Forklift truck types we train on
Every category of lift truck, trained on your own machine at your premises anywhere in London and the Home Counties.
Counterbalance Forklift
The truck most London businesses own. Forks at the front, a heavy counterweight at the back and nothing sticking out to get in the way of a lorry bed, a container or a pallet stack.
Reach Truck
The high-bay warehouse truck. Straddle legs for stability and a mast that reaches into the racking, so the truck can work aisles a counterbalance could never turn in.
Double Deep Reach Truck
A reach truck with a telescopic pantograph that places a second pallet behind the first, fitting far more stock into the same floor space.
4-Way (Multi-Directional) Reach Truck
The long-load truck. All four wheels turn through ninety degrees so timber, steel, pipe and board can travel sideways down an aisle not much wider than the truck.
VNA Truck (Man-Up and Man-Down)
Very narrow aisle trucks run in wire- or rail-guided aisles barely wider than a pallet, with the forks swivelling to serve both sides while the truck stays straight.
Bendi and Flexi (Articulated) Forklift
The truck that bends in the middle. An articulated front end lets one machine unload the lorry in the yard and stack in very narrow aisles inside.
Pivot Steer Truck
An articulated truck with a steering pivot behind the mast, giving a tight turning circle for narrow-aisle work with a counterbalance-style front end.
Powered Pallet Truck
Pedestrian and ride-on electric pallet trucks for moving pallets at floor level: goods-in, lorry loading, order marshalling, shop floors and back-of-house.
Pedestrian Stacker Truck
A walk-behind truck with a mast. Lifts pallets into racking or onto vehicles in places a sit-on forklift would never fit.
Telehandler (Telescopic Handler)
A telescopic boom on a rough-terrain chassis. Lifts pallets and materials up and out to where a mast forklift cannot reach.
Order Picker (Low, Medium and High Level)
Trucks that lift the operator to the stock. Low-level pickers run at floor height; high-level pickers take the operator to the top shelf.
Rough Terrain (Masted) Counterbalance
A counterbalance forklift built for mud, gravel and gradients, with big tyres, high ground clearance and a conventional mast.
Side Loader
A truck with the mast mounted sideways in a well, so timber, steel and pipe can be carried lengthways and stored in narrow aisles.
Why the truck category matters
A forklift certificate is for a category of truck, not for forklifts in general. A counterbalance operator is not trained on a reach truck, a reach operator is not trained on a VNA truck, and none of them is trained on a telehandler. The HSE's Approved Code of Practice L117 expects employers to make sure every operator has basic training on the category they use, followed by job-specific training and familiarisation. If you are not sure which category your truck falls into, send us the make and model and we will tell you.
Most London sites run more than one type, and the push to get more stock into less floor space means articulated, VNA and double-deep trucks are increasingly common alongside the counterbalance in the yard. We can usually cover several categories in one visit, and operators who already hold a certificate for one truck can convert to another in a day or two rather than starting from scratch.
Need forklift operators trained in London?