Skill and safety will win fans at Forklift Rodeo

If you were to ask me the best way to learn how to ride a horse, the last training ground I’d recommend would be a rodeo. But when it comes to lift trucks, a rodeo has been quite an effective way to test operator skills. I’m talking specifically about the U.S. Open Forklift Safety Rodeo that will be taking place again later this year–Nov. 7-8—at the Clark County Fairgrounds in Springfield OH (near Dayton).

Dick Higgins, president of his own industrial truck operator training company (The Higgins Group, Inc., in Springfield) told me that while fun and games are involved, it’s also a valuable way to sharpen operator skills and pick up safety pointers for operating both propane and electric counterbalanced forklifts.

One event involves picking a basketball off an orange cone, maneuvering through several gates and ending up putting the ball in a basket. Then there are courses configured for testing more complex maneuvering skills. Hit a safety cone and you’re docked points. Beat the time allocation and you pick up points. Simple as that.

There’s a master division of show-offs who have crazy skills, then there are the rest, who compete as “Top Guns.” If you’re good enough to join the master division, you should be asking your boss for more money. But first you have to prove it.

What do you think of competitions as a way to encourage lift truck operator safety and skill? If you’ve ever been to one of these events, or even participated, post a blog entry about it.

If you’d like to know more about them, as well as what will go on at this year’s competition, contact Dick Higgins. There are trophies, cash awards and recognition to be had. The event’s some months off, but if you want to be a contender, practice wouldn’t be a bad idea. Who knows, the very process of preparing to compete might put you on the road to the Masters.

Call Higgins at 937-325-7858. Tell him I sent you.