Forklift Refresher Course

When a forklift refresher is needed

There is no single legal date when refresher training becomes compulsory. The HSE L117 Approved Code of Practice expects employers to keep operators competent and to reassess them periodically, and many employers and sites use a set interval. The usual triggers are a card approaching its expiry date, a long gap away from the truck, a change of truck type, or an incident or near miss.

• Card or certificate due for renewal
• Operator returning after time away from forklifts
• Bad habits spotted by a supervisor
• After damage, an incident or a near miss
• Moving to a different truck or working environment

What happens on the day

The day starts with a short look at the operator's experience and the trucks in use, then moves to practical driving on your site. The instructor watches how the operator carries out pre-use checks, travels, stacks and de-stacks, and handles pedestrians and traffic routes, and corrects anything that has slipped. Travelling with forks raised and signing off checks without walking the truck are two of the habits we see addressed most often.

The re-test follows the same theory and practical structure as the original test, so the operator knows what to expect.

B1 and other truck types

Some schemes and employers use letter-and-number codes such as B1 for counterbalance trucks. Whatever the code on the old certificate, the refresher is matched to the truck type the operator uses now. If the operator has moved to a different type, a conversion may be more suitable than a straight refresher, and we will say so before booking.

Refreshing a whole team

Refreshers are usually most efficient when operators who are due around the same time are booked together on one visit. Keeping a simple register of who holds which card, and when each is due, makes this easy to plan and avoids finding out about an expired card at a site gate.