity will change if the 800-1,000-lb
engine or transmission is removed.
DROPPING DOWN NEAR MISSES
ALI doesn't track specific lift-related
injuries and fatalities, but the organization
maintains that incorrectly positioning
a vehicle on a lift is a leading cause
of lift-related accidents. Anecdotally, ALI
President Bob O'Gorman says if he's giving
a presentation to a crowd of 150 automotive
professionals and asks how many
have experienced a lift-related loss-of-life
scenario, " one or two hands might go up. "
But when he asks how many have
seen a vehicle shift or cause damage or
injury, what one may classify as nearmisses,
" that turns to a very large percentage
of people in the room, " he notes.
" You can go to technical conferences, and
you will talk to people who've been there
when the vehicles dropped, or dropped
the vehicle themselves. "
The ALI's goal is to someday soon
get the number of hands raised after the
near-miss question to only a few, which
would, in turn, make lift-related fatalities
and severe injuries a relic of the past.
O'Gorman cites lack of training and
lack of operational understanding of
specific lifts as the root cause for " the largest
percentage of those incidents. " Planned
maintenance on these lifts and annual
inspections also ensure the equipment
" is in the same condition that the manufacturer
intended it to be used in. "
" Safety does not happen by accident, "
O'Gorman says. " It's a conscious decision
to pursue safety for your employees, for
your shops, and reputation. And really
for your customers, as well. "
And as far as meeting that goal, having
the recommended lift points on hand
goes a long way.
" Any time you're raising a vehicle
for service, whether at home or on the
job-there's more riding on that lift than
a car or truck. Your safety is riding on it, "
O'Gorman adds. " Taking a minute to find
the recommended lifting points so you
can properly pick up the vehicle could
save your life. "
The ALI also has the Lifting It Right
online course available through its website,
which takes users through the proper
way to lift and lower a vehicle without
injury or property damage. This includes
guidance on spotting and lifting vehicles,
prepping the bay, maintaining load stability,
and maintenance. The course costs
$16 per participant ($24 for the Spanish
version) and takes on average less than an
hour to complete. A certificate of completion
is provided at the end.
O'Gorman notes that in 2022, ALI
also released an updated safety manual
to reinforce what's covered in the course.
This is also available digitally.
March 2023 I Vehicle Lift Guide I 7
march2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of march2023
