Welcome to the June 1st edition of Warehouse & Logistics News. As Britain’s warehouses face pressure to work longer hours and achieve higher productivity, the number of forklift-related accidents is rising. With 5,700 reported incidents involving forklifts between 1st January 2016 and 6th March this year, National Forklift Safety Day on June 11th is a welcome development.

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However, as BITA Secretary General James Clark says, while the annual event provides a focal point for raising awareness, it’s only a start and we really need to make every day National Forklift Safety Day.

On our front cover Impact Handling, Konecranes Lift Trucks’ sole UK and Ireland distributor, has enjoyed another year of rapid growth, with particularly strong demand for Konecranes’ range of heavy lift trucks and container handling equipment in the ports and terminals sector. Impact has also expanded its big truck operation to offer UK-wide support via its service team and its specialist dealer network.

There’s more on forklifts in our Forklifts feature, including news of UniCarriers teaming with Talent in Logistics to find the most talented forklift operator attending this year’s IMHX. UniCarriers are hosting the first ever Forklift Operator Challenge at the exhibition, with entrants invited to prove their skill by operating UniCarriers’ awardwinning TX3 electric counterbalance truck.

In our Buildings feature, in the runup to Brexit Britain’s businesses have been turning to temporary buildings as a flexible way to manage their short-term space needs without the delay or expense of finding conventional buildings or the inconvenience and disruption of moving.

Specialist multi-temperature supply chain operator Oakland International, who supply chilled, frozen and ambient food to the UK and Ireland’s major supermarkets, turned to Spaciotempo to expand their short-term stock holding capacity on behalf of customers. Specifying the correct loading bay technology is vital to ensure operations are optimised at all times. But once the kit’s in place, it’s equally important to keep loading bay equipment properly maintained. As Phil Clark, Industrial Service Manager at Hörmann UK points out in our loading bay feature, regular and adequate servicing is essential to ensure site safety and overall productivity standards are kept up.

Also in this issue, we present our Multimodal supplement, previewing the UK, Ireland and Northern Europe’s premier freight transport, logistics and supply chain management event, taking place at the NEC from 18- 20 June. Warehouse & Logistics News are media partners to Multimodal and we’ll be at the show. If you’re visiting, come and see us on stand 1032.

And finally, we bid a fond farewell to Bernard Molloy, a wellknown figure in the industry, who died recently. His outstanding career was mainly spent in warehouse and logistics and saw him go from an apprentice engineer to senior posts with Hako, Lansing Linde and Hoppecke Batteries. Most recently he was Global Industrial Logistics Director at Unipart Logistics, Chairman of the Board of LKE Group UK and Chairman of the CILT’s Warehouse & Materials Handling Forum. A gifted businessman, logistician and warehouse equipment expert and an entertaining raconteur, Bernard will be sorely missed by his many friends in the business.

JAMES SURRIDGE

Publishing Editor

james@warehousenews.co.uk

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