Guide
How often does forklift training need renewing? HSE: no set interval
Updated
The three-year rule everyone quotes is not law. HSE deliberately declines to set an interval, and the reason matters more than the number.
The actual position
HSE: There is no specific time period after which you need to provide refresher training or formal assessment. However, you may decide that automatic refresher training or a retest after a set period (for example 3-5 years) is the best way to make sure employees remain competent. Where you adopt this approach, you will still need to monitor performance, in case operators need extra training before the set period ends.
(HSE lift-truck training).
So a certificate carrying a three-year date is the provider's or the accrediting body's convention, and a perfectly reasonable one, but it is not a legal expiry. Equally, an in-date certificate is not a defence if the operator has been driving badly for two years and nobody looked.
When a retest is due sooner than the calendar says
- The operator has not used trucks for some time, or is an occasional user.
- They appear to have developed unsafe working practices.
- They have had an accident or a near miss.
- Their working practices or environment have changed, for example a new racking layout, a new load type or a new site.
- They are moving to a different truck type or attachment, which is conversion training rather than a refresher, and follows the same basic, specific job and familiarisation pattern.
What HSE expects between refreshers
Monitoring. HSE says lift-truck operators, even trained and experienced ones, need to be routinely monitored in the workplace and, where necessary, retested or refresher trained. It recommends a formal monitoring and assessment process carried out by a competent person such as an instructor, formally timetabled so it actually happens, with the results recorded in the operator's personnel record. Where an operator fails, arrange further training.
How long a refresher should be
HSE will not put a figure on it: the length will be set by assessment of the operators to identify shortcomings and any unsafe habits which need correction
. It does set a floor, though: it is unlikely that refresher courses of less than one day will be effective
. Treat a half-day refresher offer with that sentence in mind.
Supervisors are part of this too. HSE says supervisors need enough training and knowledge to recognise safe and unsafe practices, though not full operator training. Ask providers whether they run a supervisor or manager course alongside the operator dates.