Your driver swings loads off the back of your lorry. If a lift goes wrong, who was trained and assessed on that loader, and where is it written down? PHW trains and assesses your drivers on your own lorry loader, on your own site.
The crane on the back of a lorry, also called a Hiab or lorry-mounted crane, as run by the small haulier or builders' merchant with a loader lorry or two, and any site running planned lifts. PHW covers a hook for slung loads such as pallets and packs, a clamshell bucket for loose material such as aggregate, and a hydraulic clamp for loads gripped rather than slung, such as bricks, blocks and paving.
The duty to train and assess competence sits with the employer, under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 section 2(2)(c) and PUWER 1998 regulation 9.
A lorry loader is lifting equipment under LOLER 1998. Regulation 8 requires every lifting operation to be properly planned by a competent person, appropriately supervised and carried out in a safe manner. Regulation 9 requires thorough examination at least every 12 months, or every 6 months for lifting accessories such as slings and chains, or in line with a written examination scheme. The Approved Code of Practice and guidance L113, Safe use of lifting equipment, sets out how to comply.
A lorry loader lifts from the vehicle deck, often from the public highway, so the plan for each lift covers where the stabilisers will stand, what the ground beneath them will bear, and where any overhead lines run and how they will be kept clear, before the lift begins.
Once a driver has been trained and assessed on your loader, you decide who may operate it. PUWER 1998 regulation 9 requires you, as the employer, to make sure every operator has received adequate training for health and safety. The certificate, unit credit, records and site evidence statement are your evidence for that decision.
PHW trains and assesses your drivers on your own lorry loader, on your own site. In plain terms: the checks before use, driving the vehicle and manoeuvring in tight spaces, setting up for a lift, keeping clear of underground and overhead services, working with the rated capacity indicator, lifting and slewing loads without swinging them, and shutting down and securing the crane. The units on the certificate are listed below.
Your driver gets certificates to show on site. You get the records for your file. Anyone can scan the QR code on a certificate to open the live record.
HSE prosecutions in this line of work.
£50,000 · 2026-01-28
A worker offloading granite slabs alone was struck and killed when safety posts that should have held them had been removed.
Read the case →