Eastern Lift Truck Co Inc is finding ways to teach the skills and types of behaviour essential to the safe operation of forklifts.

Training manager Jen Fritz works in the dealership's York branch and oversees the efforts of five trainers covering on-customer-site and in-house operations in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

"We invite companies with small staffs and those looking for work" to participate in the training effort, she says. Programs involve training for multiple makes and models of forklifts, rough-terrain units, aerial work platforms, pedestrians and train-the-trainer sessions. In addition, Eastern Lift Truck can conduct mock Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspections at customer locations.

The training portion of Eastern Lift Truck's business is increasing, Fritz says. "We are housed under the service department, so it is not easy to measure (the business metrics, but there is) money to be made". Main in-house locations for the training include facilities in York; Baltimore, Maryland; Allentown and Warminster, Pennsylvania; and Maple Shade, New Jersey.

Maple Shade-based Eastern Lift Truck employs more than 500, operates 13 locations and represents Yale, Utilev, Combilift and Manitou forklifts, Genie and JLG aerial work platforms and Cushman and Taylor-Dunn vehicles.