Logistics and equipment operation

This domain trains the people who move loads, with a forklift, a mobile elevating work platform (MEWP), an overhead crane, a crane or by hand. It also trains the people who organise those operations, because a well-driven machine in a badly organised area is still dangerous. Every course combines theory, practice on the machine and an individual assessment.

In the 2027 training catalogue, these courses form the logistics and plant operation domain. Their titles follow the R.4xx recommendations of the French national health insurance fund, used as a training reference: prior medical fitness, practice on the client’s own machines, a named certificate per category to attach to the operating authorisation, and a one- to two-day refresher.

Manual handling sits in the occupational health and safety domain (manual handling, musculoskeletal disorders and ergonomics, 1 day).

Who is this training for?

For operators, and for the supervisors who organise their work.

• Forklift drivers, storekeepers, order pickers: counterbalance and reach trucks, stackers, powered pallet trucks, truck loading.
• Maintenance technicians and construction trades: MEWPs.
• Overhead crane operators and production staff: overhead cranes, hoists, jib cranes.
• Crane operators, slingers, signallers: mobile and tower cranes, slinging, guiding.
• Logistics staff and drivers: securing loads on vehicles.
• Anyone who lifts by hand: manual handling, mechanical aids.
• Team leaders, logistics and HSE managers: traffic plans, simultaneous operations, inspections, choosing and hiring equipment.

Which machines and operations does the domain cover?

Six families of operations, each linked to the articles of the Moroccan Labour Code that matter most for it.

What does the Moroccan Labour Code say about plant and handling?

It does not say who may drive, but it does say how the employer must equip, inform and organise. These articles, read in the consolidated version of the Code published by the Ministry of Justice on the Adala portal, are the legal basis of our courses.

• Guarded equipment. Machines, tools and plant must have protective devices of recognised effectiveness and be kept in the safest possible condition (art. 282).
• Purchase and hire. It is forbidden to buy or hire dangerous machines that lack the protective devices originally fitted (art. 283). The rule applies to a MEWP or a crane hired for a few days on a project.
• Information. The employer informs workers of machine hazards and displays a legible notice of the dangers and precautions at the workplace (art. 289). New hires receive written information on the prevention of machine-related risks (art. 24).
• Prohibitions. No worker may use a machine without its guards or disable them, and nobody may ask them to (art. 289).
• Manual loads. No worker may be asked to carry by hand loads whose weight may endanger their health or safety (art. 289).
• Heavy packages. Any package of 1,000 kg or more must show its weight, the nature of its contents and how it is to be loaded (art. 302): information every slinger must be able to read.
• Discipline. A duly informed worker who ignores the safety rules for certain dangerous work commits serious misconduct (art. 293).

The labour authority sets the implementing measures for these principles (art. 292), notably through Order No. 93-08 of 12 May 2008, published in Official Bulletin No. 5680 of 6 November 2008 according to the Code. We start from that text and from your equipment to write your site rules.

Operator authorisation and CACES: what we say and what we do not

The Labour Code contains no requirement for an operator authorisation or a plant operator certificate. The CACES certificate is a French scheme: we do not present it as a Moroccan qualification, and we use its R.4xx recommendations as our training reference.

What we recommend is sound organisation: a written operating authorisation issued by the employer, and an up-to-date list of who operates which machine, based on completed training, a passed practical assessment and, for roles that require one, a medical examination (art. 290). Our named certificates per category and assessment grids are the supporting evidence.

Why train supervisors as well as operators?

Because the risk is often created before the operator climbs aboard: an aisle that is too narrow, pedestrians and forklifts in the same flow, a dock without wheel chocks, a hired MEWP that nobody checked, a lift decided without a plan.

We train team leaders and logistics or HSE managers to:

• design a traffic plan that separates pedestrians from vehicles;
• organise simultaneous operations when an overhead crane passes over a workstation or several contractors are on site;
• plan a lift: weight and centre of gravity, choice of machine and accessories, exclusion zone, a named signaller;
• check hired equipment on delivery (art. 283);
• keep the operator list and retraining dates.

Take a cold store near Tangier that receives outside drivers at its docks: training forklift drivers is not enough if the dock rules are not written down, displayed and explained to the drivers.

How does a hands-on plant or lifting course run?

In five stages, with a large share of practice on the machine and an individual assessment of each participant.

1. Placement. Pre-test and interview: experience, machines already operated, working language.
2. Theory. Rules, stability, reading plates and load charts, checks, the hazardous situations on your site.
3. Practice. Exercises on the machine in a marked-off area, then in real working conditions.
4. Assessment. Written and practical tests, scored on a written grid.
5. Certificate and follow-up. Numbered certificate, training report, retraining reminder.

Evidence is produced by Inspirra: QR sign-in, assessments, certificates. The full sequence is on the before, during and after training page.

Before the session: site checklist

• Machines available for practice, inspected and in good order.
  
• Practice area marked off, away from production traffic.
  
• Test loads and lifting accessories identified.
  
• List of participants, roles and machines operated.
  
• Medical fitness up to date for roles that require it.
  
• Course entered in the training plan before delivery.
  

Which references apply to subsidiaries of European groups?

EU Directive 2009/104/EC on the use of work equipment is a useful additional reference when a European group applies it to its Moroccan or African subsidiary.

As summarised by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, it requires employers to choose equipment suited to working conditions, to have it inspected by competent persons (initially, after assembly and periodically), to give workers adequate information and training, and to restrict the use of equipment involving specific risks. Its Annex II covers mobile equipment (section 2) and lifting loads (section 3). We use this framework when the group standard calls for it, without presenting it as a Moroccan obligation.

How is the training organised and funded?

Preferably on your site, because practice takes place on your own machines. Public sessions suit small numbers, and theory can be followed online through OmniLearn. Sessions run in French, Arabic or English.

Plant and lifting courses combine with the occupational health and safety domain (work at height, permits to work) and the construction site management domain, in particular in the catalogue’s plant and warehouse authorisations path (first aid, fire team, R.489 forklifts, R.485 stackers, R.486 MEWPs, electrical authorisation, 1 to 3 days per module): see custom programmes and paths.

In Morocco, ACG is eligible for OFPPT special training contracts (CSF). In-person training entered in the plan before delivery falls under the planned-training rate, within a ceiling based on the declared vocational training tax, and OFPPT sets the amount. Theory followed online is not covered by CSF. Rules, sources and simulator: CSF funding.