this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2024
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Not only am I forklift certified I'm also one of the mentors certifying people and the sole forklift inspector at my work inspecting roughly 80 forklifts everyday.
It's pretty great NGL
You can inspect 80 forklifts in a day? That's 10 every hour in an eight hour shift. That's 7.5 minutes a forklift every day all day.
Including prestart paperwork? Oil levels, belt conditions, operational check of each one and all the functions?
It's actually a little less time than that as I get 2 15 minute breaks during that 8 hours.
Checking the oil, coolant, hydraulic fluid, and the radiator for debris takes about 30 seconds. Add an extra few seconds to check the belt tension using the little jig I made and you get the hard part done in less than a minute. Most of the time saving here is from how I park the lifts and how I plot my path through them.
Checking the hydraulics for proper movement is fairly short as well and during that you can check the horn and lights.
The parking brake gets checked when you try to move the lift and so are the reverse alarms and reverse lights.
Checking the tank presence sensor is done on approach to the lift by disconnecting the tank latch before hopping on and attempting to start the lift, if it properly detects the disconnected latch it won't start.
Tire wear is checked on approach as well due to having a line painted on my boot that is just over an inch off the ground (if the tires have less tread than that they need new tires)
Checking for leaks is fairly quick as well as it's basically looking for wet spots on the lines and dots on the ground.
Logging the hours is done typically while the lifts auxiliary systems (that we add) are starting up.
The paperwork takes awhile though NGL
So in general I can get through all the lifts in about 5.5 hours and the paperwork takes the rest of my shift.
That sounds stressful. Do you need to check this many or do you just do it because you're fast enough.
It can be pretty stressful at times but in general it's actually pretty chill. I don't have to worry about other people driving around me, I don't have to worry about hazardous materials, and I get to avoid one of my supervisors who has a skill of making everyone around them more stressed.
Especially considering the paperwork takes the rest of my shift regardless of how long the inspections take 😉
Unfortunately I do need to check all of them everyday. There's only a 6 hour gap between shifts where I work so I need to finish all of them in that time. And during the 18 hours the forklifts are in motion they're redlining the engines and doing 8mph. So basically each forklift drives about 150 miles a night.
Boeing makes forklifts now, didn't you know?
Given the quality of the forklifts we have they definitely weren't built with such quality lol
Pretty much all the new lifts we got have all had little things that QA should have caught before they shipped. Bolts falling off, leaks that shouldn't be there, wiring issues, crossed hydraulic lines that result in inverted controls, etc.
It's pretty silly
I'm not really familiar with those products, but that's the kind of thing where, unless you found it in a ditch somewhere, or bought it at a charity, it should go right back to the manufacturer. Then the manufacturer should go right on that big poster on the wall. The one that says "don't ever buy from those guys".
You'd think so but the bosses were like, "Well do they still work?"
And then kept the lifts
Apparently due to it though they reimbursed us the cost of fixing that but honestly I agree with you
If they missed something that obvious what the fuck else did they miss that's less obvious‽
Oh, right, I forgot you're in the US. You are in the US? Or are there other such places I ought to know of?
Yep I'm in the US