NPORS Rigging and Fleeting Loads Training (N047)

Moving a load sideways in controlled stages rather than lifting it vertically. You rig a system of blocks, slings and pulling gear to certified strong points, take the load, walk it along the route, then reposition the anchors and do it again. It is how heavy plant gets into a basement, along a corridor or into a plant room that a crane cannot reach.

Three days for a novice, with up to six candidates and one instructor. The refresher is a single day, also up to six.

The NPORS test sheet does not set one out for this category, so we confirm the route with NPORS once we know what the candidate has already done. The routes it does list are a three day novice course and a one day refresher, so if you have been rigging for years without a card, the three days is usually the route in.

No, there is no prerequisite. The two overlap on slings, shackles and load assessment, so candidates who hold the N402 find parts of the three days familiar, but you can come to this one first.

It covers pulling and winching equipment as part of the rigging system, including snatch blocks and reeving for mechanical advantage. If the wire rope pulling machine itself is the main tool in your work, the N033 Puller Winch category covers that machine specifically and is a single day.

The NPORS N047 category. Without an NVQ that is a Red Trained Operator card; with the relevant NVQ it is a Blue Competent Operator card. Either carries the CSCS logo only while you hold a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass taken within the last two years. A traditional NPORS card without the logo suits work outside construction.

Yes, and it is usually worth it. The practical then happens on your anchors, your floors and your doorways, using the gear from your own store, which is where the difficult judgement calls actually live. There are no scheduled dates: we run it when it suits your work.

That is a large part of what the three days is teaching. It comes down to what the structure was designed to take, what the drawings and the structural engineer say, what the anchor is certified for, and the load your reeving arrangement is actually putting through it, which is often a great deal more than the weight of the item being moved.

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.