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Fork Lift Trucks - which one ?
Andy Birkenhead
24-12-2016
I have recently been on a Fork Lift Truck (FLT) course, on which I passed the test. When I was asked which FLT I wanted to learn to drive, Reach or Counterbalance, I asked which one would get me a job the soonest and I was told the Reach FLT is the better one, so that is the one I learnt to operate.
So my question is this : For those out there who work in a factory or anywhere that use FLT's, which FLT is the most common ? Have I been misled, or did I choose correctly ?
kmusgrave
24-12-2016
Shouldn't you have asked this BEFORE you did the course?
Andy Birkenhead
24-12-2016
Originally Posted by kmusgrave:
“Shouldn't you have asked this BEFORE you did the course?”

I did - I asked the course tutor which one is the best to do to get me a job, and he said Reach.
flique
24-12-2016
Mr F drove forklifts and says Reach are being used more than Counterbalance these days.
sodavlac
24-12-2016
It's been a while (5 years+) since I've worked in warehouses and factories so this might be slightly out of date.

For what it's worth it was my experience that most places would have at least one counterbalance, and sometimes that would be all they had (1 counterbalance). Counterbalance seemed to be favoured for use outside too but I don't know if that was just the places I worked in.

In warehouses (indoors/tight spaces) is where reach seemed to have more use. The places that had reach trucks would often have a little fleet of 3-6 of them and they'd be used for order picking and/or to store things away on racking,
sodavlac
24-12-2016
^ Went to edit the above but apparently I've left it too long ^

Anyway, to sum up, what I was trying to ultimately say is that while it was my experience that more businesses had a counterbalance truck, there might well have been more jobs available for reach drivers overall. I tended to see 3 or more reach trucks in places that used them.
PowerLee
24-12-2016
Reach are nearly all inside based, there are very few reach that can be used outside.

Counterbalance can be used indoors & outdoors.

I prefer driving the reach truck especially with 360 degree steering as its easy to change direction.

Then again i get to drive many different types of forklifts during the day as im one of the poor sods who has to repair them after the warehouse operatives have broken / crashed / damaged it - delete as appropriate.

A reach license would be the one to get first for warehouse work.
postit
24-12-2016
Originally Posted by Andy Birkenhead:
“I have recently been on a Fork Lift Truck (FLT) course, on which I passed the test. When I was asked which FLT I wanted to learn to drive, Reach or Counterbalance, I asked which one would get me a job the soonest and I was told the Reach FLT is the better one, so that is the one I learnt to operate.
So my question is this : For those out there who work in a factory or anywhere that use FLT's, which FLT is the most common ? Have I been misled, or did I choose correctly ?”

Congratulations on passing your test. I truly hope you get a job in the New Year.
Chris Frost
24-12-2016
With a reach licence my understanding is that it entitles you to drive counterbalance too. It's not the same the other way round. Counterbalance drivers have to train again to do reach.

Reach is used inside warehouses with tall racking (high bay) so you're more likely to find that in the tall distribution warehouses that are common now. As others have said, counterbalance is used both indoor's and outdoors, so you'll find this used in goods yards for loading/unloading curtain-sider wagons and for jobs where the extra weight carrying capacity of CB is required. In those warehouses that I have seen I noticed anything upwareds of a 10:1 ratio of reach to counterbalance. If the warehouse has loading docks then there's little need of CB at all. The vehicles are unloaded using powered pump trucks.

Of the two types then I would say you chose right to do reach.
Andy Birkenhead
24-12-2016
Originally Posted by postit:
“Congratulations on passing your test. I truly hope you get a job in the New Year.”

Thank you Postit. I hope so too
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