Liam Knight looks at training compliance in the UKLiam Knight is managing director of the Association of Industrial Truck Trainers (AITT), one of the four founding members of the Accrediting Bodies Association for Workplace Transport (ABA).
If you employ or train people to operate forklift trucks, order pickers, or telehandlers, it’s now urgent that you check any new training certificates match the ABA’s (Accrediting Bodies Association) new Workplace Transport Groupings.
In fact, the deadline to adopt the new categories passed months ago, on 19 January 2026. Since then, any courses without the changes have not been compliant — and therefore, not accredited.
The new groupings cover a wide spread of equipment types:
- Counterbalance trucks
- Reach and straddle trucks
- Rough terrain trucks and telehandlers
- Vertical stock pickers
- Low level order pickers
- Tow tractors
- Multidirectional trucks
This is not a minor change. The ABA for Workplace Transport underpins more than half of the UK’s materials handling training.
Yet we’re still hearing from a worrying number of employers, and even trainers, who are unaware of the changes. As a result, there may be a growing number of operators whose certificates are — legally speaking — not worth the card they’re printed on.
Sleepwalking into non-compliance
Is your training complaint?
The ABA brings consistency between the UK’s accrediting bodies for MHE training. Its Workplace Transport Groupings ensure there’s total clarity about which courses cover which machines.
If the training doesn’t match, you could easily assume an operator is competent to use equipment when they’re not.
That’s when accidents happen. And, when the investigators arrive, there’s nowhere to hide. It’s a dangerous issue — for your people, and your business. So don’t put it off; check today.
If you’re an employer: Ask your trainer what changes they’ve made to course content to match the new categories.
If you’re a trainer: Confirm you’re no longer delivering removed categories and that you’ve created or updated your training for the effected categories.
These changes also need to be reflected in the relevant training certificates.
Far-reaching changes reflect a changing industry
The new categories bring accredited training in to step with the way equipment is used now.
In some areas, it breaks down false distinctions between truck types; in others it brings more detailed focus to equipment that’s becoming more popular, or that needs its own dedicated approach.
For example:
- Low level order pickers get their own category (E0), showing they’re increasingly different from pallet trucks (A2).
- Reach trucks no longer have a height differential; D1 now covers all reach and straddle trucks.
- Rough terrain lift trucks and telehandlers (Category J) are divided more clearly by machine type rather than height.
- Pedestrian multidirectional pallet stacker trucks and vertical stock pickers need specialist training, so become new categories (M4 and SP1 respectively).
- Counterbalance and reach trucks no longer have separate stand-on categories (B4 and D3 delivered as part of B1 and D1 instead).
- Tow tractors no longer have an upper weight limit (H3 is discontinued).
Although height categories have been combined in many cases, the training documentation and certificate should be clear about the maximum height capabilities of the machinery used for the assessment.
It’s important to remember that there’s no need to retrain operators any sooner than their usual refresher training schedule. These changes apply to training from 19 January onwards, and certificates from courses before that date are still valid.
However, I should also mention that these general courses are only the first step towards competence and compliance. The operator also needs specific familiarisation training on the particular kind of machine they’ll be using. And if they move to something significantly different, a conversion course is always a good idea.
Simpler, clearer, and safer
In many ways, the new category list is simpler, giving employers better value from their training and more clarity about which machines an operator can safely use. You may well find it’s a closer fit for the types of equipment you actually work with.
If you do have a problem, it’s likely to come from a lack of alignment between the employer and the trainer — which is why frank, open communication about expectations, categories, and course content is so essential.