Forklift Operator
Safe operation, load handling and pre-start inspection.
Forklifts cause major injuries when the operator is untrained. Learn the stability triangle, load charts and safe stacking in confined areas.
Why this training matters
A forklift is the machine in a yard or warehouse most likely to injure somebody, and the person hurt is more often a pedestrian than the operator. Reversing, blind corners, loads carried too high and traffic routes shared with people on foot account for a large share of it.
The tipping incidents are different and less intuitive. A forklift is stable inside a triangle formed by the two front wheels and the centre of the rear axle. Raise a load, take a corner too fast, or put weight beyond the rated load centre and the centre of gravity moves outside that triangle. The machine goes over, and it goes over faster than anyone can jump clear. That is why staying belted in a tipping forklift is the correct response and why it has to be taught rather than assumed.
Most of what goes wrong is therefore not dramatic. It is a load chart nobody read, a pre-use inspection nobody did, or a pedestrian route nobody enforced.
What you will learn
- Components and controls
- The stability triangle and load centre
- Pre-start inspection checklist
- Safe driving, stacking and de-stacking
- Handling hazardous and uneven loads
- Refuelling and battery charging
- Practical and theory assessment
The legal requirement
A forklift is a lifting machine, which puts it squarely under regulation 18 of the Driven Machinery Regulations, 2015.
Regulation 18(11) requires that every lifting machine is operated only by an operator who has been specifically trained for that particular type of lifting machine. The user may not require or permit anyone to operate it unless the operator holds a certificate of training issued by a training provider accredited by the Transport Education and Training Authority, approved under the National Code of Practice for Training Providers of Lifting Machine Operators.
Two things follow from that wording, and both get missed. First, the certificate is tied to the TYPE of machine. A counterbalance forklift licence does not authorise somebody to operate a reach truck or a telehandler, and an audit will pick that up. Tell us the machine types in your fleet and we will make sure the assessment and the licence match them.
Second, the duty sits on the user, meaning your company, and not only on the operator. Permitting an uncertified or wrongly certified person to operate is the employer's contravention. Keeping the training records and the licence expiry dates current is part of discharging it.
This is also why we train on your machines in your own working area wherever possible. A licence earned on a borrowed machine in a training yard is worth less than one earned on the machine the operator will drive on Monday, in the aisles they will drive it through.
Sources
- Driven Machinery Regulations, 2015, Department of Employment and Labour
- Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993, Department of Employment and Labour
Legislation is summarised for orientation and is not legal advice. Always check the current text of the Act and its regulations, or take advice.
Practical assessment
A theory paper covering stability, load charts and legal duties, plus an observed practical. The practical covers pre-use inspection, travelling loaded and unloaded, stacking and de-stacking at height, and manoeuvring in a confined aisle.
Prerequisites
Delegates must be medically fit to operate and able to follow the assessment in the language of instruction. Operators coming for a refresher should bring their existing licence so we can confirm the machine types it covers.
What is included
- Forklift for the practical
- Training manual
- Licence card
Certification
Delegates who complete the programme and are found competent receive the TETA aligned forklift licence, valid for 2 years. Attendance registers and assessment records are handed over to your health and safety department for the training file.
Refresher and re-certification intakes are available before a certificate lapses. Tell us the expiry dates and we will schedule around them.
Forklift Operator questions
Three days is the novice programme, for somebody who has not operated before or has no valid licence. One day is the refresher, for an experienced operator whose licence is expiring or has recently expired. If a refresher candidate turns out not to be up to standard we will tell you rather than pass them through.
No. Driven Machinery Regulation 18(11) ties the certificate to the type of lifting machine. Counterbalance, reach truck and telehandler are different types. Send us your fleet list and we will scope the assessment so the licence covers what your operators actually drive.
Normally we use yours, which is the point: the operator is assessed on the machine and in the aisles they work in every day. If you have no machine available we can make arrangements, but the on-site option produces a better operator.
Two years. We flag expiry dates and schedule the refresher before the licence lapses, so you do not discover an expired licence during an audit or after an incident.
Both, but the one people forget is yours. The regulation says the user may not require or permit operation by somebody without the correct certificate. Keeping licences current and machine-type appropriate is an employer duty, not just an operator one.
Book forklift training
Send us the courses, the number of delegates and where you are. We come back with a written quote within one business day.