Established over 20 years ago, the Australian lifting house, Ranger, serves clients throughout the country from its offices in Sydney and Melbourne. The family-owned business has been a pioneer in its field and was the first in Australia to be awarded full membership of the global trade association, LEEA.
Given the distances between inspection sites, Ranger’s paper-based reporting system resulted in delays in updating records and the process was also prone to human error. Founder Verity Thacker saw the opportunity to reduce the time it took to generate reports and give the company a competitive advantage.
The new system has dramatically reduced reporting times, and has allowed Ranger to differentiate itself in the market by offering clients a host of benefits including 24/7 traceability of equipment and peace of mind.
“Nothing was too much trouble for the team at CoreRFID. They adapted the system to the way we want to work and were eager to suggest ways we could improve our customer service, which is all-important to our continued success.”
– Ashley Thacker, General manager
Creating a system that offers competitive advantage
Ranger commissioned CoreRFID to develop custom lifting inspection software, built on the technology that has since evolved into CheckedOK. The result is Ranger’s own branded platform, RIG (Ranger Inspection Gateway), designed to meet Australian standards and covering both NATA (National Association of Testing Authorities) and LEEA methodology for best practice.
RIG has reduced reporting time from several days to less than 12 hours, and as little as two hours in some cases. Engineers record inspections on site using mobile devices, with data uploading automatically. Removing the need to transcribe written records has cut out a major source of error.
Ranger has used RIG to improve efficiency and to set itself apart from the competition, reinforcing its position as a pioneer in the industry. The company tells its customers RIG is “helping you to work, not push paper.”
In the first eight years since launch, Ranger used RIG to record over 330,000 inspections for 1,260 customers managing 167,000 assets between them.
Regular upgrades help firm to stay ahead
Since RIG first launched in 2010, Ranger has continued to work with CoreRFID to upgrade, refine and develop the system further. In October 2018, Ranger moved RIG onto Android, improving both price and performance. The two companies continue to work closely together, meeting remotely by video call and occasionally in person at industry conferences.
The most recent addition is RigCheck, launched in 2025. Built as an extension of RIG, RigCheck gives Ranger’s own customers a way to carry out daily pre-use checks on their equipment themselves, between Ranger’s formal inspections. It’s based on CoreRFID’s Pre-Use Checks App, branded specifically for Ranger, and means customers no longer have to rely on paper checklists or wait for their next scheduled inspection to catch a developing issue.
As Ranger tells its clients: “In accordance with ever-changing industry standards and customer demand, RIG is constantly being reviewed and improved to provide the highest quality solutions for Australia’s lifting industry.”
“CoreRFID is able to adapt the system with new ideas and initiatives, so we’re never standing still for too long and we are upping our competitiveness regularly.”
– Verity Thacker, Founder, Ranger
How Ranger offers clients ‘peace of mind’
RIG, designed by CoreRFID, allows Ranger to offer its clients total peace of mind for the management, operational efficiency and full traceability of their equipment. Benefits include:
- Complete asset register for easy record keeping
- Simple to use, sort and export data
- Reports showing which items are missing
- Automatic reminders for items due for inspection
- All certificates online for full traceability
- Search filters that make assets easy to find
- Register ready within hours of inspection
- Daily pre-use checks customers can carry out themselves via RigCheck