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Thanks for joining us today, Marty here with Warehouse and Operations as a Career. What do we have on the schedule today, oh hey, we’re working on an episode where we’ll be discussing what a 3pl is, why companies use them and what opportunities they can bring to us as Employees. I think you’ll find it interesting, I’ve reached out to a couple of subject matter experts and I hope to have it put together in the next few weeks. We’ve had a lot of questions about 3pl so I’ll try and get those answered. For today I wanted to share a phone call I received earlier in the week. Now, I get asked for help from individuals pretty often and of course we do our best sharing our opinions and thoughts. Here at WAOC we kind of think of our mission as to share experiences and reach out to those that can help us learn something and help us get our careers on track. I honestly believe if we develop a plan and have some defined goals we can pretty much accomplish anything we want too. So I received a call from a young gentleman that’d been working in the construction field for the last 3 years. Hang on, I’m getting ahead of my story a bit. After answering the phone he introduced himself, stated he had picked up our Podcast card at a Sourcing or Staffing company and he’d decided he’d like more information on being a Clamp Driver. As you may know a Clamp attachment is something that can be added on or attached to our forklifts. There’s several different kinds. You can move 55-gallon drums with a barrel attachment and another kind of clamp is great for carrying loads like cylindrical big rolls of paper or a box blade for moving large cases eliminating the labor needed for moving them from one pallet type to another. Picture the box clamp as 2 blades on each side instead of our forks that squeeze or applies a measured amount of pressure allowing us to pick up the cases, carry them to another location and setting them down. They can save a lot of time and a lot of work and the manual stacking of product. I found a quick little read at https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-clamp-forklift-used-for , this article does a good job of explaining a few different clamp types and their uses. I’ll include the link in today’s notes on our website warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com in case you’d like to read it. Ok back on track here, where was I, so this gentleman had been working in construction as of late but stated he was just tired of hunting jobs and not knowing how many hours he was going to get each week. He wanted something stable where he could work every day and have a good check each week! Clamp drivers, or people with some type of experience are sometimes difficult to run across so I’ve got to admit I got pretty excited and was already thinking who I could call and tell’em I’d found a good clamp operator for them! I asked how much experience he’d had on a clamp and what type, it’s easier to place someone with a company that is using the type of equipment we have experience on. That’s when I learned that he didn’t have any experience with a clamp, he’d actually never driven a forklift of any kind. Upon further discussion I learned he hadn’t ever worked in a warehouse. I asked him how he’d landed on being a clamp operator and he shared he had seen a job posting, liked the pay being offered decided that’d be his next job!
Now you’ve got to admire his motivation here. He wanted to know if I knew where he could get some training on one and where they were hiring for the position. I really enjoy these kinds of talks, you know helping someone plan out their goals and a path to reach them is pretty rewarding. That being said we have to be honest too though. I explained that forklift driving was really a kind of a skilled position, and experience is really the only training there is and starting out on a clamp truck is not the easiest truck to really learn with. Now he’d done a little research, he stated he’d found a school that would certify him on a forklift and with that operators card he could go get a job. You all know how I feel about paying someone for our 29CFR1910.178 training. Any reputable employer is going to give us that training for free when they put us on their lift. It’s their responsibility to have trained operators on their docks. And part of that OSHA reg states
https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STaNDaRDS&p_id=9828
All operator training and evaluation shall be conducted by persons who have the knowledge, training, and experience to train powered industrial truck operators and evaluate their competence.
Training program content. Powered industrial truck operators shall receive initial training in the following topics, except in topics which the employer can demonstrate are not applicable to safe operation of the truck in the employer’s workplace.
The reg is site specific. To be certified, trained or whatever you want to call it, your training is not complete until your evaluated or observed on the docks you’re working on. Again, these courses are good, and they have their place. It’s a great safety course and we learn about weight plates and the limitations of the equipment as well of their many dangers. We need to understand though that we’re probably not going to get a job, with a new employer, as a fork driver on day one. Think about it, they’re going to put us on a $20k piece of equipment to handle their freight, driving around in their warehouse. That’s a lot of liability and dangers there. Honestly, we’ll need some hands on experience, and quite a bit of experience before we’re turned loose with a piece of equipment.
I suggested he identify a company that used the type of clamp he’d like to operate and take an unskilled position to get his foot in the door. I feel Sanitation, loading or unloading are great, foot in the door type, positions. Work them for 3 or 4 months and then let our bosses know that we want to be a fork driver. If we’ve been on time for every shift, and done a good job we’ll get noticed and our employer will work with us. They’ll train us, give us some time on the lift and we’ll be moved into the position when we’re ready! Well, the caller was in a bit of a hurry and thanked me for my time and had no problem letting me know he was going to get his certification and apply, he was really confident he’d have no problem getting the job. He said he’s seen to many ads for a clamp driver, they’d hire him, they need help. I of course wished him the best of luck and asked him to give me a call when he gets the job and let me know how it’s going.
You know, when we’re out of work, we need money, we want that paycheck and of course we want a position that pays well. It’s hard to realize, or in my experience, it’s hard to realize we need the training. Getting the job isn’t keeping the job. Only performing the job well can we succeed. And only with training & experience can we make our mark.
We’ve spoken to the forklift and different attachments a couple of times now, check out The Forklift Driver with episode 15 or episode 43 titled Order Selector and Forklift Driving and in episode 57 we visited with Lavoil, I’d consider him a master with another type of attachment for our lifts, the Slipsheet. It’s titled A Professionals Story – Slip Sheet Operator.
While we’re on the subject of attachments for our powered industrial trucks lets jump over the electric pallet jack for a minute and talk about the Pallet Puller attachment. You may call it a pallet jockey, jockey or I’ve even heard it called a pallet grabber before. It’s an attachment that has clamps or vice points on one side that we attach to our pallet jack forks at the load wheel openings or end of the forks to where we can slide under the four-way slots on a pinwheeled pallet on a trailer. It’ll allow us to slide the pallet out a little way so we can get our pallet jack under it from the front or back. A very useful tool. We’ll need to exercise a little caution now so as we don’t end up damaging the pallet or tossing its product everywhere but it’s fairly easy to use. I used to see the old fashioned steel meat hooks being used a lot, you know the old “S” hooks. We’d hook one end in the load wheel cavity and the other to a runner on the pallet and yank the pallet towards us, hoping the whole time that the hook didn’t snap into and go flying across the dock or at us! If you’re still using the hooks please stop! There’re too many safe attachments made today for us to take a chance.
Well, there’s a few thoughts, and I kept it to only 2 opinions today! Oh, I wanted to mention next week will be our 100th WAOC Episode. I’m reaching out to a few of our Round Table members and seeing if maybe we can all get together for another shoot the breeze session. If you have any topic suggestions, please reach out and let me throw em out on the table while I’ve got the group together. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I’d appreciate you checking out our Facebook and Twitter feeds @whseandops, maybe like and follow if your so inclined! If we can look up a topic or answer a question please email us host@warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com , we love looking up and researching topics for ya! Until next week, let’s all help out a new associate in some way. Safety is a great thing to share!