Behind the shed

Help! I need somebody, not just anybody. I need a man with a 1970s Coventry Climax. David Woods, managing director of Acclaim Handling is a man on a mission. Woods who is a member of the Fork Lift Truck Association board is searching high and low for a 1970’s Coventry Climax Model 30DA.
Woods has a very particular reason for wanting a 30DA, being a member of the Worshipful Company of Carmen. The company which was formed in 1517, is a Guild of the City of London that reflects in particular the surface transport industries of goods and passengers by road and rail. Each summer, the Worshipful Company of Carmen organises ‘Cart Marking’.
This ancient tradition sees the Lord Mayor of London mark the vehicles that ply for trade, or formerly did so. The marking, which takes place on the forecourt of the London Guild Hall, takes the form of branding the vehicle number and year onto a wooden plate.
A fork lift truck has never been used in this ceremony but David has been told by the Company that a suitable vehicle may be considered for next year. Woods says: “My reason for trying to find a 30DA is that it is the first machine that Acclaim Handling acquired as a fleet machine – and the actual machine was in fact one that I had sold in the mid-70s as a young Coventry Climax salesman. It stayed in our business, on our hire fleet, until I stupidly scrapped it ten years ago!”
He goes on to say that: “This particular model therefore has a high sentimental value to me. If I was able to acquire one I would rebuild it so it was effectively in brand new condition, use it for the ceremony and then, in all probability donate it to the National Fork Truck Heritage Centre. “If anyone could help me find one I would be eternally grateful.”
If anyone is able to help David Woods make a little bit of materials handling history, please contact him at Acclaim Handling on 01708 861414.
Just-in-time logistics is “always an adventure” according to the motto of a tiny American cargo company. Just-in-time got a new meaning during the New Orleans hurricane disaster when Dodson International Air joined forces with the American Boarding Kennel Association.
The mission: to airlift pets and stranded animals out of the flooded region and transport them to a waiting sanctuary. Many Americans got swept up in the call for aid and volunteers came from all across the country to pledge support. When the planes came into Reading, Pennsylvania, local media gathered as if expecting royalty. Ann Bickel, local organiser said that her mobile phone was “ringing off the hook” with adoption offers (not sure how many hooks American mobile phones have).
The pilots spend the day waiting for new cargo, as it’s bad economics to fly an empty aircraft that costs $4 per minute to keep in the air, before they are back in the air and flying off for a night flight into the next disaster region, this time into Florida to rescue the four-legged victims of hurricane Wilma.
Ashley Tucker, 36, from Rugby, has been named TNT Logistics UK’s Forklift Operator of the Year after a tough contest against 23 other finalists. This is the second year that TNT has held the competition and the finalists from around the country undertook a range of activities, including a pre-operation check, a warehouse hazard perception test, a theory test and demonstrated various manoeuvres, designed to test driving skills across a range of situations encountered in a warehouse environment.
The 11 judges were all qualified RTITB instructors from within the TNT Logistics business.
Tucker, who works at the TNT operated Continental Tyre Group’s NDC in Rugby, won £2,500 in holiday vouchers – which he will use to take his wife and children on an all-inclusive holiday to Rhodes next summer.
In remembrance of the 200th anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar, EWS and the Royal Navy are honouring the memory of Vice Admiral Collingwood. The North-East born hero is been commemorated, with his closest living relative Mrs. Collingwood-Cameron, naming a class 90 locomotive at Newcastle station.
In keeping with famous battles, like Trafalgar and Waterloo, the Winner takes it all this year when the Fork Lift Truck Association holds its Annual Awards for Excellence 2006. Leading the line-up of artists will be Super Troupers tribute band, ‘Platinum Abba’ entertaining the 500-strong audience that is expected to show up for the annual highlight of the materials handling calendar. The nominees will be thinking gimme, gimme, gimme at the thought of winning an ‘Archie’ industry award. Mamma Mia! “If you want to join us in celebrating and encouraging achievement, and having a great time, make sure you book early,” says FLTA chairman Richard Baxter. Everyone will be saying thank you for the music, as they meet up with old colleagues at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole on 11 February. It’ll be knowing me knowing you and that’s the best I can do (for Abba references).