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NPORS Wood Chipper Shredder Training (N603)
A wood chipper will take an arm as easily as it takes a branch, and it does it in the time it takes to think about letting go. Two days covers siting the machine, feeding it properly, the last no go zone at the infeed chute, and what to do when it blocks. Run on request, on your own chipper and your own arisings.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N603 Wood Chipper Shredder different
About this course
The NPORS N603 Wood Chipper Shredder category covers the towed and tracked chippers used by tree surgeons, grounds maintenance teams, landscapers, estates, local authorities and highways crews to reduce brash and arisings on site. It covers siting and setting up the machine, starting and feeding it, dealing with blockages and awkward material, shutting down, and the daily checks and maintenance that keep the feed rollers and the stop controls working.
Chippers cause a particular kind of injury. The machine cannot tell the difference between a branch and the hand holding it, and the feed rollers pull far faster than a person can pull back. Most serious chipper incidents involve somebody following material into the chute, reaching in to free a piece that has hung up, or being caught by trailing brash. The controls that are meant to save you, the emergency stop bar and the reverse, only work if the operator knows exactly where they are and can reach them from where they are standing.
Two days puts the time where it matters. Pre use checks on the chute, the rollers, the guards and the stop controls, so that a machine with a bar that has been tied back never gets used. Siting the chipper for the chip discharge, the traffic, the drop zone and the exit route. Feeding: butt first, standing to the side, releasing at the right point, never pushing with a foot or another branch. Blockages, and the shut down and isolation that has to happen before anyone opens anything. And the noise, the dust and the vibration that come with a full day of chipping.
- The machine: disc and drum chippers, feed rollers, the infeed chute, chip discharge, guards, the emergency stop bar and the reverse control
- Pre use and daily checks, blade and knife condition, checking that the stop controls actually work, and reporting a defect rather than working round it
- Siting and setting up: ground conditions, the discharge direction, traffic and the public, the drop zone and a clear route away from the chute
- Feeding technique: butt first, standing to the side of the chute, where to let go, handling brash, forked and springy material, and what must never go in
- Blockages and stoppages: shutting down and isolating, waiting for the disc or drum to stop, and clearing safely with the right tools
- Noise, dust and hand arm vibration, the PPE that goes with chipping, and duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and PUWER 1998
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N603 Wood Chipper Shredder category, registered with NPORS and recognised nationally
- An NPORS Red Trained Operator card, or a Blue Competent Operator card where you hold the relevant NVQ, carrying the CSCS logo while your CITB Health, Safety and Environment test is in date, or a traditional NPORS card where the work is not construction
- Operators who stop and isolate before a blockage is touched rather than reaching in with the machine running
- A record of training that satisfies a client, an insurer or a principal contractor asking how your chipper crews were trained
Who should attend?
Tree surgery and arboriculture businesses, grounds maintenance and landscaping teams, estates and forestry crews, local authority parks and highways teams, utility vegetation clearance contractors, and construction and civils sites clearing site vegetation. It also suits seasonal and subcontract labour who move between crews and are often handed a chipper with nothing more than a shout about where the stop bar is. If your crews also cut the material before it goes in, the N602 chainsaw category covers that.
Entry requirements. You should be at least eighteen for the card to be issued as a plant category, fit enough to lift and drag brash repeatedly and to work outdoors, and able to follow spoken and written English well enough for the theory test, though we can arrange an interpreter or a reader on request. No prior card is required for the novice route. The category is about operating the chipper, not towing it: if your crews tow the machine on the road, licence entitlement and trailer weights are a separate matter and we will flag what applies. For the version of the card that carries the CSCS logo you need a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass at Operatives level taken within the last two years, which we book for you.
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Course content
What you will cover
Classroom on the machine, the controls, the duties and what the injuries actually look like, then the rest of the time on the chipper siting it, feeding it, stopping it and clearing it, with theory and practical testing at the end.
The machine, the material and the duties
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and PUWER 1998 as they apply to chipping operations
- The manufacturer's handbook, machine capacity and the material the chipper is rated for
- Disc and drum chippers, feed rollers, the infeed chute, the discharge chute and the guards
- The emergency stop bar, the reverse control and how to test that both work before use
- Siting the machine: ground, gradient, discharge direction, traffic, the public and the drop zone
- Feed technique and the reasons behind it, including forked, springy, brambled and oversized material
- Blockages: shutting down, isolating, waiting for rotation to stop and clearing safely
- Noise, dust, hand arm vibration and the PPE that goes with a full day of chipping
On the chipper
- Pre use and daily checks including guards, chute, knives, rollers and the stop controls, and reporting a defect
- Siting and setting up the machine for the job, including chocking and securing a towed chipper
- Starting up, engaging the feed and checking the emergency stop before any material goes in
- Feeding brash and timber correctly, standing clear of the chute and releasing at the right point
- Dealing with a stoppage or blockage: shut down, isolate, wait, then clear
- Working as a crew, agreeing signals, and keeping other people out of the working area
- Shutting down, cleaning down, securing the machine and leaving the site tidy
Method of assessment
How the N603 wood chipper shredder test works
NPORS assess the category by theory test and practical test. Training and assessment run together, and where you tell us at enquiry which chipper you run, the practical is built around that machine.
1. Enquiry and group
Tell us how many people, where, and which chipper you run. Four sit the novice course with one instructor and one machine, six can sit the experienced worker test. We quote per group.
2. Pre course check
We work out who is a genuine novice, who is an experienced worker and who is due a refresher, agree whether you need the CSCS logo version of the card or the traditional NPORS card, check the CITB test where it applies, and take the details NPORS need.
3. Training
Classroom on the machine and the duties, then the rest of the time on the chipper. On your own site we use your machine, your material and your access.
4. Theory test
The NPORS theory test, open questions and multiple choice, covering legislation, machine components, siting, feeding, blockages and emergency controls.
5. Practical test
You carry out the pre use checks, site and set up the machine, feed a range of material correctly, deal with a stoppage and shut down, assessed against the NPORS test specification.
6. Registration and card
We register the pass with NPORS and apply for your card, with the CSCS logo where you hold a current CITB test, or as a traditional NPORS card for grounds and arb work.
After the course
The chipper is one machine in a chain
Nobody buys a chipper on its own. It arrives with a chainsaw, a stump grinder, a strimmer and usually a tractor or a truck, and the same three or four people run all of it. That is worth thinking about when you plan training, because bringing an instructor out for a single category is the expensive way to card a small crew. Tell us the full list of machines and we will plan the categories into as few visits as we sensibly can.
It is also worth being honest about where the risk sits on a chipping job. The machine gets the attention, but the injuries cluster around the two minutes when something hangs up and somebody decides it will be quicker to free it than to stop. The training works on that decision, and the follow up work on site is a supervisor who backs the operator who shuts down.
- N602 Chainsaw Maintenance and Cross Cutting for the crews cutting the material that goes into the chipper
- N606 Stump Grinder, the machine that usually follows the chipper onto the same job
- N605 Strimmer and Brush Cutter and N610 Hand Held Hedge Trimmer for the rest of the grounds kit
- CITB Health, Safety and Environment test booked with us where the work is on construction or highways sites
Build your course
Who is coming, and how many
We do not run these to a timetable. The course is built around your people: how experienced they are and how many of them there are, which is what sets the length and the cost. Pick the mix and we will come back with a date and a price.
The course builder needs JavaScript. Without it, tell us how many people and what experience they have and we will price it up.
N603 Wood Chipper Shredder FAQs
NPORS publish a two day novice duration, with four candidates, one instructor and one machine. Somebody already chipping regularly usually takes the shorter experienced worker test, which is normally a day, and a refresher is also about a day. We confirm the length when we quote, because it follows who is on the course.
Four on the novice course and four on a refresher, with one instructor and one machine. NPORS allow six on the experienced worker test, so a crew that is already chipping can be carded more quickly than a crew of beginners.
No. The category is about operating the machine. Towing a chipper on the public road is governed by licence entitlement, trailer weights and the condition of the trailer, which is a separate matter entirely. Tell us if your crews tow and we will flag what you need to have in place.
Yes, and it is one of the most important parts of the course. The rule is shut down, isolate, wait for the disc or drum to stop turning, then clear with the right tool. Most life changing chipper injuries happen because somebody skipped one of those four steps to save two minutes.
Yes, and it is much the better option. Disc and drum chippers feed differently, and the emergency stop bar and reverse control sit in different places on different machines. Your crew should be finding your controls without looking.
No. Different machine, different category. Cutting the material is covered by the N602 Chainsaw Maintenance and Cross Cutting category, and felling is a separate matter again. Most crews take the chipper and the chainsaw categories together because the same people do both jobs.
It depends where you work. Construction sites and most highways work will want the CSCS logo version, which needs a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass within the last two years. Private grounds, estate and arb work usually does not, and the traditional NPORS card avoids paying for a test you do not need.
Yes. There are no scheduled dates. We come to your depot or your work site, use your chipper and your arisings, and run it when you can release the crew. If you have nowhere suitable we will arrange a venue near you with a machine provided.
NPORS courses are priced per course, not per person. What you are paying for is the instructor, the registered tester and the machine time, so the figure turns on four things: the category, which route your operators need (novice, experienced, conversion or refresher), how many people are coming, and whether we run it on your site or at one of ours. It is also why a squad works out considerably cheaper per head than sending operators out one at a time. Use the course builder on this page: tell it who is coming and it works out how many days the course takes and how many times it has to run, which is what the price is built from. Then ask us and you will get a figure for that exact group rather than a list price with conditions attached.
We run NPORS courses across the UK rather than out of one fixed centre, and for most categories the better answer is that we come to you: your operators are assessed on the machine they will be using anyway, nobody loses a day travelling, and for a group it costs less. If you would rather come to us, we have centres at Trent House in Stoke, Pride Park in Derby, Europa House in Manchester and Kingsway House in Liverpool. Tell us where the work is and we will say honestly which way round makes more sense.
There is no fixed timetable to wait for. NPORS courses here are run to order, which means the dates are built around your programme rather than ours, and a single operator or a full squad can normally be booked in within a couple of weeks. If you have a card about to expire or a start date to hit, say so when you enquire and we will work to it.
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