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NPORS Rough Terrain Lift Truck Training (N009)
A rough terrain forklift is a masted truck built to work on ground a warehouse machine would sink into: site compounds, stockyards, farms and pipe yards. The NPORS N009 is the ticket for it. The ground is the hazard, and the training is built around slope, cross fall and the moment a laden mast goes over soft fill.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N009 Rough Terrain Lift Truck different
About this course
The NPORS N009 Rough Terrain Lift Truck category covers the masted forklift built for unmade ground: large tread tyres, high ground clearance, usually four wheel drive, often with a side shift and a fork positioner and sometimes with stabilisers. It moves packs of brick and block, timber, drainage, steel and bagged material around a site compound, a stockyard, a farm or a builders merchant yard where a warehouse truck could not go.
A rough terrain truck is a rider operated lift truck, so operator training sits under the Approved Code of Practice L117, Rider operated lift trucks: operator training and safe use. L117 describes three elements: basic training, specific job training on the actual machine and the place it works, and familiarisation on the job under supervision, after which the employer authorises the operator to use it. This course is the basic training element plus as much of the specific job element as your site allows, and we hand you a plain note of what is left, because that part is almost never written down.
What sets this category apart from a warehouse truck is that the operator cannot trust the floor. Made up ground settles, a recently backfilled trench will not carry a laden machine, a compound built on a slope has a cross fall the operator can feel only when it is too late, and the mast raises the centre of gravity exactly when the machine is least stable. Add tyre pressures, load security on a rough surface, working near excavations, other plant and pedestrians, and the fact that HSE note rough terrain trucks have had to be fitted with an operator restraining system since 2002, which should be used where it is fitted.
- The legal frame: the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, PUWER 1998 and the L117 Approved Code of Practice, and what authorisation by the employer means
- Stability on uneven ground: cross fall, gradients, soft fill, backfilled trenches and the effect of raising the mast
- Reading the data plate and capacity chart, and the effect of attachments and fork positioners on capacity
- Pre use checks including tyres and pressures, defect reporting and thorough examination records
- Travelling laden and unladen on a gradient, and the rule about pointing the load up the slope
- Load security on a rough surface, and picking up and placing on ground that is not level
- Site awareness: excavations, other plant, pedestrians, overhead lines and buried services
- Operator restraint and what it does in an overturn
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N009 Rough Terrain Lift Truck category on the operator's NPORS record
- An NPORS Red Trained Operator card, or a Blue Competent Operator card with the relevant NVQ, carrying the CSCS logo while a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass is in date
- Operators who read the ground before they commit the machine to it
- A clear handover to the employer on the specific job training, familiarisation and written authorisation that L117 still expects
Who should attend?
Construction site compounds, housebuilding, groundworks, builders and timber merchants, quarries, agriculture, waste and recycling yards and pipe and steel stockyards. It suits novices moving into the cab, operators who have run machines for years on private land without a card, and cardholders coming up for renewal. If the machine has a telescopic boom rather than a straight mast, the right category is the N010 Telescopic Handler. If the truck is carried on the back of a lorry and demounted at a delivery, that is the N004 Lorry Mounted Lift Truck.
Entry requirements. You should be above minimum school leaving age, which is what HSE set for lift truck operators outside ports, and most employers and sites set eighteen. You need to be fit enough to climb in and out of the cab and work a full shift, with eyesight and hearing adequate for a working site, and able to follow spoken and written English well enough for the theory test, with reading support available on request. No prior card is needed for the novice route. 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 what machine you run, what attachments go on it and what the ground is like where it works.
Ready to take the next step?
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Course content
What you will cover
Classroom on the law, stability and the load chart, then practical operation on the machine on real ground, finishing with the NPORS theory and practical test.
The law, the machine and the ground
- The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and PUWER 1998 duties on employer and operator
- The L117 Approved Code of Practice: basic training, specific job training, familiarisation and authorisation
- Machine types, masts, four wheel drive, stabilisers, controls and safety devices
- Operator restraint, required on rough terrain trucks since 2002, and what it does in an overturn
- Stability, the load centre, the data plate and how capacity changes with attachments
- Ground assessment: made up ground, backfill, excavations, soft spots and cross fall
- Gradients, travelling laden and unladen, and load position on a slope
- Pre use checks, tyres and pressures, defect reporting, thorough examination and inspection records
Operating the truck
- Pre use inspection and reporting on the actual machine
- Manoeuvring on rough and uneven ground, laden and unladen
- Travelling on a gradient with the load in the correct position
- Picking up, transporting and placing palletised and banded loads on ground that is not level
- Stacking and destacking at the heights the machine is rated for
- Loading and unloading a vehicle in a yard or a compound
- Working near an excavation, other plant and pedestrians
- Parking, shutting down, securing the machine and end of shift checks
Method of assessment
How the N009 rough terrain lift truck test works
NPORS assess the category with a theory test and a practical test on the machine. Both run with us, because Acadame is an NPORS test centre as well as a training provider, and the pass goes onto the operator's record without a second booking.
1. Enquiry and group
Tell us how many operators you have and what each one has already done. NPORS allow three candidates with one instructor and one machine on the training routes and four on the experienced worker test. We quote per group, because the length follows the numbers.
2. Pre course check
We confirm the route each operator needs, check any existing cards, check whether the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test is in date for the CSCS logo version, look at the machine and its thorough examination record, and take the details NPORS need.
3. Training
Classroom on the law, stability and the chart, then practical operation on the machine on real ground in your compound or yard.
4. Theory test
The NPORS theory test covering legislation, machine knowledge, stability, ground conditions, gradients and site safety.
5. Practical test
You carry out pre use checks, manoeuvre on uneven ground, work a gradient, place loads and shut down, assessed against the NPORS test specification for the category.
6. Registration and card
We register the pass with NPORS and the N009 category goes on the card. With a valid CITB Health, Safety and Environment test that card carries the CSCS logo, as a Red Trained Operator card or a Blue Competent Operator card with the relevant NVQ.
After the course
The card is the start of the employer's job, not the end of it
L117 treats basic training as one of three parts. Once the operator holds the N009, the employer still owes them specific job training on the actual machine and the actual site, familiarisation under supervision, and a written authorisation to operate. On a site where the compound moves every few weeks, the familiarisation part is not a formality: the ground changes, and so do the routes and the pedestrian arrangements. We leave you a plain summary of what is outstanding.
There is no legal interval for refresher training. HSE say there is no specific requirement to retrain after set intervals, but that operators need reassessing from time to time, and three to five years is the usual practice. Reassess sooner after an incident or near miss, a change of machine, a long absence, or a move to a site with significantly different ground. 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.
- A written record of what specific job training and familiarisation still sits with the employer
- N010 Telescopic Handler where the same operators also run a boom machine
- N133 Plant and Machinery Marshal for the person directing plant in the compound
- 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.
N009 Rough Terrain Lift Truck FAQs
The N009 is a masted rough terrain forklift, where the forks rise on a vertical mast. The N010 is a telescopic handler, where the load goes out on an extending boom. They behave completely differently and are separate NPORS categories with separate tests, so a telehandler card does not cover a rough terrain masted truck or the other way round.
Five days for a novice on the NPORS test sheet, one day for a refresher, and one to two days for an experienced worker test. NPORS also publish a three day basic timetable for operators who have some experience but not enough to go straight to test. We ask what each operator has actually done before we quote.
No. A counterbalance card is a separate category and a warehouse machine never meets the conditions this one works in. An operator who holds the N001 will pick a rough terrain truck up quickly, which is what the shorter experienced worker route exists for, but the category still has to be gained.
Where a restraining system is fitted it should be used. HSE note that since 2002 rough terrain trucks, along with counterbalance and side loading trucks, have had to be fitted with an operator restraining system. On uneven ground an overturn is the realistic worst case, and the restraint is what keeps the operator inside the cab.
Ground rather than driving. Recently backfilled trenches, made up ground that has not consolidated, a cross fall the operator did not feel, and the mast raised at the wrong moment. The practical is run on real ground for exactly that reason, and the theory teaches operators to assess the ground before they commit to it.
The N009 category on the operator's NPORS card. Without an NVQ that is a Red Trained Operator card; with the relevant plant operations NVQ it is a Blue Competent Operator card. Either carries the CSCS logo only while a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass taken within the last two years is held.
The NPORS CSCS Trained Operator card runs for two years, within which the operator is expected to achieve the relevant NVQ and move to the five year Competent Operator card. Separately from the card, HSE expect operators to be reassessed from time to time, and three to five years is the usual practice.
Yes, and it is the better option, because the ground is the hazard and your ground is the one the operator will be working. We need a machine with a current thorough examination, loads to work with and an area we can use. There are no scheduled dates: we run it when the machine and the operators 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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