Forklift Taster Session

Last Saturday we held a free forklift taster session at our training centre at Apollo Park, Wroxton, near Banbury.

This provided some basic tuition on the components and functions of the counterbalance truck, basic operation including starting, moving, steering and stopping and adjustment of height, tilt & side shift including travel and parked positions.

Linda and Philip (pictured below) both enjoyed the session.

If you are interested in future taster sessions, please contact us on 0800 024 8084.

 

Ladies Forklift Experience Session – Saturday 11th May 2024

We are delighted to be planning another Ladies Forklift Experience Session on Saturday 11th May 2024.  This will take place at our training centre at Apollo Park, Wroxton, Banbury, OX15 6AY.

Prior to covid, we held several successful experience sessions with monies raised going to Katharine House Hospice, the Horton Hospital and Aspire Oxford.

The experience session provides attendees with some basic tuition on health and safety, how to operate the truck and then there will be an opportunity to have a go, under supervision of course, and undertake some basic steering exercises.  Tea, coffee and cakes will be provided.  There will be a charge of £30 per person and all proceeds will be donated to the Horton Hospital, Banbury.

If you’re interested in attending on 11th May, or would like to attend a future event if you can’t make this date, please telephone 0800 024 8084 or e-mail anne@stackerstraining.co.uk

Training in Leamington Spa

Today, one of our instructors is providing training on customer premises in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

The town of Leamington Spa, originally known as Leamington Priors was a tiny village until about 1800.

The value of the mineral springs was known in the middle ages, but it was not until 1784 that the small village began rediscovering its saline springs and started building baths around some of them.

In July 1814 ‘The Royal Pump Room and Baths’, designed and built by C.S. Smith of Warwick at a cost of £30,000, were officially opened.  The Spa treatment was claimed to cure or relieve a huge number of disorders, examples being ‘stiffness of tendons’, ‘rigidity of the joints’, ‘the effects of gout and rheumatism and various paralytic conditions’.

Royal Leamington Spa is right on the doorstep of Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon, historic Warwick and Kenilworth, Coventry and Birmingham.

 

Training on multi directional trucks

Congratulations to Craig who passed his training on the multi directional truck recently.

As technology marches on and hydraulic drive is becoming more the norm, multi directional trucks are becoming more widely used.

The ABA (Accrediting Bodies Association) have categorised these into 3 different types and they are as follows:

M1 – is a rider operated electric multi directional counterbalance truck.

M2 – is a rider operated electric and internal combustion engine multi directional side loader.

M3 – is a rider operated electric and internal combustion engine multi directional reach truck.

All these machines have amazing capabilities working in very tight spaces but being able to manoeuvre long loads that would have been very difficult to transport without the old fashioned side loader trucks that would have required much more space.

The photo here shows a M3 multi directional reach truck. This can go forwards/backwards and sideways in either direction at the press of a button.

We do not have a multi directional truck at our training centre but we can provide training on these on customer premises.

For more information on courses call us on 0800 024 8084 or e-mail anne@stackerstraining.co.uk

Training in Shipston on Stour, Warwickshire

Last week, we were training on customer premises in Shipston on Stour, Warwickshire on the counterbalance truck.

The name of the town, which is on the northern edge of the Cotswolds, derives from being known in ancient times as ‘Sheep Wash Town’.  Shipston was for a time an important sheep market town and after the demand for local wool began to diminish the town continued to flourish thanks to the opening in 1836 of a branch line from the horse powered tramway that linked Stratford with Moreton in Marsh.  The line became a modern railway in 1889.  The town was also an important coaching town and many of the inns from that era are still surviving in the High Street.

We were also providing training on the reach truck last week at our training centre near Banbury.

For more information on reach and counterbalance courses call us on 0800 024 8084 or e-mail anne@stackerstraining.co.uk

Training in Hook Norton

This month, we have been providing training for one of our customers based in Hook Norton.

Hook Norton is a beautiful village in North Oxfordshire.  It lies 4.5 miles north east of Chipping Norton and is close to the Cotswold hills.

Hook Norton is home to Hook Norton Brewery which was founded in 1849 and is an important architectural example of a Victorian tower brewery, as well as containing a working Victorian steam engine.   The brewery has a museum that includes a section on the history of the village. For more information on the brewery and it’s history click on the link below:

Our History – Hook Norton Brewery (hooky.co.uk)

As well as training in Hook Norton, we have provided courses at our training centre near Banbury and also on customer premises in Banbury, Enstone, Abingdon and Didcot.

UKMHA Safety Convention – 11th October 2023

The UKMHA Safety Convention will take place on 11th October 2023 at the CBS Arena, Coventry.

Designed for the industry by the industry, the convention is the must attend event for anyone with a responsibility for ensuring the safety and well-being of their workers.

Featuring presentations from leading safety professionals and supported by a special exhibition from big name companies in the material handling sector, the convention is attended annually by hundreds of safety professionals from across the UK.

Highlights are:

  • Expert presentations from industry-leading speakers
  • A dedicated exhibition featuring displays from top material handling companies
  • Case studies from prominent businesses
  • Engage with a targeted audience of industry professionals
  • Share best practice on the latest safety legislation
  • Major networking opportunities

Click on the link below to register your attendance:

https://ukmha.org.uk/safety-convention-visitors

 

Training in Gillingham, Kent

One of our instructors is spending 4 days training on a pedestrian stacker truck in Gillingham this week.

Gillingham has strong maritime and military connections with the nearby historic dockyard in Chatham and the Royal Engineers barracks based in the town.  The town is also the birthplace of the Elizabethan seafarer, William Adams. He grew up in the town before becoming apprenticed to a shipbuilder on the Thames. He learned his trade and went on to navigate a fleet of ships to Japan.

Gillingham is one of five towns in the Medway.  The River Medway threads together Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham and Rainham. The Hoo Peninsula also links Medway to the Thames Estuary. The rivers are steeped in history, rich in wildlife, and the Medway is a popular waterway for pleasure trips, watersports and sightseeing.

 

New forklift truck owners – useful information

We’ve had a few enquiries lately from customers purchasing their first forklift truck so we thought we’d put together some information to help them understand their responsibilities to their employees.

Employers should be aware of the following regulations and guidance (click on the links below for more information):

Approved Code of Practice – L117 Rider Operated Lift Trucks

www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/l117.htm

This Approved Code of Practice is issued by the HSE and the link above takes you to a free downloadable version (PDF).  Hard copies are available to purchase via HSE’s online shop.

L117 provides advice to duty holders on how to comply with the law in relation to lift trucks. It provides guidance on operator training, equipment selection, safe use, pedestrian safety, maintenance, etc and is an absolute must-have for any employer to possess and be familiar with, if they have a lift truck on site or are acquiring their first lift truck.

 

 

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974

Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 – legislation explained (hse.gov.uk)

LOLER – Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations

www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/l113.htm

PUWER – Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations

www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/l22.htm

 

The training we provide is accredited with RTITB (www.rtitb.com) and we are governed by the course durations that they set for each truck and course type.  As a guide, below are the course durations for most rider operated lift trucks:

A novice course (for candidates with no prior training and experience) will be 3 days for 1 trainee, 4 days for 2 trainees and 5 days for 3 trainees.

A basic course (for candidates with prior experience but no formal training) will be
3 days for 2-3 trainees or 2 days for 1 trainee.

A conversion course (for candidates that already have a licence on one type of truck but wish to convert to another) will be 2 days for 2-3 trainees or 1 day for 1 trainee.

A refresher course (for a maximum of 3 trainees who have previously been trained and have proof of prior training) will be a 1 day course.

Please note that for all courses, except novice, we will require copies of previous certificates, if available, or written confirmation of previous training or experience (we can e-mail you a form to complete).

For more information on our courses please contact anne@stackerstraining.co.uk or call 0800 024 8084.

An aerial view of Apollo Park, Wroxton, near Banbury

If you haven’t been to our training centre at Apollo Park, Wroxton, near Banbury you may not know that Apollo Park was built on the former site of the North Oxfordshire Ironstone Company’s headquarters and railway locomotive yards.

The North Oxfordshire Ironstone Company was established in June 1917 after approaches were made by the Ministry of Munitions, who were keen to increase substantially the production of home ore in the English Midlands. The quarries were connected to the main line railway system via a 3.5-mile industrial railway built by German prisoners of war and the quarries grew to become one of the most important single sources of iron ore in Britain. The Wroxton quarries went into liquidation in September 1967, although some workings were sold off and struggled on until c.1978. The scale and importance of the undertaking is shown by the production figures of 40,000 tons of ore per week in 1965, with a total production of 33 million tons over a fifty-year period.

When you enter Apollo Park you will see an Iron Ore Tippler Wagon which has been restored by Apollo as a “respectful nod” to the park’s industrial heritage.

As you will see from the aerial photo below, there is a local playing field adjacent to the site’s north west boundary – otherwise the surrounding area is characterised by open farm land.

For information on the forklift training courses that we can provide at our training centre at Apollo Park, call us at Stackers Training on 0800 024 8084 or e-mail anne@stackerstraining.co.uk

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