Forklift drivers, what's one thing that you've done by accident that's always stuck with you since it happened?
For me I passed my test and on the first day nearly tipped the forklift. I still feel bad about it.
Uneven load shifted as I was about halfway out. Too afraid to try to shift the forks over to try and balance it as it was up about 8m up. The most experienced operator passed by 10 seconds later and said yeah hold up and pushed the load towards the center. After it was safely on the ground, he asked if I got scared. Told him I needed to check my pants. He laughed and said," good! You'll always remember and it will never happen to you again."
Honestly uneven loads do my heading
I watched this safety video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJYOkZz6Dck
You know you're a real forklift driver when you don't even have to open the link to know what it is
Ja, das ist gut.
Klaus is an international treasure.
Backed a forklift into an AC window unit of an office my first day on the job. I was fired by the end of the day and that’s the last time I ever drove a forklift.
That's unfortunate. Ive had people do worse things and keep their job.
Was your next job in a related field or did that event make you change careers?
I ended up changing careers. I had previous forklift experience working at a warehouse but yeah never went back into that industry.
Reverse parked it 2cm too far to the left causing a corner protector to scrape along the side with a very loud screech. Everyone looked because of the noise and I still feel bad to this day. To be fair the corner protector did the job, so in the end not a problem.
You probably feel bad still like me because people saw it happen, and of course people are judging others all the time.
Not verifying the load capacity of a customers vehicle.
My past job made the customer sign off the paperwork before we loaded them up and this guy did sign off on the paperwork that his truck could take the load. So, I wasn't technically liable. I was newly certified and was the only driver around that day. We were a small shop that only took a few deliveries a week, and customers wanting samples back after delivery was even rarer (destructive testing is fun!).
Since I was new to this, I didn't intuitively know the difference between a flatbed and a normal passenger pickup. So yeah. In my ignorance and with this guy's sign-off in hand, I try to load his ~1000lb pallet of bigass metal test samples into his. Personal. Pickup.
The truck just kept squatting and squatting, even though I still had weight on the forks.... until it finally made a horrific creaking noise. I immediately unloaded the pallet and went to apologize. The guy was mortified but he kept it cool and called his actual delivery guy to come with a flatbed the next day. I did that one too, thankfully his delivery guy just cracked up when I explained what happened (even gave me some quick advice too!). They kept doing business with us, at least, but his reaction in that moment is still seared into my mind.
Not your fault, sounds like the customer didn’t know the limits and capabilities of his truck
So here I was loading stuff onto a pallet. I was on foot next to my Forklift. Around the corner comes another forklift going way too fast and backwards with a double-high load. It runs right up onto my right foot and had it gone much further would have broken my leg. What happened instead was the steel-toe metal part of the boot crumpled over my big toe and other toes. It shattered the big one in several places and broke two others as well. They had to cut the boot off of me... This happened on New Year's Eve about 10 years ago. It took almost 6 months to walk normally again and a lot of physical therapy.
Was working with a guy taking turns driving one of those large, extendable forklifts.
We were lifting multi-ton concrete blocks into place on a makeshift wall being used for a large ice salt depot for front loaders.
I was standing up on the wall, helping the other guy guide the blocks onto each other. He set one of the blocks on the others and we both noticed that it was slightly uneven, the guide groves weren't perfectly matching up, so the block was crooked.
No problem, he backed up a few feet, and then slowly and gently guided one of the forks against the crooked block, trying to push it on one side to straighten it out.
Neither of us noticed that the crooked block was wedged against one of the other blocks on the back side.
He keeps pressing with the fork, slowly pushing harder until, bang!! a sound like a gunshot goes off. I flinch and jump backwards, not sure what just happened. The other guy yells, "Get Down!! Cover your head!!"
I throw myself against the interior wall of the depot, grab onto my hardhat tightly and crunch down in a ball, glancing around trying to see what just happened.
A second or two later I hear a faint but heavy, "thud." The pressure from the fork shoving that concrete block while it was wedged against the other blocks had caused a chunk of concrete about the size of a bowling ball to break off and explode into into the air, probably 80+ feet.
The thud was it hitting the ground about 50 feet away. It made a nice little crater in the dirt. Would have certainly killed me if it had come down right on my head. Definitely got some pucker factor from that one.
I'm impressed by how many good forklift-stories there are here, I never would have guessed how much crazy shit you guys go through! But this one wins the prize- that sounds sketchy as fuuuck..
Forklift driving isn’t as easy as it looks, and in some cases makes your job more stressful.
Yeah, lots a poor choices on that job. I was a young guy who didn't know anything, the other guy had a reputation for doing some stupid stuff I found out later.
The company was sketchy as hell, all kinds of crazy stuff happened on a weekly basis. Let's just say I'm happy I'm in IT now lol.
I forgot I had an interview and stayed out drinking all night. went to the interview blind drunk and there was a practical test at the end.
Ended up getting the job so I clearly didn't smell like a brewery.
how I imagine this interview:
I have my fork and telehandler licence but I'm closer to management than a driver, I just want to be able to hop on the move one out of the way and not look like an idiot when I ask my guys to do something with it.
So big emergency, we have to move a couple telehandlers out of where another team had buried them and get them on a truck asap. It's tucked so tightly in a spot with its boom up and stuff everywhere around it. I'm not very familiar with it but I crab walk it out of its hole, around a bunch of other crap and finally out onto the street. I'm now comfortable and start rolling down the road at speed towards the truck when a guy I. A pickup passes me and just points up with one hand.
Slam on brakes. Look up
There's a line (probably internet/phone) running across the road and my forks are above them. I back up... Lower the mast and forks... And drove it to the tech and got out of there
Thank you Angel Man. I would have looked a complete fool had I knocked out internet to our own buildings, and it could have been power lines!
I know you never drive with forks up, they were just up when I got in the vehicle and the 15 minutes of Tetris they had to stay up... Then I basically forgot.
Don't do what Donny Don't does!
You got lucky, I’d imagine it’d been a shit day if you took out any of them lines
Sure would be. I still wish I knew who that dude was.
I was using the forks as a workbench to cut a piece of 1/2" steel with an acetylene torch. I thought I had enough overhang to make it work.
Those forks ended up about 1.5" shorter after I finished my cut.
Sorry, but BOTH forks!?
How did you not notice the first one falling off?
Haha, that's a good call. I certainly should have. I was pretty new with the torch so I suppose I was focused on the task at hand.
And it was just the tip™️. The last inch or 2 on the fork of a small lift won't make a lot of noise compared to the torch.
Chisel-toe tines are all the rage, this season!
I was working at a chemical plant, and had my tow motor license for about a week. We had these garage doors that stayed closed most of the time to keep everything compartmentalized in case of a fire. I was driving along with a pallet on the forks, and some asshole spilled water and didn’t put up the wet floor sign or even attempt to clean it up.
I hit the brakes, went sideways, and absolutely destroyed the bottom 3 panels on this garage door. The bags on the skid I was carrying ripped open and made a huge mess, but thankfully what I was carrying didn’t react to water. My manager went back and looked at the tape recording and found the guy who did it. Then he made him clean up the mess I made, and fired him when he was done. The whole thing was scary as hell.
My manager went back and looked at the tape recording and found the guy who did it. Then he made him clean up the mess I made, and fired him when he was done. The whole thing was scary as hell.
Oof your boss was a savage to that guy
This guy was a constant pain in the ass, but that’s not a fireable offense. Spilling liquids without marking it off or telling anyone in a high traffic tow motor area can kill someone, so that is fireable. Honestly him getting walked out made everyone in the plant immediately safer.
We'll deserved though.
Once I forgot to drop my forks when I went to go into a truck, so I have the bay door 2 new ventilation holes.
Although I did come in one morning to see the mezzanine drooping dramatically on one side, apparently somebody on 3rd shift ROYALY fucked up. Lucky it wasn't structurally compromised to the point where it couldn't be fixed. He, uh, that guy got fired.
2 new ventilation holes.
Lmfa
I was picking up a pallet of test seeds and driving them across the field with them in front of the forklift.
I didn't check my load, hit a bump, and before I could break, ran over half the bags spilling it everywhere.
I am embarrassed to this day.
I wasn't watching where I was going and walked forehead first into the carpet boom of the forklift I had parked. Shouldn't have parked it with the boom that high, and should have been watching where I was going. Not my proudest moment.
So I learned a physics lesson on a forklift. I backed up beside a pallet on the ground and looked back there to line myself up. What I didn't see was the wooden 2x4 hanging off of the pallet directly in the path of the forklift driving in reverse. So I ran over the board and loony tunes style, the board flew up through the cabin smacking me dead on the side of the face.
My first real job out of high school, my "forklift certification" was the only other guy in the warehouse basically telling me not to crash into things. A few months in, I casually ripped around a corner, no clue why I ended up stopping. But when I did, one of the structural columns was between the forks, definitely would have destroyed it or the forklift if I hadn't stopped
Not me but a coworker. Worked for a food importer and distributor back in the early 90's and had never heard of needing any kind of certification to operate a forklift. Coworker who gave me a ride and got me stoned on the way to work every morning has a minor accident while on the tow motor. He is embarrassed and panics. Rather than stopping and taking a deep breath he tries to straighten out the error before the boss finds out and ends up puncturing the drywall above the office with the forks. It was 35 years ago, I still remember thinking how easily those forks could go through me
I was outside on concrete with grass on the side of it and forgot to put the hand brake in. I step off, just to see the truck roll into the grass with the back wheel. Luckily the concrete the truck was on was high enough to stop the truck when one wheel was on the grass.
The truck was stuck now. Driving forward didn't work, pulling did not work. In the end we pushed a piece of pipe under it with hammers on both sides and that was enough to lift the back of the truck high enough that I could drive it forward again.
Still sucked though. I never forgot the hand brake again. Also did not get fired, that is never really an option for employers here.
Breaking traction when driving through a puddle.
I assumed they are super heavy and would stick to the ground, nope.
The tyres are essentially treadless drift-tyres, and any water on a polished concrete surface will allow some sliding.
This was without load and no crash ensued, just a momentary boost in adrenaline as 1.5 tons is moving a different direction as expected.
Example:
Happened to me. I rammed the forks into the open back of the semi and pierced a little into the cardboard boxes. No damages but the 5secone of sliding when I tried to break with wet tires felt insane.
Having driven in a cooler of a big box store, yeah those things will slide forever on wet concrete. Super fun when you’re rushing to get work done for the day.
I got forklift certified at an office supply store that sold furniture. A coworker was spotting for me and wasn't paying attention, and I bumped a heavy pallet of unwrapped boxed dressers stacked two high.
Unfortunately, two or three of them fell into the photocopy area where customers go. Thankfully nobody was in the area at the time, but it destroyed one of the photocopiers and a huge sign overhead.
The really spooky part was I posted about it on Facebook with a photo and the company in question actually contacted me through Facebook and asked me to remove it even though I didn't mention them by name and my profile was friends only. This was about 15 years ago.
Damn the company was monitoring your socials
Moving pallets of copier paper. Sometimes I'd miss the pallet and spear a box with a forklift tine. Those ended up being sold byloose reams minus the mangled ream.
You should try the quarter trick. Lay a quarter on the ground, tilt the forks forward, back up dragging the tip of the fork across the quarter and the quarter will flip up and land on the same fork. It's odd but it works.
Forked a lift
I was getting off to adust my forks and avoid dropping my skid. My boss told me, 'Should be fine like that.' I listened to him, lift the skid, and it IMMEDIATELY tipped over. Your boss isn't driving. You are.
The last part is sound safety advice, “your driving not anyone else”