Warehouses, distribution yards, builders' merchants, construction sites, farms and plant hire depots: any site moving palletised or unit loads by fork.
Refresher course for experienced operators.
This is a refresher course for operators who already hold experience on a reach truck. It renews and checks competence; it is not an initial qualification and no units are issued against it.
Theory and practical assessment, carried out on the employer's own machine, on their site.
As a refresher, this checks and renews existing competence rather than working through a fresh unit structure; no units are listed for it.
No UK government body issues a licence to operate a reach truck, and no statute requires one.
The duty to train and assess competence sits with the employer, under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 section 2(2)(c) and PUWER 1998 regulation 9.
The Approved Code of Practice L117, rider-operated lift trucks, covers reach trucks and sets out a three-stage training model of basic training, job-specific training and familiarisation with the particular machine and site.
The distinctive risk sits in racking aisles, with high lifts and reach mechanisms, where the truck works with the mast extended close to pedestrians; where it is used for lifting, LOLER 1998 also applies.
The employer still authorises each operator in writing under PUWER 1998 regulation 9; this refresher's records are evidence the employer relies on for that decision, not a substitute for it.