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Forklift Training Guide

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Forklift Training Can Be A Pain

You’ve been fighting more than one battle at a time for a while, now haven’t you? You struggle with the training budget, time, trainer availability and often your employees’ resistance to change.

The facts say you are battling on more than one front most of the day every single day. So that’s the problem, in a nutshell right?

Your attention is in a million places all at the same time.

Everything matters. It all requires your set of eyes on it.

The fact is you are only one person. You can be in one place at a time. It sucks, but it’s the truth.

In the words of anyone that has ever tried to be in more than one place at a time…Damn you physics!

Want to know what I think?

Yes?

Great!

I think you need a safety program that makes your already hectic work life more manageable not more complicated. Certainly not any noisier than it already is.

You need a safety course to train your forklift operators in a way that makes sense for you and your company.

The Bare Minimum

What do I mean by that you ask? I mean It covers all the fundamentals you need to be confident in the forklift training program your company has paid hard earned money for. It should at the minimum cover:

Rules and regulations.
Parts, controls, and systems.
Stability and capacity.
Leverage and how to safely operate the equipment.

These factors are why your company pays for forklift certification in the first place, aren’t they? Want me to let you in on a not so little secret in the forklift training industry? Not every provider is meeting even these basic workplace safety standards. I know. You aren’t surprised, are you? A training provider that doesn’t at least get this part right shouldn’t expect to receive your cheque in the mail. Period. Point blank. End of story. You should also expect a few other things that most training companies don’t advertise in their brochures, emails or websites. Stuff like how soon can you get your people into a forklift course. Because you needed it yesterday. How much time will training take? Because you can’t have your guys not working for the next forty-eight hours. Does the value justify the forklift training cost? If it doesn’t. Then why are you spending any money in the wrong place? Think they might be too scared to over promise and under delivering one more time? Chances are pretty good that’s what’s happening. What you mean to ask in a not so subtle way is this. Can I get this done where and when I need it and is the forklift license worth more than a used square of non-lotion, two-ply toilet paper found in your local taco bell bathroom on a Tuesday night? Well, let me do my best to answer some of these more pressing questions for you and get you as far from Taco Tuesday Forklift operator training as humanly possible.

What Should Be In Your Forklift Training Course

As far as quality goes, your forklift trainer should give you a way to prove the mental and physical abilities of your operators. They’ve got to get your staff to the point where they can each show a level of understanding and demonstrate that their knowledge meets their ability to operate the equipment safely. These two requirements are displayed in a documented theory test and a practical evaluation — they are the primary goal of your training course.

There are secondary goals you are probably thinking as well though right? If your company is like most of my clients, you need training under two very different extremes. The first one being a controlled program planned ahead of time. The second one is a course that you need in a hurry. I mean like yesterday.

Many of my clients are in the latter group. A job has come up, or an incident has happened, and they need training/retraining ASAP.

If your provider is not able or not willing to work with you on the schedule drop them like a bad habit, ” The calendar says NO” is not the right answer to a paying customer. Got to be kidding me!

Forklift Training Schedule

We don’t have a calendar at Onsite Equipment Training. No need. We training equipment operators all day every day. We are never too busy doing something else.

Secondly, your forklift training provider should keep your operating costs at the top of mind. Right up there next to quality. A part of your operations is on pause to get your operators certified. So don’t go on forever and please don’t take any more time than you need. Time is still money. We consider both seriously for all of our clients.

If your provider is charging you by the hour, run for the hills! Your costs are about to outweigh the price by a long shot.

Bottom line is there is high value is getting your training done the right way and the way you need it. You have to consider Quality, Price, Cost and schedule. It is a lot to think about in addition to everything else you have on your plate.

Onsite Equipment Training gets it. Our programs are designed to meet all these needs.

Check out our forklift certification course here or find out about our forklift train the trainer program

Forklift Operator Job Seekers

If you are looking for work as a forklift operator we strongly suggest checking out our trusted partner Jooble! They have many great companies looking for people just like you! Find companies looking for forklift operators and apply directly from their website.