Another Accomplishment

I dreaded the day my boss would take me aside and ask me to train on the reach truck. It is kind of like a fork lift, but smaller and only used indoors. Using the order picker gives you control over the productbecause you are harnessed in and working directly with the product that you are putting up high on the shelf. With the reach truck, the control is omewhat limited. The product is on a pallet, and the pallet is on the forks of the reach truck and manoeuvered 10 feet overhead. Plus, when putting up or bringing down product, you have limited space to work, and have to move around in a way that won't destroy product on surrounding shelves. The idea of breaking product, or dropping it from high on the forks terrified me.

My boss started me off slowly in the receiving area in back of the store. I started on the first day by just moving the machine back and forth a nd getting used to the controls. I put empty pallets on the forks and lifted and lowered them to different areas of the floor. I suppose that wasn't so bad. Except I kept forgetting which button was for which control. Up, down, sideways?

The next day my boss had me remove full pallets from up high, but still only in receiving. He also had made me an obstacle course from shopping carts and hd me practice driving around them. To me this was extremely stressful, and it made me sweat like crazy. On occassion I would get frustrated, and then a bit angry at myself. Luckily my boss was very patient and encouraging.

Finally the day came to go out on to the floor of the store, but early enough that we weren't open, so no customers were around. PHEW!! My boss had me put up as well as take down full pallets of product. It took some doing just to drive around corners and down the aisles. Then lining up the forks just right to fit under the pallets was at first very challenging, and it often took more than one try. There is far less room in the aisles than there is in receiving and I found myself constantly looking at my back wheels to see which direction they were turned. My boss was always by my side giving me the guidance I needed. He also told me to try and "feel" the way the machine is moving instead of having to look at the wheels. This took a couple of weeks of practice, but finally the machine and I became one, and I always know now how my wheels are turned, without looking.

On one of my earlier days of being on the floor wwith the reach truck, my boss asked me to put up a pallet of light fixtures. The reach truck has these big feet on the front that stick a ways out. When picking up a pallet, the feet hit it first, and then you have to use the controls to move the forks all the way under the pallet. When picking up the pallet of lights, I forgot to move the forks all the way under and began to pick up the pallet. Needless to say, the I dumped the entire pallet of lights forward onto the floor. I was very lucky that nothing broke. I did, however have a big mess to clean up and had to re wrap the pallet. I learned a valuable lesson then and have never since forgotten to move the forks all the way under the pallet.

For the first couple of weeks, my boss was always by my side when I drove the reach truck. I was not allowed to drive it without him there. Now, I drive it all the time, with or without him there. It has become a routine part of my job and it is no longer stressfull. I have learned to trust myself, and the machine.

I have even since moved up to driving the fork lifts. The smaller one as well as the larger one that we all call, "Brutus". The fork lift steers more like a car, and there are seperate controls for the up/down, side to side, and tilt. On the reach truck there is one handle with all the buttons for manoeuvering the forks. The steering for the reach truck is done on the left side with a disk that has a handle sticking out of it to hold on to and rotate clockwise, or counter clockwise, depending on which way you want to turn. I LOVE driving the fork lift and most of my day is spent on it, outside now that the weather is nice.

It was a bit scarey the first time I had to move lumber because it is very heavy, and some of it is 16 feet long and if not balanced correctly, it can easily tip. I have seen this happen to others, and picking up a large load of lumber is no fun at all.

So all of this training happened in about 5 weeks time. It was scarey at first, yet the adventurous side of me wanted to see me succeed. I knew it would be something I would enjoy and my boss tried to tell me that from the start.

A few weeks ago while taking down a pallet of ceramic tile, I had the forks under it and was about to pull it off the very top shelf about 10 feet up. My boss happened to walk by and starting yelling, "wait! Hold it!" He was looking up at the pallet, walking towards me and still kept saying, "wait! stop!" I was a little freaked out, and frantically looking up to see what was wrong with the position of the forks and the pallet. Other employees had gathered around to see what I was doing wrong. When my boss walked up to me, I asked, " what's wrong? It looks OK to me." He smiled and said, "WOW! You really have those forks up high." He laughed and walked away. I have yet to get even. LOL!!