What a Tipper Truck Does

A tipper truck (also called a dump truck or tipper lorry) is a heavy goods vehicle with an open steel body that can be raised at the front. When the body tips up, the load slides out over the back. Tipper trucks carry bulk materials: soil, sand, gravel, crushed rock, rubble, asphalt and demolition waste.

The truck in this course is a 6x4 rigid tipper. "Rigid" means the cab, chassis and body are one vehicle, with no trailer. "6x4" means it has six wheel positions on three axles, and four of those positions are driven. Trucks like this are common on construction sites, quarries, road works and landfill sites, and they also drive on public roads between sites.

Why tipper trucks need their own safety knowledge

Many drivers already know how to drive a large truck on the road. A tipper adds hazards of its own. It reverses on busy sites. It raises a heavy body high into the air, sometimes close to overhead power lines. A raised body with a load stuck in it can make the whole truck fall over. People sometimes work under a raised body, which can come down without warning if nothing holds it.

The rest of this course follows the working day: knowing the truck, the hazards and people around it, the daily walk-around check, driving and reversing on site, loading and tipping, and finally parking, maintenance support and emergencies.