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NPORS Skip Loader Training (N219)
The skip lorry that drops and collects builders' skips, usually on somebody else's ground, often at a kerbside with the public walking past. Three days covers positioning the vehicle, the chains and the arms, the overhead cables nobody looked up at, and getting a loaded skip back on the bed without dragging half the driveway with it. Run on request, on your own vehicles.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N219 Skip Loader different
About this course
The NPORS N219 Skip Loader category covers the vehicle that delivers, collects and exchanges builders' skips: a chassis with hydraulic lifting arms, chains to the skip lugs, and a driver who is almost always working alone on ground they do not control. It is the everyday plant of the waste and skip hire trade, and on construction sites it is one of the vehicles that comes and goes most often.
Three days is built around the fact that the difficult part is not the lever, it is the position. Where the vehicle sits decides everything: whether the arms can reach and lift square, whether the skip lands where the customer actually wants it, whether the ground under the wheels and the outriggers will hold, whether there is room for the public to get past, and whether anything overhead is going to be in the way when a skip goes up. Cambers, verges, soft drives, service covers, sloping driveways and parked cars all change the answer.
The rest is the load and the lift itself. Checking the chains and the lugs, hooking on square, lifting a loaded skip under control without snatching, keeping the load inside the skip and within the vehicle's weight limits, sheeting or netting before travel, and reversing and depositing a skip into a confined space without a spotter half the time. Then pre use and running checks, defect reporting, discharging a skip where the site takes it, and leaving the vehicle and the site safe.
- The vehicle: chassis and body, hydraulic lifting arms, chains and hooks, any stabilisers fitted, safety devices and the controls
- Positioning: ground bearing, cambers and slopes, drives and verges, service covers, room for pedestrians and traffic, and the reach the arms actually have
- Overhead hazards: power lines, low bridges and canopies, tree limbs and building overhangs, checked before the arms are raised
- Loads and limits: what may and may not go in a skip, even loading, the vehicle's weight and axle limits, and sheeting or netting for travel
- Lifting technique: checking chains and lugs, hooking on square, smooth lifting and lowering, and depositing accurately in a confined space
- Pre use and running checks, defect reporting, discharging a skip, and duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and PUWER 1998
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N219 Skip Loader category, registered with NPORS and recognised nationally
- An NPORS Red Trained Operator card, or a Blue Competent Operator card where you hold the relevant NVQ, carrying the CSCS logo while your CITB Health, Safety and Environment test is in date
- Drivers who position the vehicle before they touch the arms, and who look up every single time
- Fewer damaged drives, fewer refused deliveries and a record of training that stands up when a client asks
Who should attend?
Skip hire and waste operators, recycling and transfer station staff, builders' merchants, construction and demolition contractors running their own skip vehicles, and drivers moving from general haulage onto skips. Yard staff who load, exchange and discharge skips on site need it as much as the drivers do. If the containers you handle are roll on roll off rather than chain lift builders' skips, the N225 Multi Lift and Drop Hook Loader Vehicle category is the one for that.
Entry requirements. You should be at least eighteen, fit enough to climb on and off a vehicle and to handle chains and sheeting, and able to follow spoken and written English well enough for the theory test, though we can arrange an interpreter or a reader on request. A driving licence for the vehicle class is a matter for whoever drives it on the road rather than a requirement of the NPORS category itself, which is about operating the lifting equipment, though in practice most candidates are drivers. For the version of the card that carries the CSCS logo you need a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass at Operatives level taken within the last two years, which we book for you. Tell us at enquiry what vehicles you run and what sizes of skip.
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Course content
What you will cover
Classroom on the vehicle, positioning, overhead hazards and the law, then the rest of the time on the vehicle lifting, depositing and securing skips, with theory and practical testing at the end.
The vehicle, the position and the duties
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and PUWER 1998 as they apply to a skip loader operator
- The operator handbook, the vehicle's rated lifting capacity and its weight and axle limits
- Major components: lifting arms, rams and hydraulics, chains and hooks, stabilisers where fitted, and safety devices
- Positioning the vehicle: ground bearing, cambers, slopes, drives, verges, service covers and room for the public
- Overhead hazards including power lines, canopies and tree limbs, and why the check happens before the arms move
- Loading rules, prohibited and hazardous waste, even loading, overloading and securing with sheets or nets
- Working at the kerbside: pedestrians, traffic, parked vehicles, exclusion zones and permits where the skip goes on the highway
- Pre use and running checks, defect reporting, and leaving a site safe
On the vehicle
- Pre use checks of the vehicle, hydraulics, arms, chains, hooks and any stabilisers, and reporting a defect
- Assessing a drop site and positioning the vehicle for reach, ground and clearance
- Deploying stabilisers where fitted, and levelling
- Attaching chains square to the skip lugs and checking them before taking the weight
- Lifting an empty and a loaded skip smoothly on and off the bed under control
- Reversing and depositing a skip accurately into a confined space
- Securing the load with a sheet or net for travel, then unsecuring and discharging
- Stowing the arms and chains, securing the vehicle and leaving it safe
Method of assessment
How the N219 skip loader test works
NPORS assess the category by theory test and practical test. Training and assessment run together, and the practical is carried out on the type of skip vehicle your drivers actually run.
1. Enquiry and group
Tell us how many drivers, where, and what vehicles and skip sizes you run. Three sit the novice course with one instructor and one vehicle, six can sit the experienced worker test. We quote per group, because the length follows who is on the course.
2. Pre course check
We work out who is a genuine novice, who is an experienced worker and who is due a 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 to register.
3. Training
Classroom on the vehicle, positioning and the duties, then the rest of the time on the vehicle. Where we are at your depot we use your vehicles, your skips and the sort of drop sites your drivers actually meet.
4. Theory test
The NPORS theory test, open questions and multiple choice, covering legislation, vehicle components, positioning and ground, overhead hazards, loading and weight limits, and securing a load.
5. Practical test
You carry out pre use checks, assess and position for a drop, chain on, lift and deposit a skip accurately including into a confined space, and secure the load, assessed against the NPORS test specification.
6. Registration and card
We register the pass with NPORS and apply for your 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 if you hold the relevant NVQ.
After the course
The driver is on their own when it matters
A skip driver arrives alone at a drive, a verge or a site gate and has to decide whether that position is safe, whether the ground will hold, whether the overhead is clear and whether the public can be kept far enough back. Nobody is standing there to check the decision. That is why the course puts so much into assessing the drop site rather than into working the levers, and it is why the same content is worth repeating in toolbox talks when a new estate or a new customer site starts producing awkward drops.
On the paperwork side, the lifting arms and the chains are equipment the vehicle relies on every lift, and chains take a hard life on a skip vehicle. Whatever examination and inspection regime your fleet runs, the driver's daily check is the thing that catches a worn hook or a stretched link first, which is exactly why defect reporting is assessed rather than just mentioned. Sites that take a lot of skip deliveries also benefit from somebody trained to marshal vehicles at the gate.
- N225 Multi Lift and Drop Hook Loader Vehicle where the fleet also runs roll on roll off containers
- N403 Vehicle Marshal for the site receiving and turning your vehicles
- N107 Lorry Loader where drivers also work a vehicle mounted crane
- 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.
N219 Skip Loader FAQs
The skip loader vehicle: the chain lift lorry that delivers, collects and exchanges builders' skips using hydraulic arms and chains to the skip lugs. If your fleet also runs hook lift vehicles carrying roll on roll off containers, that is the separate N225 Multi Lift and Drop Hook Loader Vehicle category.
NPORS publish a three day novice duration, with three candidates, one instructor and one vehicle. A driver already running skips regularly usually takes the shorter experienced worker test, and a refresher is around a day. We confirm the length when we quote, because it follows who is on the course.
Not for the NPORS category itself, which is about operating the lifting equipment rather than driving on the public road. In practice almost everyone who takes it drives the vehicle too, and the licence for that is a separate matter. Yard staff who load and exchange skips without driving on the road still need the category.
Three on the novice course, with one instructor and one vehicle, which is the NPORS maximum ratio of 3:1:1. On the experienced worker test NPORS allow six in a session, which is usually the efficient route for an existing fleet.
Because the position decides whether the lift is safe. The reach of the arms, the ground under the wheels, the camber of the drive, the room left for pedestrians and what is overhead are all fixed the moment the driver stops. Skips reach well above the cab on the arms, so an overhead line or a low canopy that looked irrelevant on approach becomes the whole problem.
Yes. Securing the load before travel is part of the practical, along with checking that what is in the skip is loaded evenly and within the vehicle's weight and axle limits. An overloaded or unsecured skip is a road traffic problem as well as a site one.
The NPORS N219 category. Without a relevant NVQ that is a Red Trained Operator card, valid two years. With the relevant NVQ it is a Blue Competent Operator card, valid five years. 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 waste work outside construction.
Yes, and it is the better option. Drivers train on your vehicles, your chains and your skip sizes, and we can build the practical around the sort of drop sites they actually deal with. There are no scheduled dates: we run it when you can release vehicles and drivers.
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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