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It has a federal one administered by OSHA and a set of state-run programs that operate alongside it under federal approval. For a company that moves rough-terrain cranes, boom trucks, crawlers, and carry-decks across state lines, the question is not whether the crane is safe. It is whose rule the local compliance officer will measure it against, and whether the inspection paperwork in the cab answers that question before anyone asks it.
3P Safety Inspections works in all 50 states and treats the state-plan map as part of the job, not an afterthought. The inspection of the steel, the wire rope, and the safety devices does not change at a state line. What changes is the reporting threshold, the documentation an auditor expects to see, and occasionally the inspection interval itself. This page lays out how that landscape works and how an owner with equipment in more than one jurisdiction keeps a single, defensible record across the whole fleet.
What a state OSHA plan actually is
The Occupational Safety and Health Act lets a state run its own job-safety program instead of deferring entirely to federal OSHA. To win approval, a state plan has to be at least as effective as the federal program. That phrase is the hinge. A state cannot be weaker than federal OSHA, but it is free to be stricter, to inspect more often, to require more paperwork, or to regulate hazards that the federal rules leave alone. Some states run a full plan covering both private and public employers.
Others run a plan that covers only state and local government workers, leaving private employers under federal OSHA. A handful of states, including California, Washington, Oregon, Michigan, and Nevada, run full programs with a long record of writing their own construction and crane provisions. Others, such as North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, run full plans that track the federal language closely but enforce it with their own officers and their own citations.
For a crane owner, the practical translation is this: the federal crane standards are the floor, never the ceiling. When a crane is working in a state-plan state, the inspector who shows up is a state employee enforcing a state code that may add to the federal baseline. The wise move is to inspect to the stricter of the two applicable standards every time, so the same crane satisfies whichever officer walks the site. That is the default posture 3P Safety Inspections takes on every job.
The federal baseline every plan has to meet
Because state plans are measured against the federal rules, the federal crane standards are where any honest inspection program starts. For construction and mobile cranes, OSHA’s 29 CFR 1926.1412 sets the cycle. A competent person performs a pre-shift inspection before each shift the equipment is used. A competent person performs a documented monthly inspection that is signed, dated, and kept for at least three months.
A qualified person performs a full annual inspection at least once every twelve months, producing a full written report that is retained for at least twelve months. On top of that schedule, the equipment must be re-inspected after any repair, modification, overload, severe storm, or extended period sitting idle.
For overhead and gantry cranes running inside shops, warehouses, and plants, the governing rule is 29 CFR 1910.179. It splits inspection into frequent checks, ranging from daily to monthly, performed by a competent person, and periodic inspections at intervals of one to twelve months performed by a qualified person, with the exact frequency keyed to the crane’s service class. The line between the two roles matters under every plan. A competent person, defined in 29 CFR 1926.32(f), is someone capable of identifying hazards and authorized to correct them.
A qualified person, defined in 1926.32(m), holds the credentials, training, and demonstrated knowledge to perform and sign the annual or periodic inspection. State plans honor the same two roles, which is why the credential of the person signing the report is something an auditor in any state will check.
Layered over the OSHA cycles are the ASME B30 consensus standards that define how each machine is examined: B30.5 for mobile cranes, B30.3 for tower cranes, B30.2 for overhead and gantry, B30.6 for derricks, B30.9 for slings, B30.10 for hooks, B30.26 for rigging hardware, and B30.20 for below-the-hook devices. State plans incorporate or reference these standards just as the federal program does, so an inspection built around B30 travels cleanly from a federal-OSHA state into a state-plan state.
Where state rules part company with the federal floor
The differences a fleet owner runs into are rarely dramatic, but they are real and they accumulate. A state plan may shorten an inspection interval for a particular class of equipment, require that certain inspection records be retained longer than the federal minimum, or demand that reports be filed on a state-specified form rather than a contractor’s own template.
Some plans regulate operations and equipment that the federal rules treat lightly, and some pursue documentation aggressively during an inspection, asking to see the monthly logs and the most recent annual report on the spot.
None of this changes the physics of a worn sheave or a kinked rope. What it changes is the burden of proof. In a strict-plan state, a clean crane with thin paperwork can still draw a citation, because the rule is not only that the equipment be safe but that the owner be able to show it was inspected on schedule by a person qualified to do so.
The inspection an owner buys, then, has to do double duty: verify the machine and produce a record that survives scrutiny under the most demanding plan the fleet operates in. 3P Safety Inspections builds every report to that higher bar so that one document holds up regardless of which side of a state line it is reviewed on.
The component-by-component inspection that travels
Whatever the jurisdiction, the full inspection itself is the same disciplined walk through the machine. Our inspectors examine the structure, including welds, pins, and load-bearing connections, looking for cracks, deformation, and corrosion. Wire rope is inspected over its full length against the documented removal criteria: six randomly distributed broken wires in one lay or three broken wires in one strand of running rope, broken wires at the end connections, measurable diameter loss, kinking, crushing, birdcaging, corrosion, and heat damage. Hooks are checked for throat opening, twist, and wear.
Load blocks, sheaves, drums, and the reeving are examined for wear and tracking.
From there the inspection moves through brakes, clutches, and the swing mechanism. The hydraulic system of cylinders, valves, pumps, and lines. The outriggers, tires, tracks, and carrier. And the electrical and safety devices, including the anti-two-block, the load-moment indicator, limit switches, and audible alarms. The load charts, capacity plates, and crane log are verified as present, legible, and matched to the machine.
Where the steel or a pin warrants it, our inspectors apply nondestructive testing: magnetic-particle examination on welds, dye-penetrant on surface cracks, and ultrasonic testing on thick sections and pins. Rated-capacity proof loads, run with calibrated weights or load cells, are performed after a major repair or alteration and on the applicable ASME cycle. This examination does not get lighter in a federal-OSHA state or heavier in a strict-plan state. It is run to the same depth every time, which is what makes a single fleet record coherent.
How findings are classified and recorded
Every finding in a 3P Safety Inspections report is sorted by severity and tied to evidence. Critical findings take the crane out of service immediately. Major findings must be corrected before the next lift. Minor findings are assigned a correction timeline. Monitor items are conditions to watch and recheck. Each finding is documented with a photograph and cited to the exact OSHA paragraph or ASME provision it violates, so the owner is not left guessing why an item was flagged or what closing it requires.
That structure is what makes the report portable across the state-plan map. When a finding is tied to a specific rule and a specific photo, a compliance officer in any state can verify it on its own terms. The owner is not handing over a generic checklist with boxes ticked.
They are handing over a punch list that names the standard, shows the condition, and ranks the urgency, which is exactly what a state auditor needs to confirm that the equipment was examined properly and the deficiencies were tracked to closure.
Why the report has to be independent
3P Safety Inspections does not sell, rent, or repair cranes, rigging, or parts. There is no equipment line waiting to quote a replacement when a part fails the inspection and no service department that benefits from a longer punch list. The findings carry no sales angle, which is precisely what gives the report weight when it reaches an OSHA officer, an insurer, a lender, a general contractor, or, on federal work, a contracting officer.
An inspection from a company that also profits from selling you the fix invites the obvious question. An independent third-party inspection does not.
That independence matters more, not less, in a multi-state fleet. When the same firm inspects every machine to the same standard and writes every report in the same format, an owner can hand a single, consistent body of documentation to a regulator in a strict-plan state and a different one in a federal state and have both reviews land the same way. The report’s credibility does not reset at the state line.
Federal contracts and the EM 385-1-1 layer
Owners running cranes on federal construction sites carry a third layer on top of OSHA and the applicable state plan. Work for the Army Corps of Engineers, NAVFAC, GSA, the VA, and the Department of Energy falls under EM 385-1-1, whose Section 16 governs cranes and rigging. It requires designated persons in specified roles, written critical-lift plans, activity hazard analyses, and, on USACE projects, compliance with the three-phase control process of preparatory, initial, and follow-up inspection.
Reporting on these sites often has to follow an agency-specified format rather than a generic one. State-plan rules still apply on federal-jurisdiction questions where they reach, so a crane on a federal site in a state-plan state can be sitting under all three regimes at once.
3P Safety Inspections is registered in SAM.gov, with UEI N32TWKB7DD61 and CAGE code 20QE6, and builds reports to the EM 385-1-1 Section 16 expectations alongside the OSHA cycles and the applicable ASME standard, so the documentation answers to the contracting officer as readily as it does to a state inspector.
One inspector, one record, every state
The argument for using a single independent firm across a multi-state fleet is simple. Our NCCCO-certified inspectors meet the qualified-person bar that both federal OSHA and every state plan require for the annual and periodic inspection, so the signature on the report is valid wherever the crane is working. Founder Patrick Salazar has been on cranes since 2005, beginning as an operator, moving to lift director, and earning his NCCCO crane inspector certification, and he is also an OSHA 500 trainer.
That field background runs through how the company reads a machine and how it documents what it finds. For owners who also need their operators and supervisors trained, the sister brand 3P Safety Crane Training operates separately. This side of the house handles inspection only.
The process is built for fleets that cross jurisdictions. An owner sends an equipment list and the site location. 3P Safety Inspections returns a quote within a business day and reaches most sites within 24 to 72 hours. Our inspectors perform the part-by-part examination on site, deliver a photo-documented report quickly, and hand over a punch list ranked by severity and cited to standard.
Because the work is nationwide and the report format is consistent, a company with cranes in California, North Carolina, Texas, and on a federal base can hold one coherent inspection record that satisfies a Cal/OSHA auditor, a state-plan officer in the Carolinas, a federal compliance officer, and a contracting officer alike. To schedule an inspection or get a multi-state fleet on a single inspection record, send your equipment list and site, and 3P Safety Inspections will return a quote within a business day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which states run their own OSHA plan, and does that change how my cranes get inspected?
More than 20 states and territories operate OSHA-approved plans. Some cover both private and public employers, including full programs in states like California, Washington, Oregon, Michigan, Nevada, and full plans in states such as North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Others cover only state and local government workers. The machine inspection itself does not change at a state line, the same structure, wire rope, hooks, brakes, hydraulics, and safety devices get examined the same way.
What can change is the inspection interval, how long records must be kept, and the format an auditor expects. 3P Safety Inspections inspects to the stricter of the federal and state standards on every job so the same crane satisfies either officer.
Can a state plan require more than federal OSHA does?
Yes. A state plan must be at least as effective as the federal program, which makes the federal crane standards the floor, never the ceiling. A state is free to inspect more often, require longer record retention, mandate a state-specified reporting form, or regulate conditions the federal rules treat lightly. A state plan can never be weaker than federal OSHA.
Because of that, the safe approach for a multi-state fleet is to inspect and document to the most demanding plan the fleet operates in, which is the default posture we take.
Will one inspection report hold up across both state-plan and federal-OSHA states?
That is the point of using a single independent firm. Every 3P Safety Inspections report ties each finding to a photograph and to the exact OSHA paragraph or ASME provision involved, and sorts findings as critical, major, minor, or monitor. A report built that way can be verified on its own terms by a compliance officer in any state.
Because our NCCCO-certified inspectors meet the qualified-person bar that both federal OSHA and every state plan require, the signature on the annual or periodic report is valid wherever the crane is working.
What are the federal inspection cycles that every state plan has to meet or beat?
For construction and mobile cranes under 29 CFR 1926.1412: a pre-shift inspection by a competent person before each shift, a documented monthly inspection by a competent person that is signed, dated, and kept at least three months, and a full annual inspection by a qualified person at least every twelve months, with the written report kept at least twelve months. Re-inspection is required after any repair, modification, overload, storm, or long idle period.
Overhead and gantry cranes under 29 CFR 1910.179 follow frequent checks from daily to monthly and periodic inspections every one to twelve months by service class. A state plan can shorten these intervals but cannot lengthen them.
Do federal job sites add requirements on top of the state plan?
On federal construction for the Army Corps of Engineers, NAVFAC, GSA, the VA, or the Department of Energy, EM 385-1-1 applies, with Section 16 governing cranes and rigging. It calls for designated persons, written critical-lift plans, activity hazard analyses, the USACE three-phase control process, and agency-format reporting, all on top of OSHA and any applicable state-plan rules. A crane on a federal site in a state-plan state can sit under all three regimes at once.
3P Safety Inspections is registered in SAM.gov (UEI N32TWKB7DD61, CAGE 20QE6) and builds reports to satisfy the contracting officer and the state inspector alike.
Related: Construction Crane Inspection, Data Center Crane Inspection, service areas, about 3P Safety Inspections.