Forklift certification in Puerto Rico: who issues it and why you cannot buy it online

Your employer issues the certification

This is the first thing to understand, and the thing that saves people the most money: forklift operator certification is not issued by a school, an examining board, or the Department of Labor. It is issued by the employer.

Federal standard 29 CFR 1910.178(l) puts the duty on the employer in plain words: it must ensure each operator is competent, as demonstrated by completing the training and the evaluation, and it must certify in writing that the operator was trained and evaluated. That certification carries four items: the operator's name, the training date, the evaluation date and who did the training or the evaluation.

In Puerto Rico this standard applies just the same. PR OSHA, part of the Department of Labor and Human Resources and operating under Act No. 16 of 5 August 1975, adopted every federal OSHA standard identically, and has them translated into Spanish on its site.

The cards you can buy online

There are sites that will send you a plastic card saying forklift certified for a few dollars. It is worth saying plainly what that card is and what it is not.

An online course can legitimately cover the formal instruction part, which is one of the three parts the standard requires. What no distance course can give you is hands-on practice with the equipment and the evaluation of your performance at the workplace, because those two have to happen on the floor where you will work, with the type of forklift you will use.

That is why certification belongs to the employer and to the site. Even if yours is recent, a new employer has to evaluate you again before letting you climb on, and that is not them putting up obstacles: it is what the standard requires of them.

That said, showing up to an interview with evidence that you already took the formal training is not useless. It saves the employer time and puts you ahead of someone who arrives with nothing. Just do not pay thinking you bought a licence, because a forklift licence does not exist.

The three parts of the training

The standard says training must be a combination of three things.

Formal instruction: lecture, discussion, video, written material or an interactive course. Practical training: demonstrations by the trainer and exercises you perform. And an evaluation of your performance at the workplace.

Whoever trains and evaluates you must be someone with the knowledge, training and experience to do it. While you are in training you may operate the equipment only under that person's direct supervision, and only where it does not endanger you or anyone else.

One practical detail that helps: if you already received training on a topic and that training fits the truck and the working conditions where you are going, the employer does not have to repeat it, as long as they evaluate you and find you competent. So your prior experience does count, but the evaluation is not skipped.

What the training covers

The standard lists the topics and they fall into two groups. One is about the equipment: the differences between a forklift and a car, controls and instruments, the engine, steering and manoeuvring, visibility, attachments and their limitations, vehicle capacity and stability, inspection and maintenance, and refuelling or battery charging.

The other group is about the site where you will work: the surface, the composition and weight of loads, stacking and unstacking, pedestrian traffic, narrow aisles, classified hazardous areas, ramps and sloped surfaces that affect stability, and enclosed spaces where carbon monoxide or diesel exhaust can build up.

One thing the rules put in your hands every day: the standard requires the forklift to be inspected before each shift. That inspection is the operator's, and doing it properly is what separates a serious operator from one who ends up with the machine out of service.

Every three years, and sooner if something happens

Each operator's performance evaluation must be done at least once every three years. That is where the idea that certification expires after three years comes from.

But the standard also requires refresher training before those three years in five situations: if you are observed operating unsafely, if you were in an accident or a near miss, if an evaluation shows you are not operating safely, if you are assigned a different type of truck, or if workplace conditions change in a way that affects safe operation.

Note the fourth one: moving from a sit-down forklift to a narrow-aisle truck or an order picker is not the same job, and it entitles you to be trained again. That is not a nuisance, it is your protection.

18 years old, no exceptions

Operating a forklift in non-agricultural work is prohibited for anyone under 18. This is not company policy: it is Hazardous Occupations Order 7 of the federal Department of Labor, at 29 CFR 570.58, under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The prohibition is broad. It covers operating, tending, riding on, working from, repairing, servicing or disassembling the equipment, and it includes not just forklifts but cranes, manlifts, scissor lifts and skid steers.

If you are 17 and someone offers you a warehouse job where you will be driving a forklift, that job cannot be yours yet, and the employer offering it is exposing themselves. What you can do is the rest of the warehouse work while you put in the time.

What to ask at the interview

Three short questions that tell you a lot about an employer, and that also show them you know what you are talking about.

First: do you provide the forklift training here? The right answer is yes, because it is their duty.

Second: which type of forklift will I be operating? If you will use several, the training has to cover them.

Third: will I get a copy of the certification with the dates? That paper is yours and it helps at your next job, even though they will evaluate you again there.