The final of the BT UK Fork-Lift Truck Driver Championship 2004 was held at IMHX 2004 at the NEC, Birmingham, on the 4th March.
The overall winner was James Owens of Tibbett & Britten, who was awarded first prize of a City Rover car, as well as a replica of the prestigious Storage Cup.
Achieving second place - and a cheque for £1000 - was Steven Bircumshaw, of Cadbury Trebor Bassett. Third place went to Michael Gilmartin of Sigma Kalon, with a prize of £500.
Speaking after the prize-giving ceremony, James Owens said: "There were a lot of good people competing so I didn't expect to win, though I know I had set a good time. I'm really happy to have won."
James works at Tibbett & Britten's Preston-Brook site, which exclusively serves the DIY retailer and building-trade supplier B&Q. His sponsor, the site's training manager Tina Urmson, was present to support him throughout the competition. Tibbett & Britten entered five drivers into the championship, each from a different site. Facilities manager Keith Phillips took care of all the arrangements with Tibbett & Britten's BT Rolatruc account manager Peter De'ath.
Twenty-one drivers qualified for the final by putting in excellent performances on the two days of heats that were staged over the first two days of the IMHX show. Counterbalance drivers competed against reach truck drivers with help from a weighting formula that compensated for their different speeds. Drivers were timed taking the truck twice through a narrow course of cardboard bollards; the second time after having collected a load on the forks, which had to be replaced in the racking before the run was complete. In this way, skill at pallet placement was judged as well as overall speed through the course. However, safety was paramount and final scores also reflected performance in a theory test, and penalties for any minor collisions or mistakes during the run.
The competition arena attracted a lot of interest throughout the show, and all of the runs were televised on large screens on the BT Rolatruc stand. The competition was part of BT Rolatruc's Pride in Performance programme, which aims to save companies money by reducing the amount of damage caused in their materials handling operations.
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