For employers, crane operators and platform occupants: when hoisting people with a crane is allowed, set-up and the 50 percent capacity limit, personnel platform and rigging criteria, trial lifts and proof tests, and safe work practices in the platform.
Based on OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1431 · about 6 min read
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Using a crane to hoist employees is prohibited except where the employer demonstrates that conventional means of reaching the work area (a personnel hoist, ladder, stairway, aerial lift, elevating work platform or scaffold) would be more hazardous, or are not possible because of the structural design or worksite conditions. This does not apply to steel erection work under subpart R or routine access to underground worksites by shaft.
Employees must ride in a personnel platform that meets the platform criteria, except in limited cases (small drill shafts, pile driving, marine transfer, and storage-tank, shaft and chimney work) that have their own rules.
Hoisting personnel within 20 feet of a power line up to 350 kV, or within 50 feet of a line over 350 kV, is prohibited (except for subpart V work).
A pre-lift meeting with the operator, signal person (if used), employees to be hoisted and the person responsible for the task is held before the trial lift at each new work location, and repeated for newly assigned employees.
The equipment must be uniformly level, within one percent of level grade, on footing a qualified person has determined to be sufficiently firm and stable.
Outriggers or stabilizers must all be extended and locked, with the same extension, per manufacturer procedures and load charts.
For a suspended platform, the total load (loaded platform, hook, load line and rigging) must not exceed 50 percent of rated capacity for the radius and configuration, except during proof testing.
When the occupied platform is stationary, the load and boom hoist brakes, swing brakes and secondary braking and locking features must be engaged.
Required devices: on equipment with a variable angle boom (except derricks and articulating cranes), a boom angle indicator readily visible to the operator and a boom hoist limiting device; on articulating cranes, a properly functioning automatic overload protection device; on equipment with a luffing jib, a jib angle indicator readily visible to the operator and a jib hoist limiting device; on telescoping booms, a device that clearly shows the boom's extended length, or measuring marks on the boom; an anti two-block device (not required when hoisting personnel in pile driving operations, which have their own rule); and a controlled load lowering system that must be used when hoisting personnel. Operations must not begin unless the devices are in proper working order, and alternative measures are not permitted.
Direct attachment of a platform to a luffing jib is prohibited.
The platform and its attachment/suspension system are designed by a qualified person familiar with structural design. The platform supports its own weight and at least five times the maximum intended load.
Guardrails, a grab rail, sufficient headroom and smooth edges are required. Access gates must not swing outward (with a narrow exception for small platforms) and must have a device that prevents accidental opening.
The platform weight and rated capacity are posted on it. It must not be overloaded and is used only for employees, their tools and the materials needed for their work.
Occupants must not exceed the number the platform was designed to hold or the number needed for the work, whichever is less.
Hooks connecting the platform must be a type that closes and locks, and be closed and locked when attached. Eyes in wire rope slings must have thimbles. Bridles and rigging must not have been used for anything other than hoisting personnel.
Trial lift. With the platform unoccupied and loaded at least to the anticipated lift weight, lift from where employees will enter to each location where the platform will be positioned. Do it immediately prior to each shift in which personnel will be hoisted, and again when the equipment is moved and set up in a new or previously used location, or the lift route changes (unless the competent person determines the new route presents no new safety factors). The competent person then inspects for any defect or adverse effect and confirms the test weight is removed.
Right before each lift, the platform is hoisted a few inches with the people and materials on board and inspected by a competent person for security and balance.
Proof test. At each jobsite before hoisting employees, and after any repair or modification, the platform and rigging are proof tested to 125 percent of the platform's rated capacity, held suspended for at least five minutes. No personnel hoisting until the competent person determines the test was passed.
Hoist in a slow, controlled, cautious manner with no sudden movements.
Occupants keep all parts of the body inside the platform during movement (except when needed to position it or to act as signal person), do not stand on or work from the rails or toeboard, and do not pull the platform out of plumb.
Before getting on or off a platform that is not landed, secure it to the structure, unless the employer can show that would be a greater hazard.
For a platform without controls, the operator stays at the controls, on site and in view of the equipment at all times while it is occupied.
When wind exceeds 20 mph (sustained or gusts) at the platform, a qualified person decides whether it is safe to lift personnel.
Occupants stay in direct communication with the signal person or operator, and use a personal fall arrest system attached to a structural member in the platform (except over water; when working over or near water, the requirements of 29 CFR 1926.106 apply).
No lifts on other load lines while personnel are hoisted, except in pile driving.
Fact-checked against the regulation text on October 09, 2026. This certificate records completion of awareness training based on OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1431. It is not an OSHA card or license, it is not crane operator certification or qualification, and it does not make anyone a competent person or qualified person. Section 1926.1431 has no training requirement of its own; its requirements are supplemental to the other requirements of Subpart CC, which still apply. Before hoisting personnel, your employer must still hold the pre-lift meeting required by 29 CFR 1926.1431(m) to review the applicable requirements of the section and the procedures that will be followed, attended by the equipment operator, signal person (if used for the lift), employees to be hoisted, and the person responsible for the task to be performed, held prior to the trial lift at each new work location and repeated for any employees newly assigned to the operation.
This guide explains the rule in plain words. Always read the regulation itself and your employer's site-specific procedures.