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NPORS Quay Crane Training (N105)
A quay crane operator works high above a ship, lands a spreader onto container corner castings they can barely see and does it again every couple of minutes for a shift. NPORS set five days for a novice, with three candidates to one machine. We run it on request, at your terminal, because a quay crane does not travel to a training centre.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N105 Quay Crane different
About this course
The NPORS N105 Quay Crane category is the operator card for the ship to shore cranes that work containers and cargo between a vessel and the quay. The operator sits in a cab that travels out along the boom over the ship, controlling the hoist, the trolley and the spreader, landing on container corner castings and turning the twistlocks, then bringing the box back inboard to a trailer or a stack.
Five days covers the machine and its systems: the gantry travel along the rails, the boom and its raising and lowering, the trolley, the hoist, the spreader and its telescoping and twistlock functions, along with the anti sway, load monitoring, limit and interlock systems that stop the crane doing something expensive. It also covers the parts that only exist in a port: working over water and over a vessel, the effect of the ship moving on the tide and as it is worked, wind limits and storm pinning, and the stow plan the operator is working to.
The rest is the job. Cab position and line of sight, what you can see and what you cannot, working with lashers and quay staff on radio, exclusion zones under the crane and on the quay apron, and the discipline of repeating an accurate move for a full shift without cutting corners. Statutory duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act, LOLER, PUWER and BS 7121 sit behind it, along with the operator's pre use checks and the right to stop.
- The crane: gantry travel, boom raising and lowering, trolley, hoist, spreader telescoping and twistlocks, and the systems that protect each one
- Anti sway, load monitoring, limit switches and interlocks, and what each is preventing
- Landing on corner castings accurately, turning twistlocks, and lifting single and twin boxes where the spreader allows it
- Working over water and over a moving vessel, tide and trim effects, and the stow plan the crane is working to
- Wind limits, out of service conditions, storm pinning and the decision to stop working the ship
- Radio communication with lashers and quay staff, exclusion zones on the apron, pre use checks and defect reporting
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N105 Quay Crane category, registered with NPORS and recognised nationally
- A traditional NPORS card for port work, or the CSCS logo version where the operator also works on construction sites and holds a current CITB Health, Safety and Environment test
- Operators who can work the ship accurately at pace without relying on being shown by the last person in the seat
- A consistent standard across a terminal's crane operators, which is what an audit or an insurer wants to see
Who should attend?
Container terminal and general cargo port staff, stevedoring companies, dock operators and terminal training departments. Almost everybody who comes to this category is already working in a port, usually on yard plant such as container handlers, reach stackers or rubber tyred gantries, and is being brought onto the quay cranes. It is not a category anybody takes speculatively, and it is always employer arranged because the machine belongs to the terminal.
Entry requirements. You should be at least eighteen, in good general health with eyesight, hearing and head for heights suitable for working in a quay crane cab high above a vessel, and able to follow spoken and written English for the theory test and for radio work, though interpreters can be arranged for the training. Terminals almost always set their own medical, induction and port safety requirements on top of the NPORS category, and those come from the employer rather than from us. Tell us at enquiry what plant your operators already work and for how long, because that decides whether they are novices or experienced workers.
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Course content
What you will cover
Classroom on the crane, the systems and the port environment, then the bulk of the time in the cab working boxes, with testing at the end.
The crane, the systems and the port
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, LOLER 1998, PUWER 1998 and BS 7121 as they apply to port cranes
- Quay crane types and components: gantry, rails, boom, trolley, hoist, cab and spreader
- Spreader operation, telescoping and twistlocks, and single and twin lift arrangements
- Safety systems: anti sway, load monitoring, limit switches, interlocks and anti collision where fitted
- Safe working loads, load charts where provided, and the consequences of overload
- Working over water and over a vessel, tide and trim effects, and vessel movement as the ship is worked
- Wind limits, out of service conditions and storm pinning
- Stow plans, communication with lashers and quay staff, exclusion zones and apron traffic
Working the ship
- Pre use checks of the crane, the spreader, the ropes and the cab, and defect reporting
- Safe access to and egress from the cab
- Gantry travel and positioning over the correct bay
- Landing the spreader on corner castings and operating twistlocks accurately
- Lifting, travelling and landing boxes to and from the vessel, quay and trailer with controlled sway
- Securing the crane, parking and shutting down, including putting the crane out of service for weather
Method of assessment
How the N105 quay crane test works
NPORS assess the category by theory test and practical test. Training and assessment run together across the five days, with the practical covering pre use checks, accurate landing on corner castings and controlled moves between ship, quay and trailer.
1. Enquiry and group
Tell us how many operators, which terminal and what plant each has worked. Three sit the novice course with one instructor and one crane; four are allowed on the experienced worker test. We quote per group.
2. Scheduling around the vessels
A quay crane earns its money when a ship is alongside, so we build the course around your vessel schedule and your quiet windows rather than around a training calendar.
3. Pre course check
We decide who is a novice, who is an experienced worker and who needs a refresher, agree whether a traditional NPORS card or the CSCS logo version suits your operation, and take the details NPORS need.
4. Training
Classroom on the crane, the systems and the port environment, then the bulk of the time in the cab working real moves under instruction.
5. Theory and practical test
The NPORS theory test, then the practical test: pre use checks, positioning, landing on corner castings, controlled moves and shutdown, assessed against the NPORS test specification.
6. Registration and card
We register the pass with NPORS and apply for the card, traditional or with the CSCS logo depending on what your operation needs.
After the course
The rest of the terminal
A quay crane is one machine in a chain. The box it lands goes onto a trailer, into a stack and onto a lorry, and terminals that train the whole chain to one standard move more boxes with less damage. NPORS categories cover the yard side as well, including container handlers, and a terminal putting people through the quay cranes usually ends up standardising the rest at the same time. Tell us what your fleet looks like and we will map the categories to it.
On cards, ports are one of the places where the traditional NPORS card makes more sense than the CSCS logo version. The logo exists for construction sites and it depends on a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test that expires separately from the card. If your operators never set foot on a construction site, the traditional card is the sensible choice, and we will say so rather than sell you tests you do not need. Where they do work construction as well, we book the test alongside.
- N012 Container Handler for the yard side of the same operation
- N104 Overhead Crane where the terminal also runs workshop or bay cranes
- N402 Slinger Signaller for break bulk and non containerised cargo work
- CITB Health, Safety and Environment test booked with us only where the CSCS logo version of the card is genuinely needed
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.
N105 Quay Crane FAQs
Five days for a novice, with three candidates, one instructor and one crane. If your operators already work quay cranes, the experienced worker route is shorter and test focused, with four candidates allowed. The refresher is shorter again and we confirm the length when we quote.
No, and nobody sensibly could. A ship to shore crane is part of the terminal. We come to your quay and work around your vessel operations, which is also why this course is always arranged by the employer rather than by an individual.
Most come off yard plant: container handlers, reach stackers, rubber tyred gantries or terminal tractors. That background helps a great deal, because they already understand boxes, twistlocks and the traffic on the apron. It does not make them experienced workers on the quay crane, which is a separate category and a separate test.
Usually not. The logo is for construction sites and depends on a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test that expires separately from the card. For port work the traditional NPORS card is normally the right one. Where your people do also work construction, we will book the test and take the logo version.
Yes, in detail, because that is where the accuracy and most of the damage live. Telescoping, landing on corner castings, turning and confirming twistlocks, and twin lift arrangements where the spreader is capable of them.
Covered properly. Wind limits for working the ship, the point at which lifting stops, out of service conditions and storm pinning are part of the theory and are the sort of decision an operator has to be confident making rather than waiting to be told.
No. N105 Quay Crane and N104 Overhead Crane are separate categories for different machines, and the card has to match what is being operated. A terminal with workshop cranes as well as quay cranes usually needs both across the team.
Over time, yes, but not at once. NPORS allow three candidates on the novice route and four on the experienced worker test, so we sequence a larger group across several courses rather than squeezing the ratio, since the ratio is what gives each person real time on the controls.
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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