Independent, engineering-led assessments — from preliminary review through to full overhaul coordination. The engineering milestone at the heart of Complete Crane Compliance.
In practice, 10 years. Most sites and principal contractors won't accept a crane past that point without a completed major inspection, and for most owners that's the deadline that actually bites.
What the inspection involves is a different question. AS 2550 ties the major inspection to the crane's design working period — the service life it was designed for, measured against how it has actually been used. The scope isn't set by the calendar: two cranes reaching 10 years on the same day can need very different work.
That's where our process starts. We assess the crane's design working period against its real duty history, and that determines the form the inspection takes — rather than defaulting to the most expensive assumption.
These obligations are enforced in every Australian jurisdiction — by WorkSafe Victoria, SafeWork NSW, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, WorkSafe WA, SafeWork SA, WorkSafe Tasmania, NT WorkSafe and WorkSafe ACT, and by Comcare for Commonwealth workplaces. If your crane is approaching or past the trigger point, you need an engineering assessment to determine whether it's fit for continued service — wherever it's working.
This isn't optional. It's a legal compliance requirement — and the inspection needs to be conducted by a competent person with the right engineering qualifications. Not just someone with a spanner.
The trigger point shouldn't be a surprise, either. For fleets on the Complete Crane Compliance program, we've been tracking the crane against its design life through every annual inspection — so the major arrives planned, budgeted, and scheduled around your work.
The industry standard approach is a single-stage full overhaul. Strip the crane down, replace everything that shows wear, reassemble. It's thorough — but it's also expensive, time-consuming, and often includes work the crane doesn't actually need.
For larger crawler cranes, a full overhaul can consume a significant proportion of the crane's capital value — and the machine is off the road for weeks.
The question most owners don't ask: does the crane actually need all of that work right now?
IDC takes a staged approach. Instead of jumping straight to a full overhaul, we start with an engineering assessment of the crane's actual condition — its duty history, operational environment, maintenance records, and observable wear patterns.
Based on that assessment, we recommend one of three pathways:
The crane is in good condition. Full overhaul can be deferred.
We document the crane's current state, confirm it meets compliance requirements, and provide a formal engineering report that supports continued operation. No unnecessary teardown. No unnecessary cost.
Some systems need attention now. Others can wait.
We identify which components require immediate inspection or replacement and which can be safely deferred with a defined monitoring or maintenance plan. You address the priorities now and schedule the rest around your operational calendar — not around a blanket overhaul scope.
The crane needs a comprehensive overhaul. We define the scope and verify the outcome.
When a full overhaul is genuinely required, IDC defines the engineering scope — what needs to be done, to what standard, and why. We can advise on suitable contractors or OEM service providers to carry out the work, and where required, independently manage the process on your behalf.
Once the overhaul is complete, IDC verifies that the work has been carried out to the specified scope and updates the inspection report to reflect the crane's post-overhaul condition and compliance status.
The mechanical work is done by your workshop or OEM. The scope, the oversight, and the engineering sign-off come from IDC — independently.
IDC doesn't sell cranes, maintain cranes, or run a workshop. We have no financial incentive to expand the scope of work beyond what's genuinely required.
When we say a crane needs a full overhaul, it needs a full overhaul. When we say it doesn't, you can trust that assessment — because we don't benefit either way.
Every report we issue is peer-reviewed by a second IDC engineer and referenced to the applicable Australian Standards. Our reports are written to stand up to scrutiny from regulators, insurers, and your own engineering team.
Much of this market runs on a single engineer. That works — until two cranes fall due in the same week, a shutdown window moves, or the one person who can do the work is on another site when your trigger date lands.
IDC's engineers hold the professional registrations — RPEQ (Queensland), RPEV (Victoria) and NER (national) — covering every Australian state that requires them. It's the reason every report gets a genuine second-engineer peer review — there's always a second engineer. And it's the reason scheduling bends around your operations instead of one person's calendar: if the shutdown moves, we move with it, and two cranes due at once is a Tuesday, not a queue.
IDC has completed more than 600 major inspections across Australia — from a Franna AT 12 through to a Liebherr LG 1750.
Our experience covers the full range of equipment under AS 1418 and AS 2550: mobile cranes, vehicle loading cranes, overhead cranes, side boom pipe layers, elevated work platforms, and telehandlers. Whether it's a routine assessment on a city hire fleet or a complex inspection on a heavy-lift crawler at a wind farm, the process is the same: thorough, standards-referenced, and independent.
A major inspection isn't a standalone event — it's the biggest milestone on a compliance clock that runs for the life of the crane. Annual inspections every year, the major at the design-life trigger, and engineering assessment whenever something changes.
Through CraneSafe annual inspections organised across our inspector network, IDC tracks your fleet's compliance picture year-round. By the time a crane approaches its major, we already know its history — and you've known the date for years.
IDC's major inspection program is overseen by a CICA Endorsed Engineer, and our team includes CraneSafe-endorsed engineers. These endorsements are held by the engineers personally — independent recognition, under the Crane Industry Council of Australia (CICA), that the person doing the work meets the industry's technical and engineering standards. Not a company logo: the engineer who signs your report.
Tell us about your crane — make, model, age, duty cycle, and what's triggered the inspection. We'll give you an honest assessment of what's likely needed.
We review the crane's documentation, maintenance history, and operational records. If possible, we conduct an initial visual inspection on site.
You receive a detailed report covering findings, compliance status, and our recommendation — whether that's continued operation, targeted work, or a full overhaul scope.
If further work is required, we can define the scope, coordinate with your workshop or OEM, and provide engineering oversight through to completion.
Most owners don't realise they can challenge a single-stage overhaul scope. Our preliminary assessment reviews your crane's actual duty history and determines what's genuinely required — saving time, cost, and unnecessary downtime.
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