What is a cherry picker, exactly?
The name comes from the fruit orchards where the first ones were used, and it has stuck to every boom-type access platform since: a basket for the operator, a boom that lifts and extends it, and a base that is either self-propelled, towed on a trailer or mounted on a van or truck. The industry term is boom lift, or mobile elevating work platform (MEWP) if you are reading the regulations.
What makes a cherry picker different from a scissor lift is the reach. A scissor lift only goes straight up. A cherry picker goes up and out, and an articulating boom can bend around a roof edge or a piece of plant to put the basket exactly where the work is.
What are the types of cherry picker?
- Articulating boom: a boom with one or more knuckles, so it can reach up, over and around obstacles. The most versatile type for building maintenance and industrial work.
- Telescopic (straight) boom: a boom that extends in a straight line, giving the greatest outreach and working height, for facades, steelwork and long reaches over open ground.
- Trailer-mounted: towed behind a vehicle and set up on outriggers. Light, easy to move between sites, and common in hire fleets.
- Vehicle-mounted: on a van or lorry, for street lighting, telecoms and tree work where the platform has to travel on the road.
- Spider or tracked: a compact articulating boom on tracks with outriggers, for soft ground, slopes and getting through a standard doorway to work inside.
Working heights run from around ten metres for a small trailer unit to forty metres and beyond for a large telescopic boom. Platform capacity falls as the boom extends, and every machine carries a chart showing what it can lift at what reach.
What is a cherry picker used for?
Anything at height that needs a person, not just a load, and that a ladder or tower is not safe or practical for:
- Building maintenance: gutters, cladding, windows, signage, lighting and roof edges.
- Construction and fit-out: steel erection, glazing, M&E installation, external finishes.
- Tree surgery and grounds work, where the boom reaches into the canopy.
- Telecoms, street lighting and utilities.
- Warehouses and factories: high-level services, racking inspection, cleaning.
- Events and film: rigging, lighting and camera positions.
Do you need a licence to operate a cherry picker?
Employers must ensure anyone operating a MEWP is trained and competent, and the accepted way to show that in the UK is an IPAF PAL Card. Cherry pickers are IPAF category 3b, mobile boom; scissor lifts are 3a, mobile vertical. Most operators take the two together as a one-day 3a and 3b course. The card is valid for five years.
Sites, main contractors and hire companies will almost always ask to see the card before a machine is used. We run IPAF courses at our Grimsby centre and on customer sites; see the IPAF training page for the categories and dates.
Cherry picker or scissor lift?
Choose a cherry picker when the work is up and out: over an obstacle, around a corner, above something you cannot drive up to. Choose a scissor lift when the work is straight up from a firm floor and you want a bigger platform for more people and materials. Our comparison of scissor lifts and cherry pickers goes through the trade-offs in detail.
Should you hire or buy a cherry picker?
Hire suits occasional or project work, and it puts the maintenance, LOLER inspection and transport on the hire company. Buying suits a machine that is in use most weeks, where the cost of hire would overtake the cost of owning within a couple of years. We supply new Genie boom lifts and scissor lifts, hold used access equipment, and hire both, all from the same Grimsby base that services them.