Leading global forklift truck and warehouse equipment manufacturer, Linde Material Handling UK, is on a mission
to urge industry companies to collaborate and to develop the onsite skills of their professional fork lift operators.
The company launched The Linde Challenge, an annual ultimate operator event, this year. The challenge, which
demands skill and precision, aims to promote best practice among forklift truck (FLT) operators, while encouraging new levels of professional safety and efficiency.
The challenge begins in Europe where the company staged a series of qualifying events, followed by a final at the end of the year. While Al-Futtaim Auto and Machinery Company (FAMCO) management came up with the idea, Linde Material Handling UK provided the platform for the event with the use of a facility and pallets from CHEP, global leader in pallet and container pooling.
The manufacturer also linked up with the Institute of Applied Technology which provided professional operators.
“We’ve invited key industry players from across major industries so we’ve gone across the third party logistics industry, the JCBs, TNTs, DHLs etc and invited them to offer their operators the chance to take part in this event,” says GM for storage and handling, David Dronfield.
“We’ve got operators from key companies within the UAE, particularly Dubai. They send their operators and they take part in this challenge,” he continues.
“Throughout the industry, most companies have some form of distribution or warehouse operation and with that operation they will have a forklift truck, operated by operators from all over the world. They are operating these trucks 10 to 12 hours a day, around warehouses and distribution centres and around the yards, moving products around. These people are very often overlooked and employed on low salaries,” Dronfield adds.
The event was first held in Abu Dhabi and is now two and a half times the size of the original challenge — and oversubscribed.
Drivers in the challenge have to operate a Linde E-16 FLT, a model Dronfield says can be driven by anyone, regardless of whether they are trained or not; its acceleration can reach top speeds but the drive system automatically breaks
when the pedal is released.
“It’s not like you have a clutch break, which a lot of other trucks do. There are two pedals. Press one and the other one comes up and you go forwards, take your foot off and it stops automatically.
Press the other one it goes back. Take your foot off it stops, because it’s all going through one drive system.
“It’s a unique drive system and that does everything. Also, there’s no gear box you don’t have to handle gears or clutches,” he says.
Each of the registered drivers who take part must be a qualified, licensed operator. The challenge consists of a sequence of four different tests, which include identifying five, deliberate faults in the vehicle set up, before driving it.
“Just the same as if you were going for a driving test and you arrive at your car with the instructor, you’re meant to look round the car and check that everything is okay. So the first section is a five point deliberate fault diagnostic
check,” Dronfield explains, adding this element also provides a training perspective to the challenge.
The second part is a hand pallet truck manoeuvring test, which is not judged. The next challenge involves picking up a stack of pallets, then negotiating the course without knocking any of the barriers.
The operators are tested on whether they follow the correct operating procedures including putting their seatbelt on and applying the handbreak as well as the time it takes them to complete the challenge.
“At the end of the course the supervisors correct any of the mistakes the operators may have made so they learn as well even though it has affected their score already,” he says.
Dronfield is keen to stress how important the “often overlooked” operators are to a challenge such as this, with operators who took part in last year’s challenge commenting on how the competition raised their awareness of correct industry procedures.
“At the end of the day it gives the operators the self esteem to say hey ‘I’m this good and I’ve learnt this much’. “It highlights a little ignored section within the industry and showcases that section within the sector and also within the UAE,” he says.
“Just as you have a supplier chain logistics group and others, we just want this to be a platform of growth and of course from that people will know the Linde name. We’re part of driving that growth and understanding and development of the professionalism within the industry,” he concludes.