Skip to content
EDB Training Services
07 3822 7362
All training guides

Safety

How to Check Every Licence and Ticket on Your Team Is Current

A step-by-step guide for Queensland employers and supervisors to audit who holds which licence or ticket, which ones expire, what to record in a training register and what to do when you find a gap.

By EDB Training Services5 min read
A worker wearing personal protective equipment on a construction site

Reviewed for practical accuracy

Prepared by EDB Training Services, a nationally recognised Registered Training Organisation in Capalaba, Brisbane (RTO 32376).

Most businesses only find out someone was unlicensed after something goes wrong. A forklift clips a pedestrian, an EWP tips on soft ground, and the first question asked is whether the operator held the right ticket. By then it is too late to fix.

A licence and ticket audit finds those gaps while they are still a paperwork problem. It is the Week 3 activity we suggest in our guide to National Safe Work Month 2026, where the theme is Safe work is for the future. It takes an hour or two for a small team, and you only need a spreadsheet.

Why do licence gaps happen?

They rarely start with someone deliberately cutting corners. The usual causes are ordinary:

  • Role creep. Someone hired for pick-pack starts driving the forklift because the regular driver is away.
  • “Just helping out.” A labourer jumps on the EWP to finish a job before knock-off.
  • Expiry. A licence that was current when the person was hired quietly runs out five years later.
  • The wrong class. An operator licensed for a standard forklift starts using an order-picker, which needs a different licence.
  • Casuals, labour hire and contractors. They arrive with a verbal “yeah, I’ve got my ticket” that nobody checks.

How do I run a licence and ticket audit?

Start from the tasks, not the people. Working through staff one by one only confirms what people say they hold. Working through the tasks shows who is actually doing work that needs a ticket.

  1. List every task on site that needs a licence or ticket. Forklift driving, EWP operation, work at height, construction site entry and any other high risk work that applies to you.
  2. List everyone who actually does each task. Ask supervisors and the crew, not just the roster. Include casuals, labour hire, relief staff and anyone who fills in occasionally.
  3. Sight the original. Ask to see the actual licence card or Statement of Attainment, not a verbal confirmation. Take a copy for your records.
  4. Check the class and the date. Make sure the licence covers the equipment the person uses, and note any expiry date.
  5. Record it in one register. One place, kept current, that anyone responsible for rostering can check.
  6. Fix the gaps. Anyone doing a task they are not licensed or trained for stops that task until they are.

If you ran a toolbox talk on your highest-risk task earlier in the month, the question “Is anyone doing this who has not been shown how?” is a good starting point for step 2.

Which licences and tickets expire?

Not all of them, and mixing up the two types is a common mistake.

  • Forklift licence (LF or LO class). A High Risk Work Licence issued by WorkSafe Queensland. It expires every five years and needs renewal. LF covers standard counterbalance forklifts and LO covers order-picking forklifts, so check the class matches the machine. Our guide to forklift licence types explains the difference.
  • Boom-type EWP over 11 metres (WP class, TLILIC0005). Also a High Risk Work Licence, so it also expires every five years.
  • EWP under 11 metres. A Statement of Attainment rather than a licence, but many sites expect to see it completed within the last five years. See who needs an EWP ticket in Queensland.
  • White Card (CPCWHS1001). No fixed renewal date, but Queensland treats a person differently if they did their induction more than two years ago and have not done construction work in the two years since. Our guide on how to get a White Card in Brisbane covers that rule.
  • Working at Heights (RIIWHS204E). No legislated expiry, though many sites ask for a recent refresher. See does a Working at Heights ticket expire.

For anything with an expiry date, put that date in your register and set a reminder a few months before it runs out.

What should the training register include?

Keep it simple enough that someone will actually update it. One row per person per licence or ticket, with these columns:

  • Name and role
  • Licence or ticket (for example: forklift LF, White Card, EWP under 11 metres)
  • Licence number or Statement of Attainment details
  • Issuing RTO or regulator
  • Date issued
  • Expiry date, if it has one
  • Date the original was sighted, and who sighted it
  • Tasks the person is cleared to do
  • Notes (refresher due, in training, not cleared for this task)

Review it whenever someone starts, changes roles or leaves, and at least once a year even if nothing seems to have changed.

What about labour hire workers and contractors?

Check them the same way as your own staff. When more than one business has a duty for the same work, such as you and a labour hire agency, each business keeps its own duty and is expected to consult and cooperate with the other. Asking the agency for copies of licences is a good start, but still sight the originals on the worker’s first day and add them to your register.

What should I do when I find a gap?

Take the person off the task first, then fix the gap. It is a better outcome to find an unlicensed operator in a records check than in an incident report.

Where to fix the most common gaps:

EDB Training Services (RTO 32376) runs these courses at our Capalaba training centre in Brisbane. See upcoming course dates, or call us on 07 3822 7362 to talk through training for your team.

Keep learning