Basic Traits of an Effective Trainer
When it comes to mobile equipment training, there are several attributes that will help trainers effectively provide instruction and ensure understanding. Let’s take a look at some of the most important ones: knowledge, communication, organizational skills, integrity and people skills. Knowledge. Trainers shouldn’t even consider training anyone until they themselves have an advanced knowledge level [...]
What, How & Why: The Big Three of Operator Training
Operating a forklift, aerial lift or loader is not a one dimensional activity. Operators must be able to correctly interpret information regarding their equipment, load, environment and application. They must then use that information to determine how the equipment controls are manipulated. That being said, training of such operators is not one dimensional either! A [...]
Investment, Risk and Reward
How Does What You’re Investing Compare to What You Stand to Gain…or Lose? Throughout our lives we encounter hundreds if not thousands of situations where we must make a choice between how much we are prepared to give up to get something we want. Sometimes the choice is as clear and simple as deciding if [...]
Attention Aerial Lift Trainers
There have recently been revisions made to the Canadian and US versions of the aerial lift operator training materials and the aerial equipment inserts in the Trainer’s Manual. The revisions were made in relation to the following issues: In Canada - Although there are regulatory references to ANSI/SIA A92 standards in most Canadian provinces like BC [...]
Training Aids: “Better” For Everyone
Whenever I have the chance to talk with mobile equipment trainers that have been at it for a while, they often ask the question; how can I make my operator training better? This kind of question always makes me feel good because I think it is great when an experienced trainer looks for ways to [...]
Is The Right-of-Way Wrong?
Trainers are often tasked with keeping a training session interesting by encouraging group discussion. To do this, some popular advice is to bring up ‘hot button’ topics that people feel strongly toward and react accordingly. One of my favorite hot buttons is the right-of-way issue, it can be an entertaining and occasionally frightening topic to [...]
The Whiteboard Jungle
Sales and marketing experts often say that when selecting a product and/or service, most consumers base there decision to buy on three things; price, time, and quality. If you’re anything like me when faced with type of decision, you’ll probably say “I’ll take a dozen of each.” Trouble is, you can’t have all three so [...]
Safety or Compliance, If You Have To Choose
An article I read recently in an e-zine called SafetyXChange talked about a safety consultant who was on a work site performing a safety audit. The consultant asked the Safety Director (or some such title) if he was aware of a particular hazard that was uncovered during a recent inspection to which he answered, yes. [...]
It’s All Good
If you have trained a forklift operator or two in your time you can probably relate to the experience of seeing the often upset emotional state of some trainees when they show up for training sessions. Often displaying signs ranging from utter apathy to immobilizing fear their state is usually due to the fact that [...]
Certification is Only the Beginning
I’m still not sold on the value of the new crane operator certification requirements that are spreading across the country, at least not in the manner in which they appear to be being implemented. In my opinion there are a number of holes in the system and worse yet, too many take the presentation of [...]
