Many companies think that a Forklift safety Train-The-Trainer course has to be conducted live and in person. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many companies, especially mine, offer trainer courses that can be done online or via interactive CD ROM which are self paced learning that impart the same critical information you need to be a competent, effective trainer that you’d get if I were at your facility. Any employee can be a trainer of forklift operators as long as they have the experience and knowledge to be able to evaluate lift truck drivers. The last part of the puzzle is the materials. That’s where Irwin Training Solutions, Inc. comes in. We offer a complete kit that has 2 CD ROM’s, student evaluation forms, daily inspection sheets and driver wallet cards. One CD is student intensive, the other is geared toward laying out a roadmap, offering practical exercises and best practices for the purpose of evaluating the competence of student forklift drivers.
Archive for the ‘Forklift Safety’ Category
Forklift Train-The-Trainer course
Thursday, September 10th, 2009Electric Forklifts;”batteries not included”
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009Electric forklift batteries are crucial to your forklift’s safety and efficiency. Not only do they provide power to the lift they also act, to a great degree, as the counterweight. Most hybrid cars take just the opposite approach as small and lightweight batteries are the holy grail. Your forklifts manufacturer will have listed on the data plate the voltage, physical dimensions, amp hour and weight of the battery; the onus is on you or your lift truck dealer to install the right one!
Think about it for a minute, if your lift has a 4000 lb capacity based on the lift having a 2800 pound battery and you skimp and buy a battery far less than that, you just threw off the whole dynamic of the lift truck. An operator using that lift may refer to the data tag to get his lift capacity and operate it based on that false assumption. That could spell disaster if he thought he had 4000 lbs of capacity and in reality only had 3500! Furthermore, many companies go with “low bid” pricing when it comes time to replace their batteries. Often times this results in batteries with the right voltage and maybe the right weight, but what about the width? They then compensate for this lack of size by placing that high tech device known as a 2 X 4 in the battery compartment. If this is thrown away by mistake and the lift takes a sharp turn, the battery can shift suddenly and cause an unstable lift. ( SEE PICTURE BELOW !)
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