 2012 Forklift Rally Winners! Click to view larger image |
VANCOUVER, B.C. - On Saturday May 5th, 2012 forklift operators came together at the Cloverdale Agriplex in Surrey, B.C. to compete in the 15th Annual B.C. Championship Forklift Rally.The event drew almost 75 competitors from over 30 companies from across the province and as far away as Washington State. In addition to obstacle courses that tested operator's best practices and forklift skills they also had a chance to try their hand at Forklift Bowling, Basketball & Soccer.
In addition to the competition there were side attractions to entertain the spectators as the day progressed. The team from Johnston Equipment (Raymond) were grilling up Smokies on the barbeque, Adecco Employment
brought out a bouncy castle for the kids and the Rally Girls helped cheer on the contestants. The competition this year had four obstacle courses in
continuous operation for participants in the Counterbalanced Electric and Propane, Narrow Aisle Reach Truck and Power Pallet Jack divisions.
At the end of the day 12 contestants shared in $3600.00 in prize money with $500 being awarded to all first place finishers and $300 and $100 being awarded to second and third place winners.
First Place- Reach Truck - Nav Mander (EV Logistics - Ambient)
- Counterbalanced Electric - Randy Hiles (EV Logistics - Ambient)
- Counterbalanced Propane - Corey Nelson (Americold)
- Power Pallet Jack - Robyn Watson (Best Buy)
Second Place- Reach Truck - James Ralphs (London Drugs)
- Counterbalanced Electric - LiAnna Gusso (Kerry Canada Inc)
- Counterbalanced Propane - Randy Langwell (Americold)
- Power Pallet Jack - Stephen Myckatyn (EV Logistics - Ambient)
Third Place- Reach Truck - Krystian Michalak (RC Products Ltd.)
- Counterbalanced Electric - Michal Obuchowicz (Kal Tire)
- Counterbalanced Propane - Tom Lavigne (Ainsworth Engineered)
- Power Pallet Jack - Ian Campbell (Versacold Cliveden)
The event caught the attention of local media being featured on a major Canadian TV network during the noon and evening television news. Event Manager John Gilder said "We have never received press like this before. We received numerous calls and emails from people wanting to compete next year due to exposure we received."
The event organizers, the
Canadian Material Handling & Distribution Society (CMHDS) have already announced next year's competition will take place on
May 4th, 2013 and would like to thank all competitors, spectators and volunteers for making the event a success.
Forklifts were supplied by
Johnston Equipment (Raymond),
Harding Forklift (Yale) &
Williams Machinery (Clark) and racking was supplied and setup by Johnston Equipment. All judges are certified trainers hailing from a variety of mobile equipment training companies including Pivot Training Services, NIS Training, Don Sayers Intl. & DWM Unlimited.
The
B.C. Championship Forklift Rally began in 1997 as a venue to promote forklift skills and safety in a fun and competitive environment and is presented by the
Canadian Material Handling & Distribution Society (www.CMHDS.org), a registered non-profit industry association representing the Warehousing & Distribution community in British Columbia, Canada.
The event is held in partnership with WorkSafeBC (
www.worksafebc.com), and sponsors include Johnston Equipment (
www.johnstonequipment.com), East Penn Manufacturing (
www.eastpenncanada.com), Harding Forklift Services Ltd. (
www.hardingforklift.com), Williams Machinery (
www.williamsmachinery.com), NIS Training
www.nistraining.com), Forkliftaction.com (
www.Forkliftaction.com), TVH (
www.tvhamericas.com), FIOSA-MIOSA (
www.fmiosa.com), Pivot Industrial Training Services (
www.pivotservices.ca) and Adecco Employment Services
(
www.adecco.ca).
Contact: John Gilder - 604-999-2979 - Email: Admin@ForkliftRally.com - Website: www.ForkliftRally.com
Event photos are for available for download from http://www.flickr.com/photos/forkliftrally/setsForkliftaction is a proud supporter of Forklift Rally 2012.