Forklift training is more than 'best practice'

Forklift truck supplier strongly recommends that all driver training be done by its training arm, not because they are better but just because they are more focussed on articulated truck training.

Forklift training is more than just 'best practice' Forklift truck supplier strongly recommends that all driver training be done by its training arm, not because they are better but just because they are more focussed on articulated truck training.

Since effective, articulated forklift trucks were launched in Britain by Translift Engineering in 1986, they have become the truck of choice for many operators looking to use valuable storage space more cost effectively yet there is still something mystical about them, says Translift Bendi's managing director, Simon Brown.

This is where good training from Bendi Driver Training can pay dividends, says its managing director, Jonathan Handley, but driver training quality is variable, especially the in-house kind, and that can cause initial upsets and disappointment.

"The training that we provide is not just about best practice; it is making sure that the application as a whole works," said Handley.

"It is about the warehouse, the building, and racking; a holistic approach that helps break down the inertia that buyers may feel when using the Bendi for the first time down a very narrow aisle (VNA) because the operator feels the truck may not work effectively.

This is, perhaps, understandable, given that the Bendi, essentially a counterbalanced, pivot-steer truck, can match dedicated, very narrow aisle trucks in 1.6m wide aisles, while also working outside on the roughest of yards, a task beyond VNA machines and reach trucks.

It is an education job for the operators to make sure that the solution has the best possible start," said Handley, "And we have seen solutions that do not have such a start because the training was provided by other bodies or in-house.

For this reason, Translift Bendi strongly recommends that all driver training be done by its training arm, not because they are better but just because they are more focussed on articulated truck training.

Handley knows a lot about articulated forklift training, having 'cut his teeth' when working as an account manager for B and Q in 1999.

Since setting up Bendi Driver Training, his team of 20 nation-wide instructors now exclusively manages B and Q's Bendi driver training, the second biggest forklift training contract in Britain.

Other client names read like a 'Who's Who?' of blue chip companies, including Wincanton, Exel, Premier Foods, GKN and Eddie Stobart.

As an experienced instructor, he has firm views about sloppy training practices and working environments and has even walked out of situations where the forklift operational regime was dangerous.

Whichever of his training options is chosen, they all include a short risk assessment, part of an audit trail, that would include warehouse floor conditions, lighting, racking and damaged pallets, with the exception of big customers who have already done their own global risk assessment.

Its most common training package is conversion training, which is converting an operator from one kind of forklift to another, a two-day course with one trainer teaching up to three drivers.

Next comes basic training, not just on Bendis but all kinds of warehouse trucks.

This covers a one-week course for novice operators on their premises or at Bendi Driver Training's Redditch centre.

Another course is refreshers and retests.

One area in particular where Handley feels many companies are failing to comply with the law is in supervision of safe lifting operations, as prescribed by the 1998 PUWER regulations.

These stipulate that supervisors must have adequate training so that they can properly supervise safe lifting operations.

This does not mean that they must have comprehensive forklift driver training but they need to know what is right and wrong.

"Very few companies are doing it," said Handley.

"We do one-day seminars on this where we can have up to 30 people specifically trained in the supervision of safe lifting operations.

We also do a 10-day accredited instructor course, so that they get a nationally recognised qualification and that course itself is audited by an external monitor to make sure the applicant is suitable to become an instructor and that we are providing suitable tutoring.

As a member of AITT (Association of Industrial Truck Trainers), Handley is also vocal about accredited training bodies, some of whom seem more concerned at making a fast buck.

Unlike other training bodies AITT, a non-profit making organisation, does not charge, for example, for national training certificates.

Leck Kluk, its technical director, said that it is vital that customers know that if they have a certificate of training displaying the AITT logo, that they have fully met their statutory requirements.

"This reassurance," he said, "Can only be guaranteed by insisting that members fully adopt our training standards, which means we will not appeal to those training providers who are in it for a 'quick buck'.

We only want bona fide members, which is why companies such as Linde, Barloworld, Translift Bendi and Mentor have become proactive members.

These have all worked with other accrediting bodies in the past and recognise the ever-increasing importance of strong, professional and reputable accreditation in supporting their customers.

Despite all the publicity given to the need for properly trained forklift drivers, accident numbers remain stubbornly high, with fatalities in Britain averaging around 40 a year.

The most common causes of accidents nowadays, said Handley, are crushing incidents, where more than anything it is operator observation that is at fault.

Another is racking collapses caused by forklift collisions.

All Bendi drivers will find that Bendi Driver Training's new 94-page pocket guide, 'Forklift Safety, a Novice Operator's Guide to Pivot-Steer Forklift Trucks' (GBP 6) - an invaluable aid to safer driving.

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