Day 7 : She drove a fork truck

Also called a forklift, I drive a forklift. And I love it. It's fun, it's adventurous, it's sometimes breezy, challenging, noisy, and even dangerous (which is my least favorite part of it). I have licenses for 3 different machines.

One, we at my warehouse call it a P.E. (short for Power Equipment), is one you stand on at the front and steer with your body out front while the forks (long enough for two pallets, so at least 7-8ft long) trail behind you. This one provides the least amount of protection should you hit anything or anything hit you. You are completely exposed from falling objects as well. This one also seems to go the fastest, or maybe it just feels that way because when you are on it, you can feel the breeze with your full body as nothing obstructs the air you cut through. I believe it's top speed is over 7mph. It has a "normal" setting and a "bunny" setting, the "bunny" setting is just a button with a picture of a bunny on it that when pressed, makes you go much faster than when just on the "normal" setting. This machine is used mainly for moving full pallets from one ground location to another ground location. You can (and I have) drive this machine into trailers. Yep, that's right, those big diesel truck trailers you see flying down the highway - I have driven INSIDE some! It's very exciting and a little feeling of danger pecks at my skin the whole time.

Another machine, we call it the R.R. (short for Reach truck - I'm not sure why the 2nd "R"), is your classic forklift. It is not (and none of the one's we use are) a "sit down" version like you see in some posh warehouses. We remain standing at all times I think mostly because there is need to get up and down off the machinery on a regular basis. Having to get up from sitting and then situate back into sitting position would just complicate the whole thing, taking more time - and I can't blame the company for not wanting any of that. So yeah, this thing pivots on a dime, goes fast (well, the newer ones do anyway), and reaches high. Something most people might not know about forklifts (these in particular) is that the forks can extend out as well as move from side to side. This is so that when you get your forks all the way up in the air (sometimes more than 40ft), if you are a couple of inches off (very easy to do!), you can just maneuver the suckers over this way or that. Also, the forks extend outward so that you don't have to be all the way underneath a pallet in order to get a good forkhold on it (like how I did that?) which is good since you'd have to go through racks to do that.

The last piece of equipment, called a Stock Picker or Picker for short where I work, is the most intriguing in my opinion. With this one, you, yourself are lifted in the air with a pallet while you drive along. You have to be tethered to the machine and wear a harness in case you fall off, because in some cases you are about 40ft in the air, picking freight off a pallet in a rack. It's also the noisiest machine, beeping on the second while your in the air above 10 or 15ft. Some people really don't like this one because at a certain height, it will sway as you pick your freight from the racks. It's really unnerving sometimes, mostly when I'm at the very top of the building or at the end of an aisle where all I can see is floor all the way down there.

The job is pretty demanding, but the more comfortable I get with the machinery and with manually moving the freight, the easier it gets.

Anyway, I just felt like I wanted to document my experience with that. It's not everyday you meet a forklift driver! Or, wait, what's my "Job Title"? Something like Industrial Mechanical Operator or something ridiculous like that. Meh, I drive a forklift.