Tail lifts, passenger lifts and shutters — Bristol’s largest independent dealer since 1981 0117 9770810  · info@hydralifts.co.uk
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A wheelchair user boarding an accessible vehicle on a yellow lift platform

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Passenger lifts

Wheelchair and access lifts for motability and independence — supplied, fitted, and maintained to the manufacturer’s specification by engineers they trained.

0117 9770810

Thank you — that is with the workshop.

A passenger lift is somebody’s independence. When it fails, a person does not get to work, or to hospital, or home — which is a different order of problem from a pallet sitting on a dock.

That shapes how these are maintained. The examination interval is twice as frequent as a goods lift, the safety devices matter more, and a fault that would be an inconvenience on a tail lift is a reason to take a passenger lift out of service until it is right.

We supply, fit and maintain wheelchair and access lifts for private vehicles, care operators and community transport — and we are independent, so the advice is about which lift suits the vehicle and the passenger rather than which one we sell.

Compliance

The lift is lifting equipment

Where a lift raises or lowers people, LOLER 1998 requires a thorough examination at least every six months — twice as often as a goods-only lift. That is not a technicality: it is the regulation recognising that the consequence of a failure is different. We examine and weight test, and we would rather do it alongside the service so the vehicle is off the road once.

LOLER inspections
  • 6 monthsWhere the lift raises or lowers people
  • 12 monthsWhere it carries goods only
  • Written schemeSets the interval instead, where a competent person has drawn one up
An engineer working underneath a vehicle over an inspection pit

What we do with them

Supplied, fitted, serviced, repaired

  1. 01Wheelchair and access lifts supplied and fitted
  2. 02Retro-fits to existing vehicles
  3. 03Conversions for care and community transport
  4. 04Planned servicing to the manufacturer's schedule
  5. 05Breakdown and repair with genuine parts
  6. 06Six-monthly LOLER thorough examination
  7. 07Weight testing and certification

How a job runs

Off the road once, and back out working

  1. 1

    Tell us the vehicle and the passenger

    The vehicle, and how the lift will actually be used. Both change what suits.

  2. 2

    We specify it impartially

    Platform, capacity and controls to suit — we are not working through one manufacturer's range.

  3. 3

    Fitted and proved

    Installed to the manufacturer's specification and load tested before anybody travels on it.

  4. 4

    Six-monthly from then on

    Examination and service on a schedule, with the report you are required to hold.

Common questions

Tail lifts, asked and answered

Why every six months rather than twelve?
Because it carries people. LOLER 1998 sets at least six months for a lift raising or lowering people and at least twelve for goods only. If the lift works to a written scheme drawn up by a competent person, that scheme sets the interval instead.
Can a lift be fitted to a vehicle we already own?
Usually. It is a question of the vehicle's payload and the space available, so tell us the vehicle and what the lift has to do and we will tell you honestly whether it works.
Do you work with care operators and community transport?
Yes, and fleets of adapted vehicles are a good part of what we look after.
What happens if it fails an examination?
It comes out of use until it is right. On a passenger lift that is not a judgement call. We carry genuine parts and will tell you the same day what it needs.
Can you service a lift somebody else fitted?
Yes. We maintain every make we represent and most we do not.
Do you come to us?
Yes — servicing and examination happen where the vehicle is, within fifty miles of Bristol. Installations and conversions come to the workshop.
6Months between examinations
11Makes represented
50miRadius from Bristol
1981Doing this since

Need a lift looked at?

Tell us the vehicle and what it is doing. We will tell you whether it is a service, a repair or an examination that is due.

0117 9770810 Contact us
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