A roller that goes over the edge of a trench or turns over on a slope puts its driver in danger, and the first question afterwards is who trained and assessed them. PHW trains and assesses your drivers on your own roller, on your own site: ride-on rollers up to 3.5 tonnes operating weight, the size a small groundworks or surfacing firm runs on driveways and car parks.
Ride-on rollers up to 3.5 tonnes operating weight
Theory and practical assessment on your own roller, on your own site. The practical is marked on what a driver actually does: the pre-use check including the drums, scrapers, water spray, roll-over protective structure, seat belt, brakes and steering; moving off and manoeuvring forward and in reverse; using vibration, and knowing when it must be switched off; compacting in layers with the right overlap, including edges and joints; working alongside an unsupported edge at the assessed safe distance; travelling on a gradient within the roller's rated limits; and parking, shutdown, the articulation lock and the checks afterwards.
Some answers are safety-critical and must be right whatever the overall score: seat belt use with the roll-over protection, a safe distance from unsupported edges and excavations, never travelling across a slope side-on, the articulation lock engaged for transport and maintenance, and keeping people out of the working area.
The seven units, as the formal list:
The driver gets certificates to show on site. You get the records for your file. Anyone can scan the QR code on a certificate to check it live.
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 the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) regulation 9. PHW gives you the evidence for that decision.
Overturning, at an unsupported edge, on a slope or into an excavation, is the hazard this assessment is built around. PUWER regulation 26 requires the risk of a roller rolling over to be minimised, by a roll-over protective structure or equivalent, and a suitable restraining system, such as the seat belt, where the driver could be crushed. Regulation 28 covers self-propelled equipment: braking and stopping, and devices to improve the driver's view where it is inadequate.
On a construction site, regulation 27 of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM) requires the site to be organised so that, so far as is reasonably practicable, pedestrians and vehicles can move without risks to health or safety. Regulation 28 requires suitable and sufficient measures to stop a vehicle falling into an excavation or overrunning the edge of an embankment or earthwork, and CDM defines a vehicle to include any mobile work equipment, such as a roller. HSE guidance HSG144, The safe use of vehicles on construction sites, sets out how.
The Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 apply to the whole-body vibration a driver takes through the seat: the employer has to assess it and reduce it as far as is reasonably practicable.
In other workplaces, such as a plant hire yard, regulation 17 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 requires the workplace to be organised so that pedestrians and vehicles can circulate in a safe manner.
The employer decides who is authorised to drive each roller and keeps that decision on file. The certificate, unit credit, theory and practical records and site evidence statement are the evidence behind it.
Up to four of your people assessed for competence in one day, on your own site and machines, with minimum downtime. Plus a written safe-system pack for each topic. PHW works nationally: tell us how many drivers, the roller and the site postcode, and we will come back with a quote and dates. PHW has certificated thousands of candidates nationwide, for multinationals and small firms alike.