The Columbia Forklift Challenge in its 2013 iteration will add a course for battery-powered stand-up reach trucks in addition to the layout for propane-powered forklifts.

The 2013 challenge takes place on 5 March at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland as part of the Oregon governor's biennial occupational safety and health conference.

Craig Homeland organises the challenge in his position as education specialist with the Oregon occupational safety and health division.

"Maybe in the near future, we can have a competition for the entire Pacific Northwest," Homeland notes. Currently, Washington State conducts annual regional and state championship rodeo events, most recently with finals on 26 September in Spokane, and the Canadian Material Handling & Distribution Society holds an annual British Columbia championship forklift rally, most recently on 5 May in Surrey.

Among the 20 entrants during the inaugural Columbia Forklift Challenge on 8 March 2011, Jim McVey and a few others manoeuvred their forklifts and succeeded in rolling a 10-pin strike with a bowling ball. A YouTube video shows the technique of McVey, a forklift operator at a distribution centre for the major grocer-retailer Fred Meyer, a business of Kroger Co.

Apart from those getting his email reminders, Hamelund says he has received some inquiries from other prospective entrants in the 2013 challenge.