Most shop owners assume their lift is safe if it's working. That assumption has put people in the hospital. Here's what the standard actually requires — and what a proper inspection covers.
If your shop has a vehicle lift — a 2-post, 4-post, scissor, in-ground, or any other type — it is required by national standard to be inspected at least once per year by a qualified lift inspector.
That's not a suggestion. It's the requirement set by ANSI/ALI ALOIM:2020 — the American National Standard for Automotive Lifts covering Safety Requirements for Operation, Inspection, and Maintenance. OSHA has no specific automotive lift regulation of its own — but it references ANSI/ALI ALOIM as the industry consensus standard when citing employers under the General Duty Clause. In practice, that means if a lift fails and there's no documented inspection history, OSHA can and does use this standard as the benchmark for what a safe employer should have been doing. It applies to every lift in your shop, regardless of age, brand, or type.
Most shop owners don't know this. Most find out when something goes wrong.
Why Annual Inspections Are Required
A vehicle lift holds anywhere from 7,000 to 40,000+ pounds over your technicians — most common shop lifts are rated between 9,000 and 18,000 lbs, with heavy-duty models going well beyond that. When lifts fail, they fail fast — dropped vehicles, sheared anchor bolts, snapped cables, collapsed columns. Lift failures kill and injure people every year.
The ANSI/ALI ALOIM standard exists because wear is invisible until it isn't. Hydraulic seals degrade. Cables fray internally before showing external damage. Concrete around anchor bolts weakens over time — especially in shops where floors are exposed to oil, water, and load cycling. Annual inspections catch these problems before they become incidents.
Beyond safety, annual inspections are a liability requirement. If a lift fails and there are no documented inspections on file, your insurance coverage becomes complicated — and in any subsequent lawsuit, the absence of that paper trail matters significantly.
What Gets Checked During an Annual Lift Inspection
A qualified inspection covers the full mechanical and structural condition of the lift. At Alamo, our technicians evaluate:
- Structural integrity — columns, crossbeams, welds, and baseplate condition
- Anchors and anchor bolts — concrete integrity beneath the lift, bolt torque, and condition
- Cables and pulleys — fraying, wear, proper seating, and tension (2-post and cable-driven lifts)
- Hydraulic system — fluid levels, hose condition, cylinder seals, and leak inspection
- Safety locks and automatic locks — mechanical engagement, release function, and lock integrity
- Lift arms and pads — condition, rotation, pad seating, and arm extension stops
- Wiring and electrical components — switches, interlocks, control function
- Travel limits — upper and lower limit switch verification
- Load labels and safety signage — present, legible, and accurate
Lifts that don't pass are identified with documented findings and must be corrected before returning to service. An inspection sticker on a passing lift is your proof that the equipment met safety standards on that date. Keep that documentation on file.
What Lift Types Does This Apply To?
All of them. The ANSI/ALI ALOIM standard applies to every automotive lift regardless of type. That includes:
- 2-post lifts (symmetric and asymmetric)
- 4-post lifts (service, alignment, and storage)
- Scissor lifts (mid-rise, low-rise, and flush-mount)
- In-ground lifts
- Mobile column lifts
- Single-post and specialty lifts
Alamo inspects all of the above. One call covers your whole shop.
What Happens If You Skip the Annual Inspection
Skipping creates compounding risk on three fronts:
Safety. Wear that should have been caught six months ago now has six more months on it. Cables that were marginal are now failing. Anchors that needed to be retorted are now loose.
Insurance. Equipment liability claims are significantly harder to defend without a documented inspection history. Some carriers specifically require annual maintenance records for coverage to apply to equipment failures.
OSHA. OSHA follows the ANSI/ALI ALOIM standard. Uninspected lifts are a compliance failure. OSHA citations for lift-related violations can run into the thousands of dollars per incident.
The cost of an annual inspection is a fraction of the cost of any of those outcomes.
What the Inspection Sticker Means
When Alamo completes an inspection and applies a sticker, it means the lift was physically evaluated by an experienced lift service technician, it passed inspection to industry safety standards on that date, and you have a documented record of that evaluation.
That sticker is your compliance record. Date it, file the inspection report with it, and keep it accessible. Your technicians should be able to see it on the lift. Your insurance carrier should be able to see it in your records.
Schedule Your Annual Lift Inspection with Alamo
Alamo Equipment & Service inspects all types of automotive lifts across the Dallas–Fort Worth area. We evaluate the full mechanical condition, apply an inspection sticker on passing equipment, and provide documentation you can keep on file.