{"id":22100,"date":"2020-03-30T06:07:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-29T17:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/?p=22100"},"modified":"2024-04-13T23:41:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T10:41:27","slug":"do-you-need-a-class-2-licence-to-drive-a-forklift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/do-you-need-a-class-2-licence-to-drive-a-forklift\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you need a class 2 licence to drive a forklift?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you only drive the forklift in areas which are not classed as roads, then you can drive any forklift, even without a current class 1 licence, as long as you have an appropriate qualification such as a forklift operator’s certificate<\/a> or equivalent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when you want to drive a forklift on a public road (and remember that the definition of a road is very broad), then you will need a class 1 car licence<\/a> if the forklift is up to 18,000kg (including the load being carried) and a class 2 heavy vehicle licence<\/a> if the forklift is over 18,000kg, plus an F endorsement and operator’s certificate<\/a> (here’s what you need to do to get a class 2 licence<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, the main areas where a driver needs a class 2 licence plus F endorsement when driving a forklift is for work on wharves and ports, and in railway yards lifting empty containers. While this is often done using a top lift container handler using a gantry spreader which requires a wheels (W) endorsement, sometimes forklifts are used because twenty-foot ISO shipping containers have two slots at the base for use with a forklift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This container is being lifted by a crane, but you can see the two slots at the bottom for a forklift, as are also visible on the containers stacked in the background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Forklift carrying a container<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A container handler without a load – these require a W endorsement<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even forklifts that only lift empty containers will have a nominal capacity of 7000-9000kg, meaning the gross vehicle mass will far exceed 18,000kg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A container handler at a stack of containers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Wharves are considered to be public roads, so forklifts must be registered and have a WoF, and the driver must have an F endorsement and a current driver’s licence. You can see the forklift at the bottom in the middle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you only drive the forklift in areas which are not classed as roads, then you can drive any forklift, even without a current class 1 licence, as long as you have an appropriate qualification such as a forklift operator’s…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[356,363],"tags":[181,360],"class_list":["post-22100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-driver-licence","category-forklift","tag-class-2","tag-forklift"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22100"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23013,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22100\/revisions\/23013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}