Hi all, We need to dig a small trench about 300 mm deep, however the ground is full of leftover building rubble. We have a general handyman who claims he can use a mini digger, and I do believe he is likely to have used these in his past. However, I like people to have had formal training and he can’t prove he has. On searching for required training, it seems to be aimed at larger machines and even the ones labelled as below 10 ton seems out with the mini digger size. The HSE web site refers to some training on excavators in general, but on investigating this seemed to be forestry related.

Then on another search a training provider of general digger training had this:-

“If you require a mini digger for projects on private land or worksites, a licence will not be required in order to operate the machine. If needed by the roadside, and other types of sites, a ticket will need to be held by the operator by law.”

Well, we are not near a road or any buried services, its flat and we can exclude people from the area except a lookout ( so no lone working), but a bit unsure about no formal training. I can’t see we are likely to want to do this ever again.

What training would others require of someone to operate the smallest of the small mini diggers, is there anything specifically recommended, so I can look at training costs.

If you hire the mini-digger in, isn't there some onus on the hirer of the equipment to provide instruction on the safe use of the equipment ??, (even though most of them just deliver, dump and depart),

This would get you over that hurdle, but as mentioned, you'd likely still need a CAT survey and service/utility info and drawings

Yes I’m happy there are no services in the area. Are we saying the appropriate course is a CPCS one ? A quick look suggests that it is 6 days including test and costs £1,650 (A58 course), so by the time we add the hire of the machine and travel and hotel costs we are close to about £3k. Could not easily find a RTITB course to compare.

No I don’t think hirers of the machine have any responsibility to check competence ( if they did what would they insist on). Yes may get some basic info from them.

Thanks for the response seems a bit much for the small hardstanding slab we wanted to create to tidy an area up and make more usable. It seems like H&S says no to the project, I do hate that.

Thanks for your feedback.

Chris

Originally Posted by: chris42

Yes I’m happy there are no services in the area. Are we saying the appropriate course is a CPCS one ? A quick look suggests that it is 6 days including test and costs £1,650 (A58 course), so by the time we add the hire of the machine and travel and hotel costs we are close to about £3k. Could not easily find a RTITB course to compare.

No I don’t think hirers of the machine have any responsibility to check competence ( if they did what would they insist on). Yes may get some basic info from them.

Thanks for the response seems a bit much for the small hardstanding slab we wanted to create to tidy an area up and make more usable. It seems like H&S says no to the project, I do hate that.

Thanks for your feedback.

Chris

You should be able to find a training org who can issue a training certificate on an 'In House' basis,

We have a local company who use the same trainers, and follow the same syllabus as CPCS, (Perhaps with some very minor differences for legal purposes), and issue a certificate of competence. for a much lower cost as they don't have to pay the Accreditation body the fees to issue the accredited cert

No, this certificate is not a CPCS accredited cert, but it's more than adequate for a lot of In-House type work that sounds like all you need. 

It also helps with staff retention as people don't take the accredited quals on to a new job as soon as you've trained them

Originally Posted by: SteveL

If you working on the road including pavement or verge and digging you require a road opening licence by law,  if you are a supervisor or labourer you require a qualification by law. New Roads and Street works Act 1991 

Is this applicable to the task of roadworking?

The OP was asking about operator training/licencing for equipment.

If you truly believe this is not within the skills & aptitude of the handyman (which it sounds like by insisting on a piece of formal paperwork) hire a ground worker or landscape gardener rather than a mini-digger.

As it goes, I do believe he has experience of using these mini diggers. We just normally bring in external contractors to do bigger jobs and I expect them to have a training record, to help prove some sort of competence. This is a relatively smaller job, hence why we are considering doing it inhouse.

A previous handyman we sent on a MEWP course for a day and cost about £300, and thought something like the Mini digger would be the same. It would be worth £300 for a days training as you never know if we may want to do something similar in the future (though no particular plans). I was therefore surprised to find it was 5 days training with 1 day of testing. However, I was not sure of what training was necessary hence my question of what others would want.

There seems to be a feeling from the responses that if the employee has experience, then they would go with this. I could be on site on the day to ensure that he at least appears to be able to operate it smoothly. I will give this some more thought.  I know in the past from conversations with insurance companies solicitors that they just focus on training records with regard to proving  competence, should something unforeseen happen.

Chris