Do You Need Training to Rent a Skid Steer or Excavator?

It's a fair question, and the honest answer comes in two parts. To rent a skid steer or an excavator, you almost certainly don't need a special license or certification. To operate one safely and legally, it depends entirely on whether you're a homeowner working on your own property or a worker on a job site. Those are two very different situations with two different sets of rules. Here's what's actually required, what isn't and why you should get some training either way.

To rent one, here's what you actually need

You don't need an operator's license or certification to rent a skid steer or an excavator. These are off-road machines. There's no DMV license for running one, and unlike a forklift, there's no federal operator certification card required to run a skid steer or excavator at all.

What you do need to rent is simpler than people expect: to be of age, usually 18 or older, and a valid driver's license, which Big Rentals requires from every renter for approval before booking. That license is there for identity and for towing the trailer to the site, not for running the machine, and no, you don't need a CDL, a commercial driver's license, either. The owner or the listing may set their own terms on top of that, like a signed waiver or a required safety orientation, so read the listing before you book.

On your own property, no license, but the risk is the same

If you're a homeowner using it on your own property, no law requires you to be trained or certified. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) writes rules for workplaces, not for a homeowner running a machine in their own yard, the same way its rules don't reach a homeowner operating a forklift. Read more about that line in our guide to forklift rentals for homeowners.

But the machine doesn't know whose property it's on. Skid steers and excavators cause serious and sometimes fatal injuries, tip-overs, crush injuries, struck-by incidents, trench collapses. "Not required" is not the same as "not needed." If you've never run one, get some real training before you start, because the risk is identical whether or not a rule applies to you.

On a job site, OSHA requires training

On a job site or any commercial job, OSHA does require operators to be trained. There's no single federal "excavator license" or "skid steer certification" card the way there is for forklifts, and OSHA doesn't certify individual operators at all. What it does require, under its safety training and education standard, is that employers train each worker to recognize and avoid the hazards of the equipment they run, and that the training be real and documented. So a worker running one commercially needs genuine employer training, even without a card to show for it.

Digging raises the bar further. Trenching and excavation fall under OSHA's excavation protective-system rules, which require a competent person on site and a protective system, meaning sloping, benching, shoring or a trench box, for any trench a worker enters that runs 5 feet deep or more. That's an enforced requirement, not a formality, and it exists because trench cave-ins kill people every year.

811 and the risks that don't care about paperwork

Call 811 before you dig, homeowner or contractor, every single time. It's federal law, you call a few business days ahead, and the utility lines get marked so you don't put a bucket through gas, power or fiber. Hitting a line is the same disaster in your backyard as on a commercial site.

And keep the trenching danger in mind even when OSHA isn't looking over your shoulder. A trench deeper than you are tall can collapse without warning, so don't climb into one that isn't protected, on your own property or anywhere else. The rest of the risks, overhead power lines, the machine's swing radius, tip-overs on a slope, don't care whether a rule applies to you either.

Get trained even when you don't have to

Required or not, the smart move is to get real training before you run one of these for the first time. Read the operator's manual and the decals. Watch reputable tutorials. Better yet, have someone experienced walk you through it and let you test the controls in open space before you start on the actual job. Learn the control pattern, the swing radius, the stability limits and the digging basics before there's a person or a trench nearby. If you're renting a skid steer and it's new to you, read more about what a skid steer is and how it moves.

And if you're not confident after all that, there's no shame in the clean option: have the machine delivered, or hire the work out entirely. It's a lot cheaper than a hospital visit or a wrecked machine.

What about insurance and damage protection?

Before operating rented equipment, contact your insurance provider to ask whether your policy covers liability for heavy equipment operation on your property or job site.

Eligible rentals booked through Big Rentals also include Basic Rental Protection at checkout. This added protection can help limit your financial responsibility for certain damage or theft events during the rental period.

For full details on how Basic Rental Protection works, including deductibles, exclusions and renter responsibilities, review our FAQ and platform terms.

The Short Version

• You don't need a license or certification to rent a skid steer or excavator, but you do need to be of age and have a valid driver's license, which Big Rentals requires before booking
• On your own property, no law requires training, but the machine is just as dangerous, so learn it first
• On a job site, OSHA requires employers to train operators, and trenching adds a competent person and a protective system for any trench 5 feet or deeper
• Call 811 before you dig, every single time, homeowner or contractor
• Get real training before your first run, and if you're not confident, have it delivered or hire the work out

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