My business partner and I bought a fork lift today ,unseen mind you.. The price was good and just hope and pray his friend did him a favor and it doesn't need any mechanical work. We had a dog of a forklift that we borrowed in December and it was more of a hindrance than a help.That was a diesel though and this one is gas so I am keeping fingers and toes crossed that this one is perfect. I suppose a business does become more serious once you have invested money into it and not just time and sweat.
I have tried to stay away from driving one even though there isn't much to it.I have learnt that once you show a skill you end up owning it and people just leave it to you. He said he would learn and just needs some practice. There is only going to be the two of us for now ,so the sooner he learns the better with an empty warehouse.
There wont be any health and safety to worry about as it is just us and no employees for now. The idea is to keep the overheads as low as possible and we will do everything and is the only way to grow a business. Hard work doesn't scare us and we will share the workload which is kind of taking me back to when I first started working. I think this is the bit that excites me more than anything as you are working for yourself.
Luckily the product we are dealing with is pretty robust and can be manhandled to a degree. Not like some of the horror stories that you may have seen like the one video below. There are some truly unlucky,dumb people around . Pretty funny really as once one rack goes it is like giant dominoes and there is nothing you can do. A forklift is definitely not a toy and should be respected. Just because it travels slowly doesn't mean it can't create chaos.
Image source youtube.com