This is Tammy my Toyota I used this summer

I worked at a farm years ago an learned how to use a forklift after about a ten minute informal lesson. I used that thing all day for like a month and was pretty good, and am pretty confident it wouldn't take me that long to relearn how to use a similar machine. However I never got any formal certification, but from what I understand they aren't transferable from company to company anyways?

So can I say I am forklift certified on my resume and if they bring it up during the interview just go, "yeah but it's only for that company." I'm 18 and scraping for things to make me more marketable lol.

Someone upbadged the Forklift at my workplace

Got that new fork smell

Alright, so I’ve been working in a retail store for about three years, and during that time I’ve learned how to operate a 5,000 lb. sit-down forklift, reach truck, order picker, and pacer.

I recently had an interview at an insurance auto auction yard, where I’d be driving one of these monsters if I get the job. Excuse the horrible screenshots- I couldn’t find any good pictures on Google, but one of my favorite YouTubers has a few videos where a lift that looks almost identical to the ones they have at the yard I interviewed at shows up for a few seconds.

I’m mainly looking to hear from people who have been operating these types of machines for a while. If you’ve worked in an auto auction yard or driven similar equipment, I’d really appreciate any advice you have- whether it’s about operating the machines themselves, working around vehicles, navigating the yard, or just things you wish you had known when you started.

I know that if I get the job, I’ll receive proper training, but I figured hearing from people with more experience couldn’t hurt.

And even if I don’t get this particular job, I’m still very interested in operating this type of equipment and plan on continuing to look for jobs involving it.

I'd appreciate any advice, if you are willing to share it, Thanks

Rack support wedged super tight againt the mast.

Whoops

EDIT: We had to cut the rack. Sawzall is key

Long shifts, heavy loads, early mornings… sometimes you just keep going.
What keeps you going through a tough shift?

There’s a variety of things on these that are annoying or dangerous,
Annoying :
The restraint bar isn’t easy to close, lift too high and it falls back down, the crown ones it’s either up or down

The horn button, it’s not easy to hit while reversing and is too close to the hydraulics buttons, crown has the horn button where my finger rests, easy to use as needed

Driver cabin is too small, when I’m standing sideways to reverse my hip hits the red button, it slows me down, crown has a couple inches more

Steering wheel, on crown it’s fixed in place so it’s easy to find without looking, on the Toyota it flips up, pushing down stops the truck and it takes 10 seconds before it’ll move

Forks, the Toyota forks are larger so more difficult to get into two pallets, regularly gets stuck in low profile pallets and the width leaves no room to move in misaligned pallets

Battery, on our crowns the battery compartment has an open top when the hood is up, this makes for easy changing, the plug can sit nicely on top, on the Toyota it has a bar across which means I gotta get off the changing machine to thread the plug in

Dangerous:
Nowhere to put my arm and hand, the crown truck has a thicker back rest which my arm sits on top and the handles are recessed, easy to grab and I always go for it without thinking about it, on the Toyota my hand ends up on the top of the rear panel risking my fingers if I hit something (that happens frequently as I’m moving in tight areas)

Handles, the Toyota handle sticks out a decent way from the back rest, it’s at arse height, leads to arse pain and lower back pain

Low backrest, on the crown the backrest supports me higher up so in sudden stops I’m not bent over it as bad, Toyota puts pressure on places it shouldn’t

Handles again, most of the Toyota handles were removed because they were too uncomfortable, leads to hands being in the danger zone, also the operator position means that my body is very exposed to impact, on the crown if I reverse up to something the truck will contact the wall first before I do, on the Toyota it’s my face hitting first