Earlier this year, the Alabama/Florida State-Unit asked that we organize a forklift train-the-trainer session or two across the state. There are a number of ways to get lift truck drivers trained but in today’s world and labor market, it’s difficult to get someone trained / certified in a timely manner that’s why we decided to hold a couple of these.

The OSHA regulations state that anyone driving a powered industrial truck be properly trained and demonstrate competence (I’m condensing the rule greatly). While those regulations don’t apply directly to ginning, they do apply to warehouse operations. People driving lift trucks (squeeze or forks or other attachments) need to have proper training and demonstrate to the trainer that they have been trained and are competent. Labor around a gin and warehouse is often tough. Add to that the demand on loading and receiving at the same time as we’ve seen in the past few years, it can make acquiring that training difficult before putting someone to work.

We have, for a long time, advocated having supervisors trained to be lift truck trainers and having them do the training rather than relying on an outside firm to do the training. To that end, we have scheduled two sessions for train-the-trainer classes. Since these are being scheduled at the request of the Alabama/Florida Unit, we have scheduled them in Alabama but they are by no means limited to Alabama members. All members are welcome to attend but space is limited.

Because this is specialized training, there is a fee associated with this and the space is limited to ten per location. The cost is $300 per attendee and still doesn’t totally cover our costs. We are holding the sessions in Courtland, AL at Servico and in Andalusia at Covington Gin.

Attendees at these sessions will have both classroom and practical time during the day and be able to certify lift truck drivers for their organizations going forward. Please FOLLOW THIS LINK to get to the sign up page for the session. Again space is limited and the sessions are right around the corner. Andalusia will be July 26 and Courtland is August 9.

Give us a call or email if you have questions.

DSF