EWP training in New Zealand: Scissor lifts and boom lifts

No. There’s no “EWP licence”, no endorsement on your driver licence, and no government body that issues one. Any certificate you hold is a competency record from a training provider, not a licensing document – it’s an operator’s certificate. The legal requirement under HSWA 2015 is that the PCBU ensures operators are trained, competent and supervised.

While unit standards aren’t a legal requirement, they may well be a commercial requirement on large building sites, or in contract terms. Check what your clients actually ask for before deciding.

They split by machine type. Unit standard 23966 covers describing EWP types and the legislative requirements for their use, and underpins the rest. Then 23960 for scissor lifts, 23962 for self-propelled boom lifts, 23961 for truck-mounted, 23963 for trailer-mounted and 23964 for vertical lifts. Operators hold 23966 plus at least one machine-type standard. Boom-type work also involves 23229, the harness standard. Most public courses only offer scissor lift and self-propelled boom; truck-mounted and trailer-mounted are usually onsite bookings only. Read more.

The MEWP Best Practice Guidelines state that the gap between refresher training should not exceed three years. It’s the interval the industry and the EWP Association both work to. Unit standards themselves don’t expire: once credited to a Record of Achievement they stay there, which is why an operator can hold current unit standards and still be overdue for refresher training. Both matter, and they’re not the same thing.

Generally no, and this is the most common misunderstanding in the category. A scissor lift’s fall protection is its guardrails, and the platform is designed to be worked from without a harness. Boom-type platforms are different: the risk is being catapulted out by boom movement or ground impact, so a harness with a lanyard attached to the manufacturer’s anchor point is expected. That said, plenty of sites impose harness rules on all platforms as a blanket policy, and the manufacturer’s operating manual can specify otherwise. Follow the machine and the site.

You do have to wear a harness on boom lifts.

The theory training is consistent across all models, but practical induction and assessment should be covered on the relevant machines – scissor lifts, self-propelled booms, trailer-mounted, truck-mounted and vertical lifts – because the controls, stability limits and failure modes differ.  Familiarisation is usually a short, documented handover rather than a course, but it needs to happen and it needs to be recorded.

Only when it’s fitted with a work platform and configured to lift people, in which case the MEWP guidelines apply. A telehandler with forks fitted is treated as a forklift under the forklift Approved Code of Practice. A work platform fitted to a forklift is also covered by the forklift Code rather than the MEWP guidelines.

In New Zealand, no. In Australia, yes. Even though the WAV is similar to a scissor lift, it’s classified as a forklift. However, you can do our WAV-specific training.

The theory can, and it covers a lot of ground: machine types, legislative requirements, worksite assessment, hazard identification, exclusion zones, ground conditions and pre-start checks. What can’t be done online is the practical assessment, which means the optional unit standards can’t be awarded that way. A supervisor or an external trainer can conduct the practical assessment at your workplace.

Fifteen. Regulation 46 of the Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016 prohibits anyone under 15 from working at or with machinery, or assisting with that work. In practice, most sites set a higher bar for EWP work through their own rules, and some unit standards have practical prerequisites that a young operator won’t meet.

Ensure operators are trained and competent, provide familiarisation on each machine, supervise until competence is established, keep the training and familiarisation records, and manage EWP refresher training before the three-year point. There’s also a machine-side duty: EWPs need regular inspection and certification, and electrically insulated platforms need insulation testing at least every six months with the certificate displayed. Hiring a machine doesn’t transfer the operator competence duty to the hire company.

EWP training is machine-specific: operating a platform safely, assessing the worksite, understanding the machine’s limits. Working at heights is broader and covers height work that doesn’t involve a platform at all – ladders, roof work, edge protection, fall arrest systems, rescue planning. Most sites need both, because the same worker who operates a scissor lift on Monday is on a ladder on Tuesday, and the controls that keep them safe are completely different.

If you get out of the EWP at height (e.g. use it to get to a roof), then you must have working at height training.