My company has just purchased a manually-operated heavy duty stacker - http://www.advancedhandl...s/heavy-duty-stacker.pdf Is there a legal requirement for users to be trained, as there is for powered fork-lifts? At the moment we are treating it as a variety of pallet truck. Thanks, John.

I'm sure you're aware that under PUWER there is a legal required for suitable and sufficient info/instruction/training in any equipment (powered or non powered and whatever type), regardless of what it is. In terms of if this is a pallet truck, then yes I would say it is. As to what type / duration / style of training, that will be down to your assessment of the risk. My previous employer provided in house (non-accredited) training by line managers (theory, demo, observation over about 15mins) - didn't have any issues with this as they are quite straightforward to use. Training sheet was a 1 pager with sign off at the bottom, eery oeprative completed this and filed on their person file. It worked well enough for us at the time. I'm sure there are external providers that will offer "accredited" training, there is no legal requirement for you to use accredited and / or external persons to train employees.

Thanks for all replies. Carl, good point, I knew that pallet trucks did not come under LOLER but clearly this will. John.