Octav helps installers, inspection bodies and maintenance departments inspect every lifeline, fall arrest rail and ladder, track the components of each system and keep their due dates. One platform for the equipment, the report and the relationship with the client.
Rooftop lifelines, fall arrest rails, caged ladders, anchor points: work at height safety systems are scattered across your clients' roofs, façades and structures, and you only see them when you climb. Octav brings the systems, their components, the inspections and the reports together in a single tool.
A lifeline is not a single piece of equipment: end anchors, intermediate anchors, anchor line, energy absorber. Octav links each component to its system, with its own due date, so that nothing drops out of sight between two visits.
Rooftop lifelines, rails on a structure, caged ladders running up a silo: these systems are scattered and rarely visited. The QR code fixed on site opens their record, and the report signed at closure joins the client file.
For a lifeline or a rail, no French regulation sets a fixed interval: the Labour Code requires an appropriate frequency, the French health insurance fund's recommendation R 430 advises a yearly inspection and the manufacturer's manual sets out the rest. Octav applies the interval you assign to each family and computes the next due date.
Octav helps you describe every system, track its components, open the right checklist on site and hand the client a signed report as soon as it is closed.
Your clients' lifelines, rails and ladders are tracked in Octav's Work at height module, filed by client and by site, with their history.
A system is described with the components it is made of. Each component carries its own due date, which shows up among the due dates on your dashboard.
Lifelines and rails are inspected against their own checklist, ladders against theirs: the inspector follows the points that match the system in front of them.
Each system gets a QR code label, or an NFC tag you program with its link: scanned with a phone, it opens the system record and its history.
The inspector and the client's representative sign on screen. The PDF report comes out under your company's branding and joins the system's history.
Lifeline and ladder inspections can be carried out in Octav's web software as well as in its Android app, on the roof or at the foot of the ladder.
Permanently installed work at height systems fall under different standards depending on whether they arrest a fall or provide access. Octav files each system in its family, with the matching checklist and due date.
Lifelines
EN 795: anchor devices, including type C for horizontal flexible lifelines.
Rails
EN 795 type D for horizontal rails; EN 353-1 and EN 353-2 for guided fall arresters on a rigid or flexible line.
Ladders
NF E85-016 for fixed ladders on installations, EN ISO 14122-4 for those on machinery, EN 131 for portable ladders.
A permanently installed lifeline, rail or anchor point is a workplace safety device: the French Labour Code requires it to be maintained and checked at an appropriate frequency, without setting an interval. The harnesses and lanyards clipped onto it are PPE, with their own due date.
| Equipment or obligation | Due date | Reference text |
|---|---|---|
| Permanently installed lifelines, rails and anchor points | Appropriate frequency, with no interval set by the Labour Code; yearly inspection advised by recommendation R 430 | French Labour Code, art. R4224-17; CNAM recommendation R 430 |
| Fixed ladders, portable ladders and stepladders | No fixed interval: the rules cover design and use | French Labour Code, art. R4323-63 and R4323-81 to R4323-88 |
| Fall protection PPE used on these systems (harnesses, lanyards, fall arresters) | Inspected less than twelve months before use | French Labour Code, art. R4323-99; order of 19 March 1993 |
| Record of inspections | File appended to the workplace maintenance file for systems; safety register for PPE | French Labour Code, art. R4224-17 and R4323-101 |
Permanently fixed anchor devices are not personal protective equipment: the twelve-month limit of the order of 19 March 1993 only applies to fall protection PPE. For the systems themselves, recommendation R 430 from the French health insurance fund advises a yearly inspection, following the supplier's or installer's instructions, and the manufacturer's manual sets out the interval and the points to check.
Octav is not an inspection body: it is the tool you use to perform, record and report these inspections. Harnesses, lanyards and fall arresters have their own page:PPE and accessories inspection software. For the full picture of French periodic inspections, see our page onperiodic inspections (VGP).
Informative summary as of 5 October 2026. Only the texts published on Légifrance are authoritative.
Octav adapts to your teams’ field reality and to the way you prepare, carry out and deliver your inspections.
Lifeline inspection software should track every system with its components, carry the interval of each one, open the right checklist on site and produce a signed report for the client. Octav brings these together in its Work at height module, which also covers rails and ladders.
No French regulation sets a fixed interval for a permanently installed lifeline. The Labour Code requires the safety devices of a workplace to be maintained and checked at an appropriate frequency (art. R4224-17). The French health insurance fund's recommendation R 430 advises a yearly inspection, following the supplier's or installer's instructions, and the manufacturer's manual may require more. In Octav, each family carries the interval you assign to it.
Prevention guides entrust this inspection to a competent person who follows the manufacturer's or installer's instructions. It may be the installer, an inspection body or a company technician trained on these systems. Octav inspects no system: it is the tool this person uses to perform, record and report the inspection.
The French Labour Code sets no inspection interval for ladders. It requires a fixed ladder to be designed, equipped or installed so as to prevent falls from height (art. R4323-83). The interval is therefore set according to the manual and the use. In Octav, each ladder has its own record, interval and report.
Yes. Anchor rails are tracked alongside lifelines in the Work at height module, linked to their system, with their components and due date.
Yes. Lifeline and ladder inspections can be carried out in Octav's Android app as well as in the web software. On site, the system's QR code or NFC tag opens its record and history.
Yes, in its PPE and accessories module: harnesses, lanyards, connectors and guided fall arresters, with their periodic inspection, which must date from less than twelve months before use under French rules (order of 19 March 1993).
No. Octav inspects no system and grants no approval: it is the tool the installer, the inspection body or the maintenance department uses to perform, record and report its inspections.
Book a demo: we will show you a system and its components, the inspection checklist and the report handed to the client, on real cases from your own activity.
