Forklift Training Systems serves local, big corporations

HANOVER – Dave Hoover knows forklift training is a rather niche career to get into, but it's the one he chose and the one he is passionate about.

For the past 17 years, he has traveled the county and the country training companies and their employees how to safely operate forklifts through his business, Forklift Training Systems.

So how did he find himself in forklift training? Hoover grew up on his family's farm in Licking County, graduating from Licking Valley High School in 1987 before going on to pursue a business degree at Miami University. He always knew he wanted to be in business, but by his senior year he was struggling to figure out what exactly he would do with his degree.

He ended up working on a project with Caterpillar Inc. for a class, where he worked with professionals in the field to imagine a self-driving forklift. At the end of the project, Hoover discovered he enjoyed working with large equipment.

After graduating, Hoover took a job with a forklift dealership. He spent five years there before moving on to another company that provided lighting upgrades to make buildings more energy efficient.

Both of those companies ended up going south, and when Hoover was facing another job hunt, he decided he might as well go out on his own.

Something that had always stuck with him was his experience in the training class for his first job. There was a man in the class who had been operating forklifts for years, and there he was relearning how to drive the machinery. And many of the classes' instruction came from an old VHS tape.

"People were barely conscious. It was super boring, they weren't using new technology, and I thought, you could do so much more with this if you put your mind to it," he said.

So he put his mind to it and founded Forklift Training Systems in 1998. His wife was pregnant with the couple's first child and they were in the middle of building their house when he came up with the idea. It was a difficult time to take such a risk, so he told himself he would give it six months and if it didn't work out he would get another job at a dealership.

But it worked out. Hoover no longer worries if his phone is going to ring, now he just worries about whether he can give himself the time off work for a family vacation.

The small business grew from a room in the family's house to a full enterprise serving businesses in central Ohio including Kaiser, Tectum and Star Wipers, as well as Fortune 500 companies such as Whirlpool, PPG Scotts and Siemens.

"I work harder than I ever did before, but I love it," Hoover said. "I did not purposely grow my business this way, it just happened. I really believe God put this opportunity in front of me. It's been a blessing."

When Hoover gets a client, he starts with a full audit of the client's business, learning the layout of the warehouse, how many people work there, what kind of equipment they use, etc. From there he builds a training course that includes classroom sessions, a written test and a driving evaluation.

Two of his biggest principles during the evaluation are that one, every driver wears his or her seat belt, and two, if a driver isn't showing proficiency he or she doesn't pass the training. Hoover has seen too many programs pass drivers who weren't up to speed, and he doesn't want to put inexperienced drivers behind the wheel.

The Occupational and Health Safety Administration reports there are about 85 deaths and 96,000 injuries related to forklifts each year. Hoover is on a mission to help reduce that number through his own training services and by helping investigate forklift accidents.

"Even with experts driving things can happen. We have to be the last line of defense," Hoover said. "Everyone as they get older starts to think about what they've accomplished. Money and success, those things are great, but hopefully at the end of my career there are more people who are whole and healthy because of the work that we do."

emaddern@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8513

Twitter: @emmaddern

About This Series

"Aces of Trades" is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs — whether they're unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at advocate@newarkadvocate.com.

Forklift Training Systems

Forklift Training Systems provides forklift and aerial lift training for employees of company's in Central Ohio and across the country. The business is located at 1911 W. High St. NE, Newark. For more information or to purchase a training package, call 740-763-4978 or visit www.forklifttrainingsystems.com.