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NPORS Grader Training (N240)
A motor grader is the machine that turns a rough formation into something you can actually build a road on, and it does it with a blade hung between the axles that can be set a dozen different ways. The N240 covers the machine, the blade and the level. Run on request, on your grader at your site.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N240 Grader different
About this course
The NPORS N240 Grader category covers motor graders: long, articulated machines with a mouldboard slung on a circle between the front and rear axles, used to cut, spread and trim material to line and level. They form and maintain haul roads, trim sub base and capping to grade, cut camber and crossfall, shape verges and ditches, and scarify or rip a surface before it is re worked.
The course starts with the machine, because a grader has more controls than most operators have ever met. Circle turn, blade sideshift, tilt and pitch, drawbar shift, wheel lean, frame articulation and the scarifier or rear ripper where fitted. Each of them changes how the material rolls off the blade, and the training covers what each one is for rather than leaving the operator to find out by trial and error on a live formation.
After that it is the work itself. Pre use checks and daily maintenance, cutting and spreading, trimming to level with pegs, string or machine control, maintaining a haul road so it drains rather than potholes, and working safely around the dumpers and lorries using the same road. The practical test covers travelling, blade work and finishing, along with the parking, securing and shutdown that finish every shift.
- The machine: frame and articulation, circle, drawbar, mouldboard, wheel lean, scarifier and ripper, and the manufacturer's handbook for your model
- Pre use checks, daily maintenance, blade and cutting edge wear, defect reporting and the authority to stop
- Blade settings: angle, tilt, pitch and sideshift, and what each does to the material being moved
- Cutting, spreading and trimming to line, level and crossfall, including working to pegs, string or machine control
- Haul road construction and maintenance, drainage, camber and keeping a surface that other plant can use
- Travelling a long articulated machine safely, visibility, segregation and loading for transport
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N240 Grader 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 can trim to level in fewer passes and leave a surface that drains
- Haul roads that stay usable instead of being patched by the dumpers driving over them
Who should attend?
Highways and major civils contractors, earthworks and bulk excavation teams, quarries and opencast sites maintaining haul roads, airfield and rail projects, and plant hire firms supplying graders. It suits operators moving across from dozers and rollers on the novice route, and long standing grader operators who now need the category on a card. Road planing is a different machine and category, the N216, and a roller is the N214.
Entry requirements. You should be at least eighteen, fit enough for a full shift on a large machine including climbing on and off, with eyesight and hearing good enough to work around other plant and site traffic, and able to follow spoken and written English for the theory test and the handbook, with support available on request. Large projects and quarries often add their own medical and 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 machine you run, whether it has 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 levels, then the bulk of the course in the seat on blade work and trimming, finishing with the NPORS theory and practical test.
The law, the machine and the level
- 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 geometry: circle, drawbar, angle, tilt, pitch, sideshift, wheel lean and articulation
- Pre use checks, daily maintenance, cutting edge wear, defects and reporting
- Working to level: pegs, string lines, laser and machine control systems in outline
- Formation, capping and sub base, crossfall, camber and drainage
- Haul road construction and maintenance, and working around site traffic
- Travelling, parking and loading a long articulated machine for transport
Blade work and trimming
- Pre use inspection and reporting defects before the machine is started
- Travelling the machine, including articulating and manoeuvring in a restricted area
- Setting the blade for cutting, spreading and trimming
- Cutting and spreading material and windrowing it where needed
- Trimming a formation to line, level and crossfall
- Forming and maintaining a haul road surface that sheds water
- Parking, securing and shutting down, including removing the key
Method of assessment
How the N240 grader 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 machine 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 levels, then time in the seat on blade work, trimming and haul road maintenance.
4. Theory test
The NPORS theory test covering legislation, machine knowledge, pre use checks, blade settings, levels and safe working practice.
5. Practical test
You carry out pre use checks, travel the machine, cut, spread and trim material to level, 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
Getting a formation signed off
A grader works between two other machines. The dozer or scraper puts the material there, the grader trims it, and the roller compacts it. When one of those three is done badly the other two spend the week fixing it, so training the whole earthworks gang is usually better value than training one operator at a time.
Machine control is now normal on graders and it changes the job rather than replacing the skill: the operator still has to understand crossfall, drainage and what the material is doing under the blade. The N030 Machine Control System covers working with GPS and laser guidance. 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.
- N215 Dozer for the machine placing the material in front of the grader
- N214 Road Roller for compacting what the grader has trimmed
- 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.
N240 Grader FAQs
Five days on the NPORS novice route, with three candidates to one instructor and one machine. An experienced operator sits a shorter test focused route with up to four candidates, and a refresher is shorter again. We confirm the length when we quote.
The N240 covers operating the grader. GPS and laser machine control is the separate N030 Machine Control System category. If your machines run on control, holding both is the sensible combination and we can run them together.
No. A grader cuts and trims material with a blade to form a level. A road planer cuts and removes existing bound surfacing with a drum, and that is the separate N216 category.
Yes. Haul road formation, drainage and maintenance is part of the category and it is usually the work the machine does most of, so if that is your priority we will build the practical around it.
The NPORS N240 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.
Most likely the experienced worker route, which is test focused rather than taught. We will confirm it at enquiry, and if the machines or the standards they worked to are very different we will say so and suggest the training route instead.
Yes. The practical test is on a grader, so either we train on your machine or we arrange a venue with one available. Tell us which at enquiry and we will plan around it.
Yes. Training on your own grader and your own formation is the most useful way to do it, and the machine stays on 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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