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NPORS Loading Shovel Training (N209)
A loading shovel spends its life reversing, turning and tipping into something taller than it is, usually with lorries and people moving around it. The N209 covers wheeled and tracked machines, on your stockpiles and your haul route. Run on request, at your site or a venue near you.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N209 Loading Shovel different
About this course
The NPORS N209 Loading Shovel category covers front end loading shovels, wheeled or tracked, used to load lorries, feed crushers and screens, build and trim stockpiles, move material around a site and backfill. It is the standard ticket for quarries, aggregates and recycling yards, concrete and asphalt plants, waste transfer stations, ports, farms doing construction work and any large civils site with muck to move.
The training covers the machine first: components and controls, articulation and steering, the loading arms and bucket geometry, ride control, and what the manufacturer's handbook says about the model you run. Then pre use checks, daily maintenance and defect reporting, tyre and track condition, and the loading and unloading of the machine for transport. Stability gets proper attention because a loaded bucket high in the air on a turning articulated machine is a very different vehicle from the one sat still with the bucket down.
The practical is the work. Travelling loaded and unloaded on gradients and haul roads, filling the bucket from a stockpile or a face without digging the toe out from under it, carrying at the right height, loading a lorry evenly and within its capacity, building and trimming stockpiles, feeding a hopper safely, and parking and shutting down. Around all of that sits the traffic and pedestrian management that makes a loading area either a controlled place or the most dangerous corner of the site.
- The machine: major components and controls, articulation, loading arms, bucket and attachment types, and the manufacturer's handbook for your model
- Pre use checks, daily maintenance, defect reporting and the operator's authority to stop
- Stability: loaded turns, carrying height, ground conditions, gradients and the effect of a full bucket on braking and steering
- Loading technique: filling the bucket, working a stockpile or face safely, and loading vehicles evenly and to the correct weight
- Working around people and vehicles: blind spots, reversing, segregation, signals and the loading area layout
- Feeding hoppers, crushers and screens, plus tipping, backfilling and site housekeeping
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N209 Loading Shovel category, registered with NPORS and recognised nationally
- An NPORS Red Trained Operator card, or a Blue Competent Operator card where the operator holds the relevant NVQ, carrying the CSCS logo while the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test is in date
- Operators who load lorries evenly and to weight rather than by eye and hope
- A loading area where the machine, the lorries and the people on foot are kept apart on purpose
Who should attend?
Quarries, sand and gravel operations, recycling and waste transfer sites, concrete and asphalt plants, ports and bulk terminals, large civils and earthworks jobs, plant hire and agricultural contractors working on construction. The novice route suits new operators, and the experienced worker route suits people who have loaded for years on a site that now wants cards. Machines that lift on forks or a jib are a different matter, and a skid steer loader is the N212 rather than this category.
Entry requirements. You should be at least eighteen, fit enough to work a shift on plant including getting on and off the machine safely, with eyesight and hearing good enough to work around lorries and people on foot, and able to follow spoken and written English for the theory test and the handbook, with support available on request. Quarry and port operators often set a medical standard of their own, and some sites also require site specific induction before training starts. 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 can book for you. Tell us at enquiry whether your machines are wheeled or tracked and what they load into.
Ready to take the next step?
Choose a delivery option, compare dates and book with confidence, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
Course content
What you will cover
Classroom on the law, the machine and the loading area, then the bulk of the course in the seat loading and stockpiling, finishing with the NPORS theory and practical test.
The law, the machine and the loading area
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and PUWER 1998 as they apply to plant operators
- The manufacturer's handbook, machine types, major components and controls
- Pre use checks, daily maintenance, defects and reporting
- Stability, carrying height, loaded turns, gradients and ground conditions
- Working a stockpile or face safely, including undercutting and material running
- Vehicle loading: even distribution, capacity and what an overloaded lorry does on the road
- Traffic management, segregation, blind spots, reversing and communication in the loading area
- Loading, unloading and securing the machine for transport
Loading and stockpiling
- Pre use inspection and reporting defects before the machine is started
- Travelling loaded and unloaded, on the level, on gradients and through restrictions
- Filling the bucket cleanly from a stockpile or face
- Loading lorries and dumpers evenly and within capacity
- Building, trimming and maintaining stockpiles
- Feeding a hopper or plant feed without overrunning it
- Parking, securing and shutting down, including removing the key
Method of assessment
How the N209 loading shovel test works
NPORS assess the category with a theory test of open and multiple choice questions and a practical test on the machine. Both run with us, because Acadame is an NPORS test centre as well as a training provider.
1. Enquiry and group
Tell us how many operators, whether your machines are wheeled or tracked and what each person has done before. Three sit the novice course with one instructor and one machine; six are allowed on the experienced worker test. We quote per group.
2. Pre course check
We sort novice from experienced worker from refresher, check whether the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test is in date for the CSCS logo version of the card, and take the details NPORS need.
3. Training
Classroom on the legislation, the machine and the loading area, then time in the seat. NPORS set minimum hours by group size for this category, which is why the length changes with the number of learners.
4. Theory test
The NPORS theory test covering legislation, machine knowledge, pre use checks, stability, loading practice and site traffic.
5. Practical test
You carry out pre use checks, travel the machine, load and stockpile material, load a vehicle correctly and shut down, assessed against the NPORS test specification.
6. Registration and card
We register the pass with NPORS and apply for the card. With a valid CITB Health, Safety and Environment test it carries the CSCS logo, as a Red Trained Operator card or a Blue Competent Operator card with the relevant NVQ.
After the course
What the shovel is usually feeding
On most sites the loading shovel is one machine in a chain. It feeds a crusher or a screen, it loads the lorries that take the product out, and it tidies up behind an excavator. Where your operators move between those machines, the N207 Crusher and the N208 Screener are the categories that cover the plant they are feeding, and knowing how that plant behaves makes for better feeding and fewer blockages.
The other thing worth sorting out after the course is the loading area itself. Cards train the operator; they do not fix a yard where lorry drivers wander off to watch, or where the only route to the weighbridge runs past the stockpile. Site rules, segregation and a proper traffic plan are what make the training stick. On the card, the NPORS category is the qualification and the CSCS logo is separate: the logo version needs a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass taken within the last two years, which we book for you.
- N207 Crusher for the plant the shovel is feeding
- N208 Screener where the same operators work the screening plant
- N205 Rear Tipping Dumper where site haulage is done by dumper rather than lorry
- CITB Health, Safety and Environment test booked with us for the CSCS logo version of the card
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.
N209 Loading Shovel FAQs
Yes. NPORS state the category covers both wheeled and tracked loading shovels. We test on the type you run so the card matches the machine, and if you run both, tell us at enquiry.
The NPORS category duration is five days for a novice, and the scheme of works sets minimum hours by group size: 42 hours for one learner, 56 for two and 70 for three. An experienced operator sits a shorter test focused route. We confirm the exact length when we quote.
No. A telescopic handler is the N010, a skid steer loader is the N212 and a loading shovel is the N209. They are separate categories with separate tests, and the card has to match the machine being operated.
Only if it is designed and equipped for it, thoroughly examined as lifting equipment where LOLER applies, and the operator is trained for that work. The N209 covers loading and shovel work. Lifting is a separate question and we will tell you straight what your machine and your operators need.
The NPORS N209 category. NPORS issue an Operator card, or a CSCS Trained Operator card or CSCS Competent Operator card where the requirements are met. The CSCS logo versions need a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass taken within the last two years, and the Competent Operator card needs the relevant NVQ.
Yes, NPORS is widely used in quarrying and aggregates as well as construction. Quarry operators often add their own site rules and medical standards on top of the card, so check what your site requires alongside the category.
That is what the experienced worker route is for. It is test focused rather than taught, it is shorter, and NPORS allow six candidates on it. We will look at how the machine is being worked first, because the test is against the NPORS specification.
Yes, and for this category it usually works best. Training on your own machine, your stockpiles and your haul route means the operator is assessed doing the job they will actually do. There are no scheduled dates: we run it when your machine and your people can be released.
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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