NPORS Shunter Vehicle Training (N243)

A short wheelbase tractor unit, also called a terminal tractor or a tug, used to move semi trailers around private premises. Most have a hydraulically lifting fifth wheel so the trailer can be picked up without winding the landing legs, and a cab designed for constant mounting, dismounting and reversing.

That depends on the vehicle and on where it is driven, so it is a question for the employer rather than for us. Plenty of shunter operators do not hold one, but the answer turns on the vehicle itself and on whether it uses or crosses a public road at any point, and a yard can count as a public place. What this card records is competence at shunting trailers, which sits separately from any driving entitlement.

Four days for a novice, with three candidates to one instructor and one vehicle. A driver already shunting normally takes the shorter experienced worker route, where NPORS allow six candidates, and the refresher is shorter again. We confirm the length when we quote.

Because an uncoupled or badly coupled trailer is how people get killed on a yard. The order of operations, connecting and disconnecting lines, raising and lowering legs, and proving the pin has locked with a tug test are covered until the routine is automatic and the same every time.

Yes, and it is much the best way. Drivers train on your own units, trailers, docks and layout, including the awkward bay everybody complains about, and nobody loses days travelling. We need a suitable area for the practical and a vehicle in a testable condition.

For depot and warehouse work the traditional NPORS card is normally the right one and does not depend on a CITB test that expires separately. Where the same people also work on construction sites they need the CSCS logo version, which requires a current CITB Health, Safety and Environment test.

No. The NPORS category has to match the vehicle and the task, and neither a counterbalance ticket nor a road licence records competence at shunting trailers around a yard. Driving experience helps and often puts somebody onto the shorter route.

Three on the novice course and the refresher, six on the experienced worker test. Larger groups get sequenced across more than one course, because the ratio is what gives each driver real time behind the wheel.

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.