To have a professional and reliable workforce behind you, it pays to invest in training and education. And this couldn’t be more relevant for the construction industry. Many jobs require the use of large and potentially dangerous equipment. For this, the user must be properly trained and kept up-to-date with the most current recommendations to minimise the risk of injury. In this blog, we’ll look at what training you need to operate plant machinery.

Driving license

As we mentioned in a previous blog, there are currently no government-issued licenses for vehicles at work. This applies to plant machinery that is being moved around a construction point and used for the related job. However, if an employee needs to manoeuvre a machine on a public highway, you will need to pay attention to the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 to ensure the machine and its driver are compliant with current laws.

Health & Safety

While there are no set legal requirements for qualifications to operate plant machinery, you need to ensure that all employees are up-to-date with the latest health and safety regulations. These state that operators in the construction industry must be fully trained and competent to operate the equipment they are using. There are training schemes available to help support this, including the Construction Plant Competence Scheme (CPCS). Within this, operators will learn:

• Hazard perception
• Accident prevention
• Legalities
• Health & Safety at work
• Safety signs
• PPE

These qualifications are optional but do provide a level of confidence in the competency of your employees. They also help to ensure the stringent safety requirements upheld by UK law can be fed through your business and employees are kept safe at all times.

PUWER

The Provisions and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 was set in place to make sure that the equipment used is safe. It is in place to ensure that equipment is suitable, regularly maintained, used by those with adequate training and inspected by a competent worker. These regulations cover construction plant equipment and your employees must receive the relevant training to understand how best to reduce the risk of injury.

Here at Jay Bee Plant Sales, we specialise in supplying and sourcing the safest plant equipment for every need. If you have any further questions or would like to speak to a member of our team, please do get in contact today.