FREE Forklift Safety Tip no: 14
“Thousands Of NSW Forklift Licenses Have Been Cancelled… Without The Operator, Or Their Employer Knowing Anything About It!”
From January 06 to June 06, WorkCover ran advertisements in major metropolitan and regional newspapers about changes to certificates of competency. Basically, anyone who obtained a forklift license before 1996 had to go to their local WorkCover office and convert their licence to a new National Certificate Of Competency. Anyone that didn’t convert their license before the 30 June 2007 will find that their license was cancelled.
They might still carry the old license in their wallet, but they are no longer
licensed to drive a forklift.
All pre 1996 license holders will have had a series of letters mailed to them about the need to renew. Some however, changed address since obtaining the license and never updated their details with WorkCover. Others claim to have never received any of the letters and a large number of people got the letters but just didn’t do anything about it.
Anyone that didn’t convert their license will have to sit the current forklift license test before they are licensed to operate again. Without passing the current license test, they will cause all sorts of WorkCover and Insurance problems for you when an accident occurs.
How do you tell which of your operators are using cancelled licenses?
Most companies keep a license register on site with photo copies of each operator’s license. All licenses come with a date of issue on them. Any with a date of issue pre 1996 will be cancelled and the operator will need be retested. This conversion must be done by contacting WorkCover on 1800 201 225 ASAP.
If an operator has a pre 1996 license and hasn’t renewed it, they aren’t licensed.
For any assistance or for more information regarding this matter, feel free to call our office on 1300 799 112 or email me nathan@ausforklifttraining.com.au