Forklift Training and Certification

Forklift Operator or Competent Person: Which Course?

eTraining sells three forklift courses. The difference is who is sitting down to take it.

• Forklift Certification: Safety Training. This is the course on this page, and it is the one most crews need. It is written for the person who drives the truck: operators taking their first training, and operators coming back around the three-year cycle. Three hours online, $39 per person. View the Forklift Certification: Safety Training
• Forklift Certification: Safety Training, Spanish. The same five modules and the same 29 CFR 1910.178 standard, delivered in Spanish. Buy it for operators who would rather train in Spanish, and they receive the same personalized certificate. It is a separate enrollment from the English course. View the Forklift Certification: Safety Training, Spanish
• Competent Person Forklift Safety Course. Written for the supervisor or designated competent person who oversees forklift work, rather than for the operator driving the truck. Buy it for whoever walks the floor and signs off on the operator evaluation. Drivers still need the operator course. View the Competent Person Forklift Safety Course

Buying for a crew? Start with the operator course for everyone who drives, in whichever language they will learn best, then add the competent person course for whoever supervises them.
 
 

When Forklift Operators Need Retraining Sooner

Most safety managers plan forklift training on a three-year cycle, and 29 CFR 1910.178(l)(4)(ii) lists five things that pull an operator back in before the three years are up.

• A near-miss counts, not just an accident. 29 CFR 1910.178(l)(4)(ii) names both. An operator involved in a near-miss needs refresher training, and so does one observed operating unsafely.
• A new class of truck restarts the conversation. Moving an operator from a counterbalance truck to a reach truck or an order picker is a different type of truck under the paragraph. The seven classes are taught here, so the classroom half is already covered.
• A change on the floor can trigger it too. A change in workplace conditions that could affect safe operation is on the list. New racking, a new aisle layout or a new loading dock can all qualify.
• The three-year evaluation runs underneath all of that. 29 CFR 1910.178(l)(4)(iii) sets the outside limit: the employer evaluates each operator at least once every three years, whatever else has happened.

Plan for three years, budget for sooner. The classroom part is $39 a seat whenever you need it, and it is the same course either time.