Hiring heavy machinery is something you may need to consider if you are building a house, doing some landscaping, shifting large quantities of material, emptying or filling a warehouse, and so on. If you are a business that relies on machinery to operate, you may find that you need to hire machinery to replace ones which have broken down, or to complete a specialized job. Below are some of the things to keep in mind if you are planning to hire any sort of heavy machinery:

• Licence and certification. Many sorts of heavy machinery – from forklifts and front-hand-loaders to tractors and earth movers – have very specialized controls and driving characteristics. In just about every instance, you will not be able to hire out the piece of machinery unless you can prove that you have the required licence or certification to operate the vehicle. Even if you have had these qualifications in the past, they are routinely updated and old ones expire, so you may need to renew your licence prior to hiring.

• Workplace Health and Safety. If you are using the machinery on a worksite – even if it is on your own property but you have hired workers to come in to help – you need to make sure you comply by the workplace health and safety standards, and that you are fully insured. Some sorts of machinery have special workplace health and safety instructions and requirements; similarly some heavy machinery needs to be covered by specific insurance policies.