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 | | | This month’s Safety First column raises some interesting issues surrounding forklift training. Rob Vetter, based on extensive experience, points out that it’s not enough for your trainers to know forklifts – they need to know training as well. There are lots of skills associated with effective training and it certainly makes sense to look for professionals who possess as many of them as possible. Sure, Rob has a vested interest in promoting the use of professional trainers – but if safety is everyone’s business, so do we all. |
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Toll expands freight capability 
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | Australian-headquartered logistics specialist Toll Group is on the acquisition trail again, with the announcement that it will purchase two freight forwarding businesses headquartered in the United Kingdom to become a major player there.
Sea Air Group and Genesis Forwarding Group are, together, expected to generate around A$250 million (USD220 million) in revenue this year.
Toll managing director Paul Little says the two companies will provide significant scale to the group’s Toll Global Forwarding (TGF) division in Europe, placing it in the top half dozen forwarders in the UK.
“TGF continues to grow its leadership position in Asian markets for key trade lanes into North America, Australia and the UK.”
Both businesses are expected to contribute to the bottom line in year one, based on the combined purchase price of around A$150 million (USD130 million). |  |
| | Three operators win forklift rodeo events
Mount Sterling, IL, United States | Materials handling equipment operators Michael Rose, Tony Grimes and Mike Chilbert won free vacations for achievements in Dot Foods Inc’s national forklift rodeo on 24 June in Mount Sterling.
Rose, a resident of Kingston, Oklahoma, was the forklift champion and joined with others also representing the Ardmore, Oklahoma distribution centre in attaining the best overall score in their category.
Grimes, a resident of Hagerstown, Maryland, won in the mule category. He represented the distribution centre in Williamsport, Maryland.
Chilbert, a resident of Liverpool, New York, won in the narrow-aisle reach truck competition. He represented the Liverpool distribution centre.
Each is entitled to a trip to Key West in Florida, Cancun in Mexico or one of four other vacation destinations.
“Not only is this event fun and exciting for our warehouse employees and their families, but it promotes safe and efficient operation of the equipment,” says John Long, vice president of warehousing.
Winners of qualifying rounds in each of Dot Foods’ eight distribution centres across the country advanced to the finals. “With all of the excitement surrounding Dot’s 50th anniversary this year, there was an even greater atmosphere and sense of pride for the grand nationals,” reports Matt Carey, Illinois warehouse support manager and 2010 forklift rodeo co-ordinator.
Dot Foods carries 92,000 products from 500 food industry manufacturers and says it is the largest food redistributor in the US.
Meanwhile, the Yale forklift organisation and dealership KMH Systems Inc have agreed to sponsor the 16th annual US Open Forklift Rodeo & Safety Expo taking place from 29-30 October in Springfield, Ohio.
KMH has nine branch locations in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Tennessee.
The Springfield/Clark County Safety Council and Forkliftaction.com are other sponsors of this year’s US Open. | |
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| | HSE director participates in FLTA safety conference
Alton, United Kingdom | The Fork Lift Truck Association (FLTA) has made additional seats available for its annual safety conference after confirming a heavyweight roster of speakers for the event.
Highlights of the National Fork Lift Truck Safety Conference on 22 September include a presentation by HSE board member John Spanswick. Spanswick will emphasise how strategic improvements by management can save lives on the front line. He has a wealth of experience in the senior levels of the project management and construction industry.
FLTA CEO David Ellison says the conference will be packed with practical information for managers responsible for forklifts. “We’ll also make it clear that the bigger picture – the strategies and priorities set by those at the top – make a huge difference to the risks faced by workers in the warehouse.” “So if you want to get something done about forklift safety in your workplace, bring the boss,” Ellison adds.
Other speakers at the conference sponsored by Calor will represent viewpoints from the materials handling and logistics industry, as well as legal and insurance perspectives.
Topics covered include strategic planning, site surveys, corporate manslaughter and operator assessment. For more information on the conference and its speakers, go to www.fork-truck.org.uk/safety-conference. | |
| | H2 Logic in large-scale fuel cell project
Oslo, Norway | H2 Logic will establish a large-scale hydrogen refuelling station in Oslo as part of the EUR19.5 million (USD24.8 million) H2MOVES fuel cell demonstration project involving Daimler and Fiat fuel cell vehicles that was made public last week.
In 2011, 10 Mercedes Benz B-class F0CELL cars from Daimler, two Alfa Romeo MiTo fuel cell vehicles from Centro Ricerche Fiat and five electric city cars with fuel cell range extension from H2 Logic will operate daily in Oslo and on specific tours in southern Norway and further afield in the Scandinavian region.
The project is funded by private companies and the Norwegian and Danish governments.
H2MOVES project co-ordinators say the aim of the demonstration is to advance the commercialisation of hydrogen for transport in Scandinavia.
“These initiatives will help take yet another crucial step towards the mass production of electric vehicles with fuel cells around 2015 and the establishment of sufficient infrastructure to provide renewable hydrogen,” says Dr Ulrich Bünger, project coordinator of H2MOVES Scandinavia.
“One of the key technology contributions in the fight against climate change will be the electrification of the drive train in cars and city buses. The combination of batteries and fuel cells allow the drivers to enjoy the same range, and even better comfort and performance than commercially available vehicles provided today,” adds Dr Steffen Møller‐Holst, project coordinator of H2MOVES Oslo.
H2 Logic’s hydrogen refuelling station will comply with SAE J2601, the latest international hydrogen refuelling standard that ensures safe and fast refuelling. The hydrogen supply will be based on a combination of onsite production and trucked-in hydrogen.
During the project, some of the fuel cell vehicles will be used on a European hydrogen vehicle demonstration tour, co-ordinated by Hydrogen Sweden in collaboration with the European Regions’ and Municipalities’ Partnership on Hydrogen and Fuell Cells. H2 Logic will develop a mobile hydrogen refuelling concept for the demonstration tours.
TÜV SÜD of Germany and SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden will conduct a safety and certification study to identify the certification gaps in Scandinavia to accelerate full commercialisation of vehicles and fuelling stations.
The H2MOVES project is the first large-scale demonstration project supported by the newly established European Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking Program. The latter has a total budget of up to EUR1 billion (USD1.271 billion) to be invested by 2014.
Mikael Sloth, H2 Logic's business development manager, told Forkliftaction.com News early this year that the fuel cell solutions provider has "many activities ongoing and under preparation" for fuel cell forklifts but is not disclosing them yet. (We reported last year that H2 Logic is working with forklift manufacturer DanTruck A/S to develop a second-generation hydrogen forklift (Forkliftaction.com News #428).) | |
| | Farmers urged not to misuse telehandlers
London, United Kingdom | Farmers are being warned against using bucket attachments of telehandlers to drive in fencing posts.
The UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) says it will not hesitate to take action against those who “blatantly ignore” safety guidance.
The warning follows a rise in the number of incidents where buckets have detached from the main telescopic arm upon impact with a post, and struck people underneath.
In May, a farm worker in central Scotland badly injured his leg when he was struck by a falling bucket, while two people were killed in separate incidents less than three weeks apart in North Yorkshire last September.
HSE inspector Jean Edgar who is investigating the latest incident in Scotland says farm machinery should only be used for its intended purpose.
“Misusing equipment like telehandlers can lead to terrible tragedy,” she says. “Where HSE identifies dangerous working practices like this, where safety guidance is blatantly ignored, we will not hesitate to take enforcement action.”
HSE is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to prevent death, injury and ill health through research, information and advice; promoting training, new or revised regulations; and working with local authority partners. Information on the safe use of agricultural machinery can be found at www.hse.gov.uk/agriculture. | |
| | | Briefs | Governor Parkinson honours Landoll
Marysville, KS, United States
Landoll Corporation of Marysville has won the Governor’s Award of Excellence.
Governor Mark Parkinson says he is honoured to present Landoll Corp and fellow-winner Osborne Industries the state’s top business awards.
“These companies embody Kansas ingenuity and values, and they illustrate what a great place Kansas is to live, work and do business.”
Landoll Corp is a producer and distributor of products for the materials handling, agricultural and transportation industries. Established in 1963 by Don Landoll as a welding repair shop, the company has grown to over 550 employees and currently occupies over 600,000 sqft (55,741 sqm) of manufacturing space.
TVH recognised for sustainability
Waregem, Begium
TVH is one of 50 companies to receive a certificate from the West Flemish Charter for corporate sustainability.
TVH has organised blood donation drives and fitness tests for its employees, recruited disabled people for staff cleaning positions and offered environmentally friendly driving courses for its staff. The latter is expected to cut up to 100 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
TVH says its employees support the company’s initiatives.
Linde organises rally
Xiamen, China
Linde (China) and the Global Supply Chain Council in Shanghai organised a forklift rally last month.
The company says the forklift skills competition, which tested the driving skills of logistics managers, was aimed at raising awareness of warehouse safety and promoting excellence in Chinese logistics operations. All the participants drove Linde electric and diesel forklifts, and reach trucks. | |
| | | Movers & Shakers | Irvine, CA, United States
Toyota Material Handling USA Inc (TMHU) and Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing Inc (TIEM) have appointed Martin Boyd as vice president of product planning and marketing for TMHU and Tony Miller as vice president of product engineering, design engineering, manufacturing and maintenance for TIEM.
Boyd was formerly TMHU’s national product planning and marketing manager. A TMHU associate since 1999, Boyd oversaw the product planning, product support, marketing, product marketing and event planning departments and has reported directly to TMHU’s president since 2008. Prior to joining Toyota, Boyd worked for NACCO Material Handling Group Inc for seven years.
Miller was previously TIEM’s senior manager of production engineering, manufacturing and maintenance at the Columbus-based facility, which manufactures most of Toyota’s forklifts sold in the US. He assumed responsibility for the manufacturing and maintenance departments in 2009 and reported directly to TIEM’s president. He joined TIEM in 1996. Miller began his professional career at Arvin Sango, an exhaust manufacturer and supplier for Toyota Motor North America.
Wilmington, NC, United States
Wilmington Machinery has appointed Andreas Lehnhofer as operation manager/product manager of the injection molding division. Lehnhofer has 20 years of global experience in engineering and design, application and sales from two of the world’s largest injection, extrusion and automation machine builders – Battenfeld of USA /Austria and Krauss-Maffei of USA/Germany. He was most recently operation manager for three automotive plants in USA, Mexico and Germany.
Nuremberg, Germany
Armin Seybold has replaced Marc Lehnstaedt as the new manager of Still GmbH's Nuremberg branch. Lehnstaedt is now the CEO of KION Warehouse Systems GmbH in Reutlingen. Seybold has worked for Still since 1997. He has had experience in various marketing positions, mainly in analysis, optimisation and the efficient control of large forklift fleets. He is familiar with the material flow sequences involved in intralogistics. | |
| | Forklift carries giant bowl of porridge
Cupar, Scotland | A forklift was used to carry the world’s biggest bowl of porridge this month.
About 1,521lbs (690kg) of porridge was prepared at the Highland Games in Cupar, Fife, The Daily Express reported. Scott’s Porage Oats contributed the oats and firefighters added water before the mixture was heated and cooked for several hours.
A forklift then transported the giant bowl for weighing by Guinness world record adjudicator Craig Glenday.
Enough to feed 2,000 people, it is four times the previous record set in Manchester last year. | |
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| | Warehousing conference calls for papers
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | The inaugural warehousing conference, Warehousing Today, will be held in conjunction with The Safety Show and Materials Handling on Tuesday, 26 October 2010 in Sydney.
Organisers are calling for papers from suitably qualified persons to address one of the following topics:
• Government distribution strategy;
• The environmentally friendly warehouse;
• Facilities, layout design, material flow and productivity;
• Compliance in the warehouse;
• People and the new IR laws;
• Recycling and the environment;
• The smart forklift; and
• Trends in transportation.
The suggested topics may be varied should an exceptional presenter or paper be provided which is current and relevant to the industry’s needs.
For more information, visit www.auswa.asn.au | |
| | Nominations open for NSW logistics awards
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | Nominations for the 2010 CILTA New South Wales Transport & Logistics Industry Excellence Awards remain open until 2pm on Wednesday 11 August 2010.
The awards recognise exceptional achievements on the part of individuals and corporations that are actively involved in the T&L industry within the NSW region.
The awards presentation will be held on 1 September 2010 at the MLC Centre, Sydney, with guest speaker The Hon John Robertson MP, Minister for Transport.
The National Awards will be hosted on 29 October 2010 in Sydney. Visit www.cilta.com.au for more information. | |
| | Forklift incident results in $60,000 fine
Clayton, Victoria, Australia | National cold storage giant Swire Cold Storage has been convicted and fined A$60,000 on two charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 following an incident in which a worker was hit by a forklift.
The incident occurred in March 2008 at the company’s Clayton warehouse when a forklift was driven into the path of a worker operating a pallet mover.
The worker was struck in the left leg by the slip sheet attachment on the forklift, suffering breaks to both bones in his lower left leg above the ankle, and an open wound.
“The inspector who attended the scene noticed straight away that although there were marked walkways for pedestrians, they weren’t being used,” says WorkSafe’s manufacturing and logistics director, Ross Pilkington.
“Forklifts and other mobile plant were actually being driven through the walkways - putting workers and others at risk of serious injury, or even death.”
On average, three people are seriously injured by forklifts every week in Victorian workplaces. These injuries are primarily due to being hit by a forklift, or being hit by loads falling from a forklift.
“Despite years of communicating the message that people and forklifts don’t mix, workplace behaviour does not reflect the fact that these machines will seriously hurt or kill if they hit someone – regardless of the speed at which they travel.”
Pilkington urges workplaces to go beyond drawing lines on the ground, and physically separate people from forklift operations.
“This needs to be achieved either by scheduling forklift operations at distinct times so that no people are in the vicinity at the same time, or by installing physical barriers or providing exclusion zones in areas where forklifts operate.
“People don’t seem to realise that if you’re working in close proximity to a forklift, you are at serious risk. Just as you wouldn’t work on the road in the middle of a freeway without having some very distinct physical separation in place, so too should you not work with forklifts unless there is a significant physical separation.” | |
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| | | Konecranes Lifttrucks In China |  | Located in Lingang New City, Shanghai, Konecranes Port Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Ltd (KPM), commenced operation in April 2007 and has been playing roles as the centre for Konecranes lifttrucks production, sales and technical support in the Asian-Pacific area ever since then.
So far, KPM is capable of producing reach stackers, empty container handlers and the heavy forklift range from 10 to 60 tons. Lift trucks from KPM have been delivered to many countries around the world winning an excellent reputation based on high reliability; low fuel consumption backed up by the Konecranes world service net.
Click here for more information on this product, including pictures. | |
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