I passed!
Woohoo! I can now drive a reach truck!
It was pretty easy really.
In the theory test I got 96%
There was five sets of “open questions” each worth four points each. Then there was two groups of 10 multiple choice questions, and each of these was also worth four points each.
One of the sets of multiple choice questions was on safety, and the other was on the operation of a forklift truck.
That means I only got one question wrong, it was one of the multiple choice questions.
Straight after the theory we went down into the yard to start practicing for the test.
We started off moving two stacks of three pallets between three different heights of stacked pallets.
Then we each had a go through the chicane both with, and without a load on the front.
After lunch, about 1pm, we went back out in the yard to start the dummy test.
On my first go through the chicane I did it in four minutes, with three points. At my second try I done it in six minutes with three points.
I opted to use my first try, to give me more time to do the next part of the test in.
As a side note, the three points that I gained we both to do with observation.
In my first run, my observation dried up towards the end. And in my second run I started off with poor observation but improved as I continued.
The next part of the test was to do with stacking and unstacking two piles of three pallets from three differently stacked heights of pallets.
I did that part of the test in 17 minutes with a total of 12 points.
I got the points because I hit the course a couple of times. I used the wrong control when I didn’t need it, I wanted to raise the forks a little bit, but instead I moved the leaver to extend the forks, I retracted the forks as soon as I had realised I had hit the wrong control. I believe the rest of the points were picked up from not doing enough observations.
I sat in the truck while the instructor counted up my points. When he told me how long I had taken, and the number of points I had, I chose against trying again.
He shook my hand and said “Well done. You have passed.”
Phew!
Both of the other people taking the course with me also passed the test.
In the evening, about 4pm, we had a little go on the counterbalance.
We just drove up and down the yard, forwards and backwards, getting used to the steering, and the fact that the way you turned the steering wheel was the direction you went in.
It got too dark and cold for us to continue much past half five, so we called it a day and left.
Other news:
I’ve got a new bulb for the courtesy light in my car. The new bulb is 10W, the bulb it replaces was only 7W.
Today I had six cups of tea.
I’m sure I had more news than that! Oh well.
Bye for now.