How Much Does a Rigging Inspection Cost in 2025? [Complete Breakdown]

How Much Does a Rigging Inspection Cost?

– How much does a rigging inspection really cost? And how can you estimate what you’ll pay for your specific facility? Today, we’ll break down exactly what you can expect to pay, what’s included, what can increase or decrease the price, and how to estimate your budget based on your facility and your equipment.

My name is Ben, and this is the Lifting & Rigging Channel. I’m here with Corporate Rigging Inspection Manager, Tom Horner, and we’re going to find out exactly what you can expect to pay for a rigging inspection.

So, Tom, right off the bat, how much can someone expect to pay for a rigging inspection?

– We offer this as a port-to-port service, Ben, with a half day at four hours, the range is going to be $480 to $600. And for an eight-hour port-to-port service, you’re going to be looking at $960 to $1,200.

What Does “Port-to-Port” Mean in Rigging Inspections?

– So what does that mean? Port-to-port?

– What it takes for us to leave our nearest office to get to your facility, do the inspection, and then get back to our office to close out the day.

– So that’s including travel time basically within that price, or?

– Yes.

What Factors Increase the Cost of a Rigging Inspection?

– Yeah. Obviously, not every customer is going to be exactly the same. So what are some of the things that might cause the price to drive up?

– A lot of industries are different, but the inspections are still the same. It’s going to be the volume of material we need to look at, but also the types of material we’re looking at. So a customer that’s heavy in alloy chain slings and larger alloy chain slings with a large mix of different items is going to be a different price than a customer who has, let’s just say, a high volume of nylon web slings and virtually no alloy chain slings and other types of rigging.

– So basically you can kind of look at it like, is your rigging fast to inspect or slow to inspect?

– Correct.

How Can You Reduce Your Rigging Inspection Cost?

– So what can drive the price down?

– In the beginning, through the discovery process, if you’re a new customer, something that really helps us out is very accurate information as to what you have. How much of the different pieces of product do you have? The more accurate you can be, the better we can gauge our port-to-port service.

Also, if you’re a longstanding customer, and you know, something has changed at your facility.

And also just making sure you’re getting rid of all the extra rigging you don’t need. What we do find is in a lot of larger inspections, we do a lot of house cleaning.

Why Do Rigging Inspection Prices Vary Between Providers?

– If a customer’s shopping around, maybe they’re new and this is their first rigging inspection, or maybe they’re just looking for a new provider, they’re going to be getting different quotes from different people. Why are some companies more expensive than others? Why are companies cheaper than others? And then, kind of, where does Mazzella fall into that tier?

– It’s really going to be the business model that they’re going after. I can speak on behalf of Mazzella. We’re very focused on rigging inspections, and we built a business around it. So it’s something that we’re very knowledgeable about in terms of what needs to be done in a proper rigging inspection.

Many competitors out there will also use rigging inspections as kind of a throw-in service. The way we like to look at it is that we’re there for your compliance. What you do with us before or after is separate from this business that we’re there to perform right now.

How Can You Tell If a Rigging Quote Is Accurate?

– Things that they need to be checking. Is your quote accurate? Did someone take a guess at what you have? And maybe someone asked some more questions, and they’ve got an accurate quote. And then, is this a toss-in freebie service to get you to spend some money somewhere else?

– When you’re looking at the different prices you’re getting, who are you getting coming in your door? With what we offer to the customer, we make sure that our inspectors are competent and qualified. We have the training and the paper trails in place to prove that. The processes we follow, making sure that we’re meeting or exceeding all of the standards to make sure OSHA would be satisfied on what we’re doing. If you select us as your vendor, you’re in the same best defensible position. You can prove all of this out.

Are There Different Types of Rigging Inspections?

– When someone’s shopping around, are there variations of types of rigging inspections that they might encounter throughout the industry?

– There really shouldn’t be. As the experts, we’re here to tell them what they actually need and then to make sure that aligns with the goals of compliance, right? So when we get into that discovery, we’ll explain what a proper, robust periodic rigging inspection is.

– And as part of that hourly rate, you’re going to be inspecting all of those items. You’re not adding on being like, “Oh, well, you have below-the-hook devices, so it costs you more money,” right?

– Correct, and that’s what’s in the discovery of our front load page is, can you give us a really good estimate of what you have? And then we give you that price that says, “Hey, we’re going to do it in this timeframe.”

Do All Companies Inspect Below-the-Hook Devices and Fall Protection?

– Do all inspection companies offer that? Like, might they just be sticking to shackles and slings?

– They really should be. What I’ve seen, what I’m privy to, which is great when in the discovery phase, we’ll see prior reports from prior providers, and that’s an indication to us of, “Hey, was this a proper inspection? Did they cover everything?”

‘Cause we might see some things that are not there, and then we can ask the question to the customer, “Hey, do you have these things, ’cause I am not seeing them on the report?”

“Yes, we do.”

“Oh, well, they’re also required to have some level of inspection and documentation. We’re going to do that for you.”

“Oh, that’s great. I didn’t know I needed that.”

We can work with the customer to inform them so that they become the experts that they’re required to be.

– And what about personal fall protection, stuff like that?

– It’s an interesting topic these days. My group can do and still does personal fall protection soft goods. And we consider that your harness, your lanyard, your SRL, might even have a tripod retrieval system, something like that. And yes, we can do that. We’re competent to do so.

Anytime it gets into something engineered, an engineered anchor point that’s installed at height or an engineered system made by a manufacturer or even designed by our fall protection group here at Mazzella, we’ll hand it off to them because it’s just a, it’s out of our realm.

– It’s a different type of inspection.

– It’s a different type. So there’s a little crossover there. And again, we work all that out through the discovery.

What’s Included in the Cost of a Mazzella Rigging Inspection?

– So what’s included in the price of a Mazzella rigging inspection?

– Number one thing, you’re receiving compliance. And then after that, what you’re going to get is you’re going to get a trained and experienced technician or technicians. You’re going to get a report that satisfies or exceeds the standards or the requirements within each individual standard. When we do the inspection, we’re only there for your compliance. We’re not there to sell you anything. We are there for your compliance.

Do You Pay Per Inspector or Per Hour for Rigging Inspections?

– Do they pay per inspector, or is it just time-based?

– That’s all going to be based on the front load. We see that there’s 500 pieces of product, and they’re two hours away from our nearest facility. Based on the spread of items within the front load, we’ll look at it and say, “Listen, if we put two guys on it, we can get there. We can do it in one day, and we can get out in one day, and that’s how we’re going to quote it.”

So that would affect the prices I discussed at the very beginning of the video.

– So basically they can look at it as if we’re putting two techs on it, it’s usually because it’s going to speed up the process.

How Can You Estimate the Size and Scope of Your Inspection?

So that’s how we get them an accurate quote. Let’s say that they’re just trying to get a ballpark figure for themselves and they’re estimating. How might they know if their facility is going to be one tech, two techs, half day, full day, multiple day, things like that? How could they get a guess feeling?

– If they’ve never had to go through the process, it’s really going to be a guess. That’s where they really need to engage with us is get us an accurate front load.

Are There Hidden Fees in Rigging Inspection Quotes?

– So are there any hidden costs that the customer might not expect? Like cancellation policy, delays, different types of rigging, things like that?

– It’s not that there’s going to be hidden costs, but in our quotes we do have, I call them indemnity phrases. Try to list out all the things that could affect the job, and we want to avoid those. Number one is cancellation. We really work hard to work with the customer on that.

Can Your Rigging Quote Change After the Inspection Starts?

– Does the quote ever change once the inspection begins?

– Very rarely. It’s only when we find something that’s really outside of the norm that throws everyone for a loop that we have to reevaluate something.

– So if you quoted 200 pieces of rigging and there’s 500 and you say, “We can’t do 500 on the time we’ve quoted you. We’re going to do the 200, and then we’re going to have to talk about a reschedule for the rest of this.”

– Yes, yes.

How Does Billing Work for Rigging Inspections?

– So let’s talk about payment. Do they pay at the end of the service, or are they billed as part of their account? How does pay work?

– It’s all billing, and it’s all done through a formal quote process. Nothing is done over the phone or through an email with just a generic price. Once we get the front load and we have all the information we need, we’re going to send you a formal quote, again with all the information in it as to the specifics of the service, the number of services we’re providing, all that.

Once we get a purchase order, then we work with you on locking in the date for the first inspection and what type of program you want.

Are There Special Circumstances That Affect Inspection Pricing?

– Are there any special circumstances where this pricing is not going to apply, like environment or anything like that?

– Generally, no. The things that might throw it off, and it doesn’t happen very often, do you need us there on a second shift, or a third shift, or a weekend, or during a holiday shutdown?

Will Rigging Inspection Prices Stay the Same Every Year?

– And then how often do Mazzella prices change? Like, if they’re on an annual schedule, can they expect to pay the same next year as they did this year?

– If nothing changes and everything stays equal, there’s probably going to be some level of price increase. Just because there’s inflation, we gotta pay more insurance, we gotta pay more trucks, we gotta pay more fuel. Everything changes, right?

How Often Do You Need a Rigging Inspection?

– Rigging inspections are required.

– One periodic inspection a year is the minimum. When you look at the standards, there’s going to be reasons why you have to escalate that to more than just one.

Can You Save Money by Scheduling Frequent Rigging Inspections?

When customers make that decision, hey, they want to go from one periodic to a biannual or to a quarterly or even monthly. Many customers are on monthly right now. Yeah, we’ll work with you on the totality of that price if you’re going to commit to, you know, a year’s worth of business and you’re going to give us four opportunities to get in the door. We’re going to look at that, and we’re going to find a way to make it economical so that obviously everyone is satisfied on both ends, but we want to show appreciation for you, the customer, giving us that opportunity to take care of you that many times.

What Is the ROI of a Rigging Inspection?

– How can someone track their ROI on a rigging inspection?

– This is an interesting question. Is, number one, they are required, right? So you have to do it.

What you really want to think about is, your return on investment is, what are you going to get out of it after you have your document? Your document that we send you, there’s your compliance.

Now this is where we really enjoy working with the customer because it’s really an eye-opener. How can we explain, or how do we get you to understand, the information in that report so that you can make decisions at your business to improve the safety and efficiency of your company?

What Happens If You Skip Rigging Inspections?

– How does the price compare of a rigging inspection to not performing a rigging inspection, and the possible consequences that could come from that?

– Hard to quantify a number, but I would say this, if there was an incident around your rigging and there’s an investigation into that incident and it was provable that you haven’t been doing them and, even worse, that you know you were supposed to be doing them, I think that’s going to be a significant red flag to whomever is doing the investigation. And that could be OSHA, that could be your insurance, it could be those types of entities.

I firmly believe you’re going to get superior technicians and inspectors looking at this. That’s what we do here.

What to Do Next About Your Rigging Inspection

– Now hopefully you have an idea of about how much a rigging inspection costs, and you can estimate approximately how much you can expect to pay for your specific facility.

If you’re ready to schedule your inspection or if you want more details, click the link in the description below. Mazzella can help with all your inspections, whether that’s rigging, overhead cranes, lifelines, or warehouse racking.

If you found this video useful, informative, entertaining, or you just feel like being friendly, then hit that Like button so we can get this information out to everyone who needs it. Subscribe and hit the bell so you never miss a video. If you have a question, drop it in the comments so we can get you an answer. Remember, safe rigging is smart rigging. My name is Ben. Stay safe out there.