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FLT training, A course too long?
Transit man
post Mon, 25 Nov 2013 - 18:38
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My nephew (an HGV driver) has been asked by his employer to go on a fork lift truck training course this week, so that he is qualified to load his own truck when required. Fair enough, as someone who deals with FLT's on a daily basis I have heard of & seen just how dangerous these vehicles can be, weighing I would think, at a minimum of 2 tonnes with some that must be 10 tonne plus.

I used to drive them many years ago on a family members farm, they are not difficult to handle, I never received any training, nor did anyone else who drove it, some only 16 years old. But as I said, I agree that safety issues should be taught, so I am with the idea that some training is required. But it was with incredulity that I learned from him that the course lasts 4 days ohmy.gif

In four days I would expect them to teach how to repair the damn thing besides operating it safely. Jobs for the boys? Or am I trivialising something that is more complex than I believe it to be?



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Now driving a Mercedes Sprinter, the Transit died of too much work.
Results for last 5 years:-
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2 Council tickets received, 0 paid (both canceled)
2 Nip's in 40 years 1 paid (damn!)
1 SAC, duly educated!

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post Mon, 25 Nov 2013 - 18:38
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fedup2
post Mon, 25 Nov 2013 - 18:42
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Out of 4 days most of it will be coffee time.If i remember right mine was about a day and a half but i think the instructor had better things to do.I suppose a 4 days allowance is going to cover all skill levels and someone that catches on quick will be fast tracked to the final test.
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Gan
post Mon, 25 Nov 2013 - 19:27
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It was a long time ago but I think my course was two days and held on site

The instructor went away happy when I passed on the snippet that his manager had previously worked at my company where he had put the forks of a truck through the side of a van

Can't resist this story that I got from a reliable source and concerns an incident at the former Reliant Motors

A certain manager and his passenger got into a Scimitar at the factory and reversed at high speed down the side of a building toward one of the factory roads
A fork lift was coming at high speed along the road

A secretary in a corner office with large windows can see that they are about to collide
She tries to prevent the accident by waving frantically at the fork lift driver

The fork lift driver is sleeping with the secretary and waves back
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glasgow_bhoy
post Mon, 25 Nov 2013 - 21:19
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My mate worked in a factory last year. Did the nightshift, and was basically there himself most of the time overseeing the smooth operation of his machine. Lonnggg nights and nothing to do made it a boring job. He had to use a forklift to load one of his machines, which can't have been safe being alone.

So we used to go down to visit him at work at all times of night. I have to say I got a shot of the fork-lift a few times, and found it pretty easy to drive tbh. The main risk I felt was for those walking within the vicinity of the damned things. And in anycase, we found more dangerous techniques for using them biggrin.gif
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homeruk
post Tue, 26 Nov 2013 - 02:26
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When I took my counter balance license the course lasted 5 days with one day devoted to health and safety! For my other FLT licences they only took 2 days and were called conversions.

FLT's are easy to drive, if you can drive a car you can drive a FLT, you just need good hand to eye co-ordination when using the forks.

Couple of things though, don't hit anything, they may be small but they do lots of damage, guy I know reversed into an steel girder support and bent it like it was made of cardboard and the roof it was supporting was damaged too, and never ever drive the FLT with a load in the air as it will happily tip over, leaving you saying ow.

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youreds91
post Wed, 27 Nov 2013 - 16:32
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I arrange on site training for people where I work, the guy who does it is RTITB qualified & did people from scratch on Counterbalance & Bendi in 2 days for each (more like a day & a half).
No doubt the course mentioned by the OP goes beyond RTITB requirements.

As to the damage they can cause, I've seen a few incidents, thankfully with no human casualties.

One memorable one was whilst I worked at a Cash & Carry & someone unloading a container of Liebfraumilch, 12 bottles a case, 14 a layer * 5 layers. Picked up the 1st pallet, reversed & dropped a rear wheel into a slightly sunken drain gulley. This altered the centre of gravity enough to spill the whole lot.
After a lot of work with brushes & shovels, unloading commenced again 2nd pallet lifted - guess what happened... BangHead.gif

Another one was when a reach driver decided to move a counterbalance out of his way, not realising the steering had the effect of making the rear end swing out, straight into a brick walled office.
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Bruno
post Mon, 2 Dec 2013 - 22:12
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I did my forklift test some 20 years a go and it was a 2 day course for reach and counter balance trucks.
Another con a refresher course every 2 years.
I was in Boots the chemists factory at Nottingham today and someone I was speaking to had just been for his medical before going on his FLT refresher course, I do not know if this is the Mormon or just Boots doing this.
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Slatz
post Tue, 3 Dec 2013 - 12:00
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Bet you've all seen this before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8ZmOgMlyRE

:-)
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StuartBu
post Tue, 3 Dec 2013 - 12:37
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QUOTE (Bruno @ Mon, 2 Dec 2013 - 22:12) *
I did my forklift test some 20 years a go and it was a 2 day course for reach and counter balance trucks.
Another con a refresher course every 2 years.
I was in Boots the chemists factory at Nottingham today and someone I was speaking to had just been for his medical before going on his FLT refresher course, I do not know if this is the Mormon or just Boots doing this.



FFS..Are these folk going round factories as well as houses now ?? :-)
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jobo
post Tue, 3 Dec 2013 - 12:55
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QUOTE (homeruk @ Tue, 26 Nov 2013 - 02:26) *
FLT's are easy to drive, if you can drive a car you can drive a FLT, you just need good hand to eye co-ordination when using the forks.



do you think so, ive never seen a car on its end coz someone pout to much weight in the boot

as someone who was once paid by DHL to spend a week stood there reviewing the standard of their load moving operations( following a guy being crushed to death) i can say with some certainty they are easy to drive badly, you can 4 wheel drift them round corners, hurtle along at speed with no view at all of whats in your way and with, Im sure considerable practice,. balance them on two wheels

If they are easy to drive well ? not sure its very seldom you see it its hard to say






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jobo

anyone but Murray, Wish granted for another year,
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sgtdixie
post Tue, 3 Dec 2013 - 14:02
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QUOTE (jobo @ Tue, 3 Dec 2013 - 12:55) *
QUOTE (homeruk @ Tue, 26 Nov 2013 - 02:26) *
FLT's are easy to drive, if you can drive a car you can drive a FLT, you just need good hand to eye co-ordination when using the forks.



do you think so, ive never seen a car on its end coz someone pout to much weight in the boot

as someone who was once paid by DHL to spend a week stood there reviewing the standard of their load moving operations( following a guy being crushed to death) i can say with some certainty they are easy to drive badly, you can 4 wheel drift them round corners, hurtle along at speed with no view at all of whats in your way and with, Im sure considerable practice,. balance them on two wheels

If they are easy to drive well ? not sure its very seldom you see it its hard to say


I would agree with Jobo. It is like almost anything with wheels. They are all easy to drive but they are also easy to drive badly. Training courses were brought in because people were getting killed and imjured because they didn't appreciate how things can go wrong.
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homeruk
post Tue, 3 Dec 2013 - 23:40
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QUOTE (jobo @ Tue, 3 Dec 2013 - 12:55) *
QUOTE (homeruk @ Tue, 26 Nov 2013 - 02:26) *
FLT's are easy to drive, if you can drive a car you can drive a FLT, you just need good hand to eye co-ordination when using the forks.



do you think so, ive never seen a car on its end coz someone pout to much weight in the boot

as someone who was once paid by DHL to spend a week stood there reviewing the standard of their load moving operations( following a guy being crushed to death) i can say with some certainty they are easy to drive badly, you can 4 wheel drift them round corners, hurtle along at speed with no view at all of whats in your way and with, Im sure considerable practice,. balance them on two wheels

If they are easy to drive well ? not sure its very seldom you see it its hard to say


Agreed, there are quite a few tricks you can do with a FLT however not all of them (most of them) are particularly safe.

As for tipping them over , its all about the height and weight of the load your carrying if for example your carrying a 2 tonne load at 4 meters height and you stop suddenly chances are your going to find yourself face planting the concrete, same applies to moving a load downhill. Also move a load at height at speed and go around a corner chances are your going to tip the FLT sideways.

Its all about shifting the centre of gravity depending on the weight and position of the load your carrying, on a FLT there is a triangle which is formed by the drive wheels and the pivot point of the non drive wheels, you have to aim to keep the centre of gravity within that triangle at all times, get it wrong and bad things start to happen.......

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dandyman
post Wed, 4 Dec 2013 - 15:47
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My missus went on a FLT training course. If you saw how she drives you'd understand why they had to allow 4 days.
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Gan
post Wed, 4 Dec 2013 - 16:23
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QUOTE (jobo @ Tue, 3 Dec 2013 - 12:55) *
do you think so, ive never seen a car on its end coz someone put to much weight in the boot

I've seen a skip lorry on end at a former employer

My manager had the bright idea of throwing away a large quantity of defective moulding materials that were much denser than the normal scrap parts that he'd thrown on top

We were forever getting complaints from Biffa
They usually involved a certain operator who had to spend hours in a small room dispensing material from clear plastic bags with no opportunities for breaks
For some reason they objected to to the large number of bags in the rubbish bins that contained a suspicious yellow fluid
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Transit man
post Wed, 4 Dec 2013 - 17:44
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QUOTE (Gan @ Wed, 4 Dec 2013 - 16:23) *
For some reason they objected to to the large number of bags in the rubbish bins that contained a suspicious yellow fluid

Fair enough that they were annoyed, you were just taking the p**s, actually, thinking about it, Biffa were taking it biggrin.gif


--------------------
Now driving a Mercedes Sprinter, the Transit died of too much work.
Results for last 5 years:-
12 PPC tickets received, 0 paid
2 Council tickets received, 0 paid (both canceled)
2 Nip's in 40 years 1 paid (damn!)
1 SAC, duly educated!

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