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NPORS Plant Inspector Thorough Examination Training (N039)
Every lift truck, excavator, crane and MEWP on your fleet needs a thorough examination on a fixed interval, and somebody competent has to sign it off. Five days trains your own fitters and engineers to inspect plant properly, from carrier and hydraulics to booms, winches, slew rings and hook blocks, and to write reports that survive an audit. Up to six candidates, run on request.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N039 Plant Inspector different
About this course
The NPORS N039 Plant Inspector Thorough Examination category trains the person who inspects plant and machinery and writes the report. It sits behind two sets of regulations. PUWER 1998 requires work equipment exposed to conditions causing deterioration to be inspected at suitable intervals by a competent person. LOLER 1998 requires lifting equipment to be thoroughly examined at least every six months where it lifts people, at least every twelve months otherwise, or in line with a written examination scheme, with a report each time.
Five days works down the machine systematically. The carrier first: motive power, cooling, hydraulics, transmission and drivetrain, tracks and tyres, steering and braking. Then the superstructure: booms and dippers, winches and ropes, slew rings, hook blocks, quick hitches, buckets and forks. Around that sits the inspection method itself, which is the walk round check, the pre start check, the running check and the documentation check, done in that order so nothing gets missed because something else distracted you.
The rest of the week is the technical detail: load testing procedures, using measuring equipment and recording findings, awareness of non destructive testing methods and when they are called for, stored energy and safe isolation, working at height on a machine, risk assessment and toolbox talks, emergency procedures and housekeeping. It finishes with the reports, because a competent examination that is badly recorded will not help you when somebody asks for it.
- What PUWER and LOLER each require of an inspection or a thorough examination, at what interval, and what a written examination scheme changes
- The inspection method in order: walk round check, pre start check, running check and documentation check, and why the order matters
- Carrier systems: motive power, cooling, hydraulics, transmission and drivetrain, undercarriage, steering and braking
- Superstructure and attachments: booms, winches and ropes, slew rings, hook blocks, quick hitches, buckets and forks
- Load testing, measuring equipment, recording findings and awareness of non destructive testing methods and when they apply
- Writing the report, deciding what is a defect that stops the machine now against one to be scheduled, and keeping records that stand up
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N039 Plant Inspector Thorough Examination category, registered with NPORS and recognised nationally
- An NPORS card in the category, carrying the CSCS logo where you also hold a current CITB Health, Safety and Environment test
- The ability to carry out and record thorough examinations of plant in house rather than buying them in
- Inspection records that a client, an insurer or an HSE inspector can be shown without a scramble
Who should attend?
Plant fitters, plant engineers, workshop managers, fleet and hire desk engineers, depot managers, maintenance supervisors and quality and compliance staff. It suits plant hire, groundworks and civils contractors running their own fleet, quarrying and waste, ports, manufacturing, agriculture and rail. It is not an operator course. If your people drive the plant rather than inspect it, the operator categories are what you want, and if the job is the rigging store rather than the machines, the shorter N019 Report of Thorough Examination is the right fit.
Entry requirements. There are no formal entry requirements, but this is a technical five days and a mechanical, plant or engineering background is close to essential in practice. You need to be able to read and write English well enough to complete an examination report, because the reports are assessed, and to work safely around plant including at height on a machine. Interpreters can be arranged on request. For the version of the card that carries the CSCS logo you need a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass taken within the last two years, which we book for you. Bring your date of birth and National Insurance number for the NPORS registration.
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Course content
What you will cover
Classroom on the law, the systems and the method, then most of the week on the plant itself, examining machines and writing the reports.
The law, the systems and the method
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, PUWER 1998 and LOLER 1998, and what each requires of inspection and thorough examination
- Examination intervals, written examination schemes, and examination after exceptional circumstances
- The inspector's responsibilities, the meaning of competent person, and the independence to condemn a machine
- Manufacturers' guidance, standards and the machine's own documentation
- Carrier systems: motive power, cooling, hydraulics, transmission and drivetrain, undercarriage, steering and braking
- Superstructure: booms, winches and ropes, slew rings, hook blocks, quick hitches, buckets and forks
- Stored energy, safe isolation, working at height on a machine, risk assessment and toolbox talks
- Load testing, measuring equipment, non destructive testing awareness including magnetic particle, dye penetrant, ultrasonic, radiographic and eddy current methods
Examining plant and writing it up
- Walk round checks, pre start checks, running checks and documentation checks in sequence
- Examining lift trucks, earthworks plant, cranes, MEWPs and lifting structures across the week
- Using measuring equipment to assess wear, elongation, distortion and play against permitted limits
- Carrying out and witnessing load test procedures
- Deciding what takes a machine out of service immediately and what is scheduled, and quarantining it
- Completing the report of thorough examination and filing the records so they can be produced on demand
Method of assessment
How the N039 plant inspector thorough examination test works
NPORS assess the category by theory test and by practical examination work, with the written reports assessed alongside. Up to six candidates train and test together across the five days.
1. Enquiry and group
Tell us how many candidates, where, and what plant your fleet holds. Up to six sit it with one instructor. We quote per group, because the week is built around the machines you actually inspect.
2. Pre course check
We confirm each candidate's engineering background, decide whether the five day novice route or the one day refresher fits, check the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test position if the CSCS logo version of the card is wanted, and take the details NPORS need.
3. Training
Classroom on the law, the systems and the method, then out to the machines. Most of the week is spent with plant in front of you, working through carrier and superstructure.
4. Theory test
The NPORS theory test covering PUWER and LOLER, intervals and schemes, machine systems, defect limits, load testing and reporting.
5. Practical examinations and reports
You examine machines across the categories covered, decide what passes and what comes out of service, and complete the report of thorough examination for each. The reports are assessed as well as the examinations.
6. Registration and card
We register the pass with NPORS and apply for your card. With a valid CITB Health, Safety and Environment test it carries the CSCS logo, and for depot and yard work a traditional NPORS card is often the better fit.
After the course
Competence, scope and what a card does not cover
Neither PUWER nor LOLER defines a competent person by a certificate. Competence is training, knowledge, practical and theoretical experience and enough independence to make an honest judgement, and this course is the training part of that. What makes somebody competent to examine a particular machine is this training plus real experience with that type of plant and the authority to stop it without being overruled. An employer who sends a fitter on five days and then leans on them to pass a machine has not achieved anything. We will say so at the quote stage.
Scope matters too. This category is about plant and machinery. The rigging store, with its slings, shackles, chain blocks and fall protection, is covered by the shorter N019 Report of Thorough Examination, and plenty of depots end up holding both cards across the team. If you are not sure which your business needs, tell us what you own and what you currently pay somebody else to inspect, and we will tell you honestly which of the two, or both, is worth doing.
- N019 Report of Thorough Examination for the rigging store and lifting accessories
- N401 Appointed Person where your business also plans lifting operations
- CITB Health, Safety and Environment test booked with us for the CSCS logo version of the card
- Refresher at one day when the card comes up for renewal
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.
N039 Plant Inspector FAQs
The N039 is about plant and machinery: lift trucks, earthworks plant, cranes, MEWPs and lifting structures, examined as complete machines across five days. The N019 is two days on lifting accessories and smaller lifting equipment, which is the rigging store rather than the fleet. Many depots put different people through each.
Under LOLER, lifting equipment used to lift people at least every six months, other lifting equipment at least every twelve months, or in line with a written examination scheme drawn up by a competent person, plus after exceptional circumstances. Under PUWER, work equipment exposed to conditions causing deterioration is inspected at suitable intervals, which the risk assessment and the manufacturer's guidance set.
It evidences the training, which is a substantial part of it. Competence under the regulations is training plus knowledge plus practical and theoretical experience plus the independence to make an honest judgement. Your employer still has to satisfy themselves you have the experience with that type of plant and the authority to condemn a machine.
Five days for a novice, with up to six candidates and one instructor. The refresher is a single day, also up to six. It is a long course and it is almost always employer funded.
No. The NPORS test sheet lists a five day novice route and a one day refresher for this category, with no experienced worker test. Someone already inspecting plant without formal training would take the five days.
Lift trucks, earthworks plant, cranes, MEWPs and lifting structures, taught as systems rather than as particular makes and models: carrier, hydraulics, drivetrain, undercarriage, then booms, winches, slew rings, hook blocks, quick hitches, buckets and forks. Tell us what your fleet holds and we will build the week around it.
There is no formal requirement, but realistically yes or something close to it. Five days on hydraulics, drivetrains, slew rings and load testing assumes you can already read a machine. If your background is operating rather than maintaining, tell us and we will be straight about whether this is the right course.
Yes, and it is the sensible way to do it. The week doubles as a proper look over your fleet, and your engineers learn on the exact machines they will be examining afterwards. There are no scheduled dates: we run it when the plant and the people can be spared.
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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