Czas czytania: 6 minut
Health and safety training in logistics: what each job needs, from warehouse to delivery
In logistics, health and safety training can't be designed by sector but by job: in the warehouse, overexertion dominates; in parcel delivery, traffic does; and the only mandatory hour count, the professional drivers' CAP, leaves out a large share of loading-dock risks.
In warehousing, only 2.7% of accidents with sick leave are traffic accidents, while 36% are overexertion. In parcel delivery, traffic rises to 32%. Health and safety training in logistics has to reflect that difference between jobs.
The problem is that the sector comes to training without a national collective agreement setting hours or content, and with a single numerical obligation that only affects part of the workforce. In this article we separate the real risk profiles in logistics, go through what the existing rules do specify, and suggest how to build the syllabus job by job.
Spain's official workplace accident statistics group transport and storage in a single section, but breaking it down by division reveals three different realities.¹
| Activity (2025) | Notable form of accident | Share of traffic in accidents with sick leave |
|---|---|---|
| Warehousing and storage | Overexertion (36.0%) | 2.7% |
| Land transport | Striking a stationary object, including falls (29.5%) | 16.3% |
| Postal and courier activities | Traffic (almost a third of accidents) | 32% |
A single syllabus for the whole workforce of a logistics company ends up talking about the road to people who never drive and about ergonomics to people who spend the day behind the wheel. That's why, in a sector where no agreement sets hours, as we showed in our map of health and safety training hours by sector, the unit of design has to be the job.
Even without agreed hours, some rules say more than "adequate training". It's worth having them at hand, because they're what an inspector will look at first.
| Rule | Who it affects | What it requires | Does it set hours? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Decree 1215/1997, Annex II | Drivers of forklifts and other self-propelled equipment | Specific training in the safe driving of the equipment | No |
| UNE 58451:2016 standard | Operators of forklifts up to 10,000 kg | Content, assessment and minimum duration of initial and refresher training | Yes, but it's voluntary |
| Royal Decree 487/1997, Article 4 | Anyone handling loads manually | Training on the correct way to handle loads and its risks | No |
| Royal Decree 284/2021 (CAP) | Professional drivers with category C and D licences | 35-hour periodic training course every five years | Yes |
Two details make the difference in practice. First, for forklifts, the technical guide from Spain's National Institute for Safety and Health at Work states that there must be written evidence of the training and of the employer's authorisation to operate each piece of equipment.² It isn't enough for the person to know how to drive it.
Second, the decree requires driver training to be "for the safe driving of that work equipment".³ A generic certificate from a course taken at another company with another machine doesn't meet it.
The CAP is the only mandatory hour count in the sector, which is why it tends to be treated as if it covered all of a driver's training. It doesn't.
The 35-hour periodic training focuses on road safety, with a compulsory seven-hour module that includes workplace accidents in the sector.⁴ Load securing is an optional module. And the objective of preventing physical and ergonomic risks only appears in the initial qualification, not in the periodic training repeated every five years.
In practice, a driver with fifteen years at the company has received periodic training on the road and possibly none on unloading at the dock, which is where people get struck, trap a hand or injure their back. That part falls to the company, under the general prevention law.
The risk assessment for each job is the starting point. From there, this is the minimum content we suggest for the four most common profiles.
Manual handling with the job's real weights and frequencies, not generic ones; postures at high and low shelving; use of manual pallet trucks and moving on foot in areas with forklifts. The practical part is essential and is best recorded separately.
Specific training on the type of forklift they'll operate, practice with that machine in that warehouse, and the employer's written authorisation. If the company follows UNE 58451, its minimum durations are a good reference even though they're not mandatory.
The CAP covers the road. The company has to cover what happens when the truck stops: dock manoeuvres, opening doors and falling loads, and getting in and out of the cab.
This is the profile most exposed to traffic and, with a van driven on a category B licence, it falls outside the CAP. It needs specific road training for urban delivery, plus parcel handling and access to doorways and stairs.
For each profile, content should be easy to update when the equipment, route or warehouse changes, which is exactly when the law requires training again. Platforms like Vidext make it possible to generate and edit that job-specific content from the written procedure; the practical part still needs to happen at the dock. If you're also looking at how this fits into onboarding drivers and warehouse staff, we cover it in this article on logistics onboarding.
Without agreed hours, logistics has no number to hold on to, but it has something more useful: data showing that risk changes completely between the dock, the forklift and the van. A plan that treats the whole workforce the same complies on paper and fails exactly where accidents happen. One built job by job, with its practice and its record, is also the one that holds up best when someone asks why training was done that way.
The regulations set no hours. Royal Decree 1215/1997 requires specific training in the safe driving of the equipment, and the INSST technical guide asks for written evidence of that training and of the employer's authorisation. The UNE 58451:2016 standard defines minimum durations, but it's voluntary.
Only partly. The 35 hours of periodic training every five years focus on road safety and driving. Loading, unloading and ergonomic risks at the dock aren't mandatorily covered and fall to the health and safety training the company must provide.
Not at national level. The general agreement for road freight transport companies recognises the right to adequate training on the risks of the job, but sets no hours.⁵ It's worth checking the applicable provincial agreement, although the ones we reviewed don't set them either.
¹ Ministry of Labour and Social Economy, Workplace Accident Statistics 2025, table ATR-D.11.2 ² INSST, Technical guide for assessing and preventing risks related to the use of work equipment ³ Royal Decree 1215/1997 on the use of work equipment, Annex II (BOE) ⁴ Royal Decree 284/2021 on professional drivers' certificate of competence, Article 7 and Annex I (BOE) ⁵ II General agreement for road freight transport companies, Article 57 (BOE)
Program wspierania zatrudnienia na czas nieokreślony wykwalifikowanych osób młodych w ramach Krajowego Systemu Gwarancji dla Młodzieży. Vidext otrzymał dotację w wysokości 25.401€ przyznaną przez LABORA (Walencka Służba Zatrudnienia i Szkoleń) na zatrudnienie na czas nieokreślony w 2024 r. wykwalifikowanych osób młodych zarejestrowanych w Krajowym Systemie Gwarancji dla Młodzieży; działanie kwalifikuje się do współfinansowania z Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego Plus (EFS+) 2021-2027 lub innego funduszu Unii Europejskiej. Expediente ECOGJU/2024/550/46. Niniejsza publikacja jest dokonywana w wypełnieniu obowiązków przejrzystości określonych w ustawie 19/2013 z dnia 9 grudnia.
