Hello all. I’ve been trying to find a course to get my HIAB ticket but it’s just making more confused. I just want to clear it all up.
Do you need training for HIAB? (As in you don’t specifically need a qualification to use a forklift, but any company will ask for you to have it)
Does one card cover all? (Looking at trainers websites it lists a load of “ends” to the crane (log grabber, hook, brick grabber etc.)
Is there a particular standards authority?
Can you suggest any good trainers within 1-2 hours of the West Midlands?
Thanks!
I can recommend Merrits at Kirkby in Ashfield. It’s within your travel limits but I expect you will be able to find a provider more local to yourself if you prefer.
All the best, Pete 
Peter Smythe:
I can recommend Merrits at Kirkby in Ashfield. It’s within your travel limits but I expect you will be able to find a provider more local to yourself if you prefer.
All the best, Pete
Just over an hour. I did call one company, got an answerphone asking me to leave my number, and then nothing. Obviously they don’t need my custom 
You must get an ALLMI licence, other exist (we offer RTITB too) but they are often not recognised on some site.
I’ve just bought a brand new PM hiab crane on a Volvo FH for training, with all the attachments often asked for - hook, brick clamp, bucket. So if you get stuck give me a call and I’ll sort you out a course, 1 day for existing users and 2 days for a novice, and its remote control - you need that on your licence too.
Or head on to the ALLMI website to find your nearest provider, remember you need remote, loader category C or above and whatever attachments you want.
Tockwith Training:
You must get an ALLMI licence, other exist (we offer RTITB too) but they are often not recognised on some site.
I’ve just bought a brand new PM hiab crane on a Volvo FH for training, with all the attachments often asked for - hook, brick clamp, bucket. So if you get stuck give me a call and I’ll sort you out a course, 1 day for existing users and 2 days for a novice, and its remote control - you need that on your licence too.
Or head on to the ALLMI website to find your nearest provider, remember you need remote, loader category C or above and whatever attachments you want.
So lets say for arguments sake I did remote with hook. Does that mean if I turned up at a job with manual (mounted to the truck body) controls and a brick grab attachment I couldn’t use it? Or even manual with hook (not qualified for the manual bit)?
Well its goes a lot like this;
Health and Safety Regulations, from the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) state in regulation 9 that you must have adequate training to use work equipment safely for your own sake and others. So the company, site owner or whoever needs to decide if your training is adequate to use any machine type you wish to operate in the course of your work activity.
Its accepted by industry that if your certificate says remote crane they will allow you to operate a crane with manual controls, which is strange because manual controls are more difficult to master, perhaps hence the motive for your question. On our courses we cover both types of controls but remote will appear on the certificate/card.
As for attachments, its the same story, the employer/site may accept you being adequate to operate safe without these on your training records but this won’t be the case on heavily regulated sites that operate within the regulations.
How much is the two day course, and how often do you run them?
htmldude:
Do you need training for HIAB? (As in you don’t specifically need a qualification to use a forklift, but any company will ask for you to have it)
As far as I was aware, anyone operating a forklift without a proper qualification would void any insurance that the company, or building they use it in, would have to cover any law suit resulting from and accident. As such insurance is a legal requierment, if the company was inspected, or there was an accident on site, and they found out ‘untrained’ employees were using such equipment they could face fines or closure. This is what I was led to believe by my FLT instructor when I got my qualification in 2009. Just as a side note these qualifications also expire after 5 years and need to be renewed.
TheTrogFather:
htmldude:
Do you need training for HIAB? (As in you don’t specifically need a qualification to use a forklift, but any company will ask for you to have it)
As far as I was aware, anyone operating a forklift without a proper qualification would void any insurance that the company, or building they use it in, would have to cover any law suit resulting from and accident. As such insurance is a legal requierment, if the company was inspected, or there was an accident on site, and they found out ‘untrained’ employees were using such equipment they could face fines or closure. This is what I was led to believe by my FLT instructor when I got my qualification in 2009. Just as a side note these qualifications also expire after 5 years and need to be renewed.
Yes, because we all know that infomation given out on training courses is 100% correct
Training, and certification are two different things. You can be trained to used a HIAB perfectly safely, but not be certified. This does not invalidate any insurances unless it specifically says on a policy you need to be certified for that equipment.
But the only way you can prove training to a Site Manager, or a H&S bod on a big site is through certification.
So no you don’t need a plastic card to use a HIAB legally, but it makes you a ■■■■ sight more employable than someone who doesn’t have one. Realistically it’s likely only very small operations that would let you on a HIAB without a card. As Tockwith says ALLMI seems to be the flavour of choice at the minute.
If you’re not already proficient in the use of a crane then a 2 day course would be very beneficial, round my way they want to do 5 days for an inexperienced user!
Just for any non believers out there I worked at a firm that had a driver come to work for us that had never seen a HIAB at work in his life (he had worked mainly general haulage and dustcarts) he did two weeks with a mate to show him the controls, then went out on his own. He then redesigned the roof of an Audi A4 that was only a week old, and then in a separate incident the next day knocked over a lamp post to a nice jaunty angle. The insurance paid out both times without bother.
Needless to say the driver went back to the dustcarts the next day
F-reds:
Just for any non believers out there I worked at a firm that had a driver come to work for us that had never seen a HIAB at work in his life (he had worked mainly general haulage and dustcarts) he did two weeks with a mate to show him the controls, then went out on his own. He then redesigned the roof of an Audi A4 that was only a week old, and then in a separate incident the next day knocked over a lamp post to a nice jaunty angle. The insurance paid out both times without bother.
Needless to say the driver went back to the dustcarts the next day
What was the guy supposedly training him doing? I did three days’ training (two for the hook, one extra for the brick grab which I paid extra for later) and I’ve yet to damage anyone’s car. They teach you not only how to operate the controls but also things like how to sling different types of loads safely. Most of the problems I’ve had have been to do with peculiar features on each crane (like the HMF remote control that went haywire when I overreached last Friday), as by and large the switches all work the same way and do the same thing. I always ask to be shown how to set the crane up – get the legs out, then unfold it and fold it back up again if necessary (if it’s a hook crane). As for hitting lampposts, you’re supposed to make sure there are no obstructions before you start any crane operations. I’ve only been doing HIAB jobs (on and off) for about three weeks.
IndigoJo mate you sound like a very reasonable and intelligent chap. So if you think 2 weeks is a long time to learn the controls to just 2 HIABs that were practically exactly the same, you would be right! This should give you some indication of how thick this new guy was…
To further illustrate, he said, and I quote. “We didn’t have all these funny coughs/colds in this country before they started letting in the Blacks and Asians…”
I was merely using him as an example of someone who wasn’t certified, but was trained. Had not one but two accidents, without redress from the law, the dreaded HSE or, insurance companies.
Oh and by the way, both of the incidents were caused by improper stowing of the crane. 1st one he left the arm out, 2nd one he didn’t put it away correctly so it was sitting 18 inches out from the side of the wagon to catch the lamp post.
Good luck with your career on the HIABS mate it can be good fun trying different ways to get the job done, and can be very rewarding financially in beer tokens if done right
F-reds:
TheTrogFather:
htmldude:
Do you need training for HIAB? (As in you don’t specifically need a qualification to use a forklift, but any company will ask for you to have it)
As far as I was aware, anyone operating a forklift without a proper qualification would void any insurance that the company, or building they use it in, would have to cover any law suit resulting from and accident. As such insurance is a legal requierment, if the company was inspected, or there was an accident on site, and they found out ‘untrained’ employees were using such equipment they could face fines or closure. This is what I was led to believe by my FLT instructor when I got my qualification in 2009. Just as a side note these qualifications also expire after 5 years and need to be renewed.
Yes, because we all know that infomation given out on training courses is 100% correct
Training, and certification are two different things. You can be trained to used a HIAB perfectly safely, but not be certified. This does not invalidate any insurances unless it specifically says on a policy you need to be certified for that equipment.
But the only way you can prove training to a Site Manager, or a H&S bod on a big site is through certification.
So no you don’t need a plastic card to use a HIAB legally, but it makes you a ■■■■ sight more employable than someone who doesn’t have one.
Thanks for correcting me on that one. Good to know