Forklift driver training, as an induction for new operators or as a refresher course for existing operators, not only helps companies meet their compliance requirements, but brings benefits in overall performance and reduced costs as well.  

Crown Commercial Training, the WorkCover-accredited training and assessing division of Crown Equipment, has been training Australian forklift drivers for over 15 years. 

Thousands of Australian workplaces have witnessed increased productivity and lower costs following refresher training for their forklift drivers.  

According to Ken Nolan, Sales & Operations Manager of Crown Commercial Training, there is currently a peak in enquiries for refresher training.  

“What we are seeing is companies viewing refresher training as more than a compliance issue," he says. 

"They are implementing forklift driver training as a means of reducing the number of collisions and increasing the efficiency of their individual operators.”

Nolan believes that the tight economic conditions are forcing companies to look at various strategies for containing ongoing operational costs.  

“It’s a simple fact that within every materials handing operation exists a variance in operator skills and performance," he observes. 

"By running a forklift driver refresher training course, those operators who are currently underperforming in terms of extracting the most from their truck, or who account for higher incidences of collision, can be identified and brought up to speed.”

Refresher training consists of a combination of theory-based training (to increase knowledge) and practical hands-on demonstration (to shape behaviour) to bring better performance and safer operations, consistently across all shifts.  

Results from the evaluations undertaken by Crown Commercial Training during these courses are delivered as a report to customers. 

The report tracks the performance of participants and identifies those operators who would benefit from follow-up training.  

 “Increasingly we are seeing many of our customers opting to run refresher training as a six or twelve month cycle," Nolan says. 

"In this way they keep a strong focus on operator skills and safety, delivering a better bottom line to their organisation.”