How to move a pallet in 36 easy steps

Step 1 - Ship it to another country to move it. It will be faster.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending 3 days of forklift training. This training involved half a day of 'theory' and 2.5 days or so of 'hands-on' training and an exam.

As is typical with British training, safety was highlighted, a lot. I'm the first person to be aware of health and safety even more so since I've worked at a company where people did, sadly, die on the job. But there's a limit to red tape. Something I hope that dear old David Cameron is looking to trip down.

Back to the forklifting though. Before you ask, yes, I did pass and I have my certification. I even completed it in a fairly decent time. Will I use the forklift in the next six months? I sure hope so!

The forklift exam was quite ridiculous and far from realistic. And a chicane? I don't think I've actually heard that term before. The chicane, however, was part of the exam. That was probably my best part. The stacking and de-stacking of pallets was decent. It was more the worry of not being 100% perfect that was the most troubling part.

Having initially learned to drive a forklift in Canada I was quite accustomed to making sure my foot was on the brake when using the hydraulics. In the great motherland, however, you must put the forklift into neutral and use the handbrake every time you wanted to tilt your forks. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

Can you hear the frustration in my writing? Yes, imagine doing the test the first time as a trial and nearly failing due to using common sense and not putting the handbrake on every time. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Things I do know about using a forklift and useful tips for anyone making the great test of patience:

-remember your pivot points

-look around every time you move forward or backwards

-BRAKE NEUTRAL

-rubbing will happen and you won't notice it 99% of the time

-tilt your fork tips back and low when driving

-relax and think logically-anyone can do it

-wear your seatbelt when driving

-do not bring down parkade gates

-do not hit fire sprinklers in parkades

Now, end rant and healing exercise. Let's get this forking done!

(And yes, my seatbelt is not on but I was not driving, just posing in this photo.)