Danny Maron, owner/trainer of Ideal Forklift Training in Canada's national capital, is an independent consultant, providing the education lift truck operators require, to businesses and government, to minimise the chance of incidents in the workplace. Before founding Ideal in 2000, Danny was a trainer at Canada's largest forklift dealer.
A great Chinese restaurant always makes its own eggrolls. Subpar restaurants purchase pre-made frozen egg rolls from an egg roll vendor!A few weeks ago I took a telephone call from a gentleman representing a safety video distributor here in Canada. He went on to discuss the quality of these films, and the amazing recreations of unfortunate episodes. He had two films, and offered to mail them both to me at no charge to review, and if I was interested in purchasing one or both, simply keep the film(s) and provide a credit card number. A fair offer from a very reasonable gentleman, so I anxiously awaited the arrival of the DVDs. And sure enough, a few days later, there was a parcel waiting for me.
I opened the attractively designed and finished cases and began to view each of the films. I examined the quality, men's hair length and dress code to ensure that these films were not from the '70s, watched the recreations of various tipovers based upon the centre of gravity inside, then outside the stability triangle, and then came to my decision.
The films were fine, with very few obvious errors, and in my mind, they were both quite satisfactory. However, I chose to decline the offer, and elected to return the films within a week. He quickly responded with a very generous counter-offer that included a price adjustment, booklets, a PowerPoint presentation and critique forms. He went on to tell me who was buying these films in hope that if my peers from across the country are doing so, then I should too.
I considered his offer and explanation over the weekend, and I came to the same conclusion: the films were going back. He made a legitimate offer, however I had my own counterclaim in which my disillusionment within this industry came into play.
What I have seen, including this offer, are turnkey solutions to safety consultants to be able to host a forklift safety course without really knowing very much about forklift safety/dynamics. The safety company is definitely not to blame. However, there are those individuals around the world who may specialise in other avenues of training, and then decide to take on forklift safety as a means to complete their portfolio, or just earn a few extra bucks.
So, this is an example of a company which caters to the unwise. They provide the videos. They provide safety booklets. They provide critique sheets. They provide a PowerPoint presentation, script of the PowerPoint presentation. Key point sheets. Case studies. Advice on course time length. And a whole lot more!
Again, I will reiterate that this company is not to blame. They are in business to make money, as are most of us. The problem lies with so-called forklift trainers who know nothing about forklfits, and pretend to others that they do.
Some of us prefer to design and utilise our own presentations, and not have a cookie cutter-type presentation of one-size-fits-all, produce our own very healthy manuals that are robust and full of insight and details, have class-specific PowerPoint presentations for each and every class of lift truck, including refreshers and multiple refreshers. Some of us do not require this turnkey program because we already know from within this industry and its safety issues, laws and forklift dynamics.
This is what makes a truly professional and respectable trainer (forklift training consulting businesses). We do not need an outside company to prepare scripts as to what we should say or do, and teach me how to explain the materials. For us, it comes from within!
As far as the videos are concerned, I'll give them a thumbs up! Would I be interested in purchasing them? Not now. There are some of us out there that do NOT rely on videos to get our points across. We rely on ourselves to get the points across. We explain in great detail with pics and presentations and words and analogies to get our points across to the participants, and when questions come, we immediately have the answers. No hemming and huh-ing. Straight-forward answers to straight-forward questions and concerns. The only reason why I show the film I do is because of the very graphic violence, and to visually reinforce my teachings. If I had my choice, and I probably do, I would not even bother showing the videos as even the ones I do show, have minor flaws.
Not to fault this gentleman or his company, and I cannot do anything about the governing forces, but for all those businesses out there seeking quality forklift safety training for their staff, find out who presents their course from a turnkey solution standpoint and those who do it from the heart and soul .... and mind!