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NPORS Dozer Training (N215)
A dozer moves more material in an hour than anything else on a bulk earthworks job, and it does it on ground that is often steep, soft or freshly placed. The N215 is the NPORS category for crawler dozers, ten days for a novice, run on your machine and your earthworks rather than to a fixed timetable.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N215 Dozer different
About this course
The NPORS N215 Dozer category covers tracked crawler dozers: the machine with a blade on the front that pushes, spreads, levels and rips. Tracks spread the weight and give grip where a wheeled machine would bog or slide, which is why dozers do the bulk earthworks, the site strip, the haul road formation, the capping and the fill spreading on major civils, quarrying, opencast and landfill work.
The training covers the machine properly: undercarriage and tracks, the blade and its controls, tilt and angle, the ripper where one is fitted, and the manufacturer's handbook for the model you run. Then the daily disciplines of pre use checks, track tension and wear, greasing, defect reporting and getting the machine on and off a low loader, which on a machine this size is its own risk.
The operating skills are where the ten days go. Loading and carrying the blade, slot dozing, side casting, spreading fill in even layers for the roller to compact, forming a level to grade, ripping hard ground, and working across and down gradients safely. Around all of it sits the thing that catches people out: visibility. A dozer has a big blade in front, a ripper behind and a tracked machine's reversing pattern, so segregation, signals and knowing exactly where everybody on foot is standing matter as much as the blade control.
- The machine: undercarriage and tracks, blade types and controls, tilt, angle and pitch, rippers and winches where fitted
- Pre use checks, track tension and wear, greasing, daily maintenance and defect reporting
- Stability and traction: gradients, soft and made ground, edges of fill and excavations, and what to do when the machine starts to slide
- Dozing technique: loading the blade, slot dozing, side casting, spreading to layer thickness and finishing to level
- Ripping and breaking ground, and working alongside dumpers, scrapers and rollers
- Visibility, segregation, signals and loading the machine onto a low loader
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N215 Dozer 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 spread fill in even layers instead of leaving the roller to sort it out
- A dozer working to grade on a slope without the rest of the gang having to guess where it will go next
Who should attend?
Earthworks and bulk excavation contractors, major civils and highways projects, quarries and opencast operations, landfill and restoration sites, and plant hire firms supplying dozers with operators. The novice route suits operators moving up from other tracked machines, and the experienced worker route suits people who have run dozers for years on a project that now wants cards. Landfill compaction is a different machine and a different category, the N224, and a motor grader is the N240.
Entry requirements. You should be at least eighteen, fit enough for a full shift on a tracked machine including climbing on and off, with eyesight and hearing good enough to work around other plant, and able to follow spoken and written English for the theory test and the handbook, with support available on request. Large earthworks projects often add their own medical and site induction requirements. 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 size machine you run, whether it has a ripper or machine control fitted, and what each operator has done before.
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 ground, then the bulk of the course in the seat dozing, spreading and grading, finishing with the NPORS theory and practical test.
The law, the machine and the ground
- 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
- Blade types and the effect of tilt, angle and pitch on how material moves
- Pre use checks, track tension and wear, greasing, defects and reporting
- Ground conditions, gradients, fill, edges and the limits of traction
- Earthworks principles: layer thickness, spreading for compaction, formation and grade
- Visibility, blind spots, segregation from people and other plant, and agreed signals
- Loading, unloading and securing the machine for transport
Blade and tracks
- Pre use inspection and reporting defects before the machine is started
- Travelling over varied ground, up and down gradients and across slopes
- Loading and carrying the blade, slot dozing and side casting
- Spreading fill in even layers ready for compaction
- Forming a level and finishing to grade
- Ripping and breaking hard ground where a ripper is fitted
- Parking, securing and shutting down, including removing the key
Method of assessment
How the N215 dozer 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, what size dozer you run and what each has done before. Three sit the novice course with one instructor and one machine; four 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 earthworks principles, then time in the seat dozing, spreading and grading on real material.
4. Theory test
The NPORS theory test covering legislation, machine knowledge, pre use checks, ground conditions, earthworks and safe working practice.
5. Practical test
You carry out pre use checks, travel the machine on gradients, doze, spread and grade material, then park and secure it, 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
The earthworks fleet around the dozer
A dozer is one machine in an earthmoving train. Scrapers or dumpers bring the material, the dozer spreads it, a roller compacts it and a grader finishes it. Operators who move between those machines need a category for each, because the card has to match the machine, and a site that trains the whole fleet gets a gang that understands what the machine in front of them is trying to do.
Machine control systems are now common on dozer blades and change the way an operator works to level, and the N030 Machine Control System is the category that covers using them. 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.
- N240 Grader for the machine finishing the formation behind the dozer
- N223 Scraper where bulk material is moved by scraper
- N030 Machine Control System where the blade runs on GPS or laser control
- 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.
N215 Dozer FAQs
Ten days on the NPORS novice route, with three candidates to one instructor and one machine. Someone already operating sits a shorter test focused route with up to four candidates, and a refresher is shorter again. We confirm the exact length when we quote.
Yes, where the machine has one fitted. Ripping and breaking hard ground is part of what a dozer does and it is trained on the machine you run.
No. They look similar from a distance but they are different machines doing different work, and NPORS treat them as separate categories: the dozer is the N215 and the landfill compactor is the N224. The card has to match the machine.
The N215 covers operating the dozer. Using a GPS or laser machine control system is covered by the separate N030 Machine Control System category, and on a modern earthworks job it is worth holding both.
The NPORS N215 category on an 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 you hold a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass taken within the last two years.
Yes, that is the experienced worker route. It is test focused rather than taught and NPORS allow four candidates on it. We will watch how the machine is being worked first, because the test is against the NPORS specification rather than against habit.
Working on and across gradients is part of the category, so yes, within what the site and the machine safely allow. If your job is all slope work, tell us at enquiry and we will plan the practical around it.
Yes. Training on your own dozer, your material and your levels is the most useful way to do it and the machine never leaves the job. There are no scheduled dates: we run it when your people and your machine 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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