IPAF Card: How to Get One, What It Covers and When It Expires

Nothing in British law says you must hold an IPAF card. Now try walking onto a site without one.

That gap between what legislation demands and what the industry demands is worth understanding, because it explains both why the card carries so much weight and why an expired one can stop an experienced operator working overnight. The law asks a single question: is this operator competent and properly trained. An IPAF card happens to be the answer almost every principal contractor in the country has agreed to accept.

What follows covers what the card actually is, how you get hold of one, what appears on it, when it runs out, and what it costs you to let that date slip past.

What Is an IPAF Card?

Its proper name is a PAL card, short for Powered Access Licence. The International Powered Access Federation sets the training standard sitting behind it, and accredited centres issue the card once a candidate has passed both a theory assessment and a practical one.

Certification runs to ISO 18878, the international standard covering MEWP operator training, which is why the credential travels. An operator trained in Cambridgeshire can present the same card on a site in Rotterdam and have it understood.

APS arranges IPAF and PASMA accredited training across the UK through approved partners, delivered either from a training centre or at your own premises. Which categories you need is a separate question, and our guide to IPAF categories works through what 1a, 1b, 3a and 3b each permit.

Is an IPAF Card a Legal Requirement?

Strictly speaking, no. No statute names IPAF anywhere.

What the law does require is broader than most people assume. PUWER 1998 obliges employers to provide adequate training to anyone using work equipment, covering the risks involved and the precautions that apply. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 add that anyone working at height must be competent. Neither mentions a card, a federation or any particular course provider.

Commercially, though, the position reverses. When an employer has to demonstrate competence to a client, an insurer, or HSE following an incident, they reach for a recognised qualification, and powered access settled on IPAF long ago. Site inductions ask for the card. Insurers ask for the card. Nobody will prosecute you purely for lacking one, yet in practice it operates as mandatory.

How to Get an IPAF Card

Deciding Which Categories You Need

Categories describe machines rather than skill levels. Train on a scissor lift and your card covers scissor lifts. It says nothing whatsoever about your competence on a boom.

Most operators finish with 3a and 3b, which together cover mobile vertical and mobile boom machines and therefore most of what sits in a typical fleet. Static categories, 1a and 1b, apply to trailer and vehicle mounted units. Specialist endorsements exist beyond those for push around verticals, mast climbing platforms and insulated machines. Worth auditing your own MEWP range before booking anything, because paying for categories nobody operates is a common and avoidable waste.

What the Course Involves

Every IPAF course pairs classroom theory with hands on time on a machine. Candidates work through the relevant regulations, machine categories, pre use inspection, hazard recognition, emergency lowering and rescue procedures, then demonstrate they can position, set up, manoeuvre and elevate a platform safely.

A single day is typical. That stretches where somebody trains across several categories, and shortens where the theory element has already been completed online. We run IPAF and work at height courses either at accredited centres or on your site, which keeps crews and machines where they are earning rather than sitting in traffic.

Clear both elements and the card follows. Fall short on the practical and you retake that part.

What an IPAF Card Covers

Four pieces of information matter to whoever inspects it: who you are, which machine categories you hold, the date of assessment, and the date retraining becomes due.

Anti forgery measures are built into it, a holographic element among them, and both a photo and a specimen signature appear on the face of the card. IPAF’s own PAL card shows the current format.

June 2021 changed how the card reaches you. Across the UK and Ireland the default is now a digital credential held inside ePAL, the federation’s free app, though a printed card is still yours for the asking. Most people end up living in the app anyway, because it keeps the card and the digital logbook in one place. That second function matters considerably more than it first appears, for reasons the renewal section explains.

What the Card Does Not Cover

A card is no substitute for familiarisation on a specific machine. Category training teaches scissor lifts as a class. It teaches nobody the control layout of the particular scissor lift that came off a lorry this morning, and that briefing remains the employer’s job.

Neither does the card say anything about the machine’s own compliance status. A properly qualified operator standing in a platform with an overdue thorough examination is still a serious problem, which is precisely why LOLER inspections and operator competence need managing as one exercise rather than two.

It Is Not Only Operators Who Need Certifying

Operators absorb most of the attention here, and they are rarely the only people carrying a duty.

Anyone who plans or supervises platform work falls inside the same competence requirement, which is what the MEWPs for Managers course exists to address in a single day. Where a harness forms part of the task, choosing one, checking it and wearing it properly is a discipline in its own right with its own certification. Loading and securing machines for road transport is another, and it regularly catches out businesses who train drivers thoroughly on driving and never once on strapping a platform to a trailer.

Demonstrator certification sits separately again, and matters if your staff show machines to customers rather than simply operating them.

When Does an IPAF Card Expire?

Five years. The clock starts on day one of your course, not on the day the card itself turns up.

Put that date in a diary the moment you qualify, because what happens when you miss it is wildly out of proportion to the oversight.

Renewing Before the Date Passes

Renewal offers a shorter route than starting from scratch, and it is open only to operators who have kept records.

IPAF wants evidence that you have genuinely been operating, logged either on paper or through the ePAL logbook. That requirement has tightened in stages over recent years, and from January 2026 the threshold stands at sixty entries across the five year period. Arrive to renew with an empty logbook and you will be sitting the full operator course instead.

Let the expiry date pass entirely and the outcome is identical: full course, full fee, no matter how many years you have spent behind the controls. Experience simply does not carry across once a card has lapsed. Our operator training team can confirm which route applies to you before anything gets booked.

Where PAL+ Fits In

PAL+ sits a level above standard operator certification, built for people whose working conditions are genuinely awkward: steelwork, confined headroom, ground you would not trust. It covers categories 3a and 3b, and shows on the card as 3a+ or 3b+.

The same five year cycle applies. One helpful quirk is that renewing PAL+ carries your standard certification for those categories along with it, so you are tracking one date rather than two.

Lost Cards and Checking Somebody Else’s

Mislaid your card? Contact whichever centre trained you. They can arrange a replacement for a modest fee, which is a decent argument for noting down where you trained.

Verifying somebody else’s card is easier than many site managers appear to realise. IPAF operates an online checking tool, and ePAL lets an operator display a live digital credential rather than a laminated rectangle that may or may not still be valid. If you employ operators, building genuine verification into your induction beats glancing at plastic.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is an IPAF Card the Same as a PAL Card?

Yes. PAL card is the official name, IPAF card is what everybody says. Same document.

How Long Does IPAF Training Take?

Usually one day per category group. Completing the theory online first shortens the time on site, while training across multiple categories extends it.

What Happens If My IPAF Card Expires?

You lose the renewal route and sit the full operator course again. Years of experience count for nothing here, so renew inside the final year.

How Many Logbook Entries Do I Need to Renew?

Sixty across the five years, applying from January 2026. Record them on paper or through ePAL, whichever you will actually keep up.

Does an IPAF Card Work Outside the UK?

Generally yes. Certification to ISO 18878 makes it recognised internationally, though local rules can differ, so check before travelling to work.

Can I Do IPAF Training at My Own Site?

Yes, provided the site suits and machines are available. APS arranges courses at customer premises regularly, which cuts downtime considerably.

Book Your IPAF Training with APS

Operator competence and machine compliance are the same problem seen from two directions, and both tend to fail quietly until the day something goes wrong.

APS has spent more than 35 years supplying access platforms across the UK and Ireland. Alongside machines, parts and nationwide aftercare, we arrange IPAF and PASMA training through accredited partners, at their centres or yours, with recommendations built around your fleet rather than anybody’s sales target.

Book your IPAF training or call the team on 01480 891251 and we will work out exactly which categories your crew needs.