Forklift licensing and heavy vehicle licensing share a fair bit in common you know? Forklifts and trucks don’t look like each other you’re right, but we’re actually talking about the similarities between people who want a forklift licence or a heavy vehicle licence.
A lot of people from both sides of the fence give very little thought to the skill required to operate their chosen machinery well – in fact they often downright think their training course is actually an ‘attendance course’ and that obtaining their licence is a fait accompli (fancy French word for “it’s in the bag!”). They also think that because this ‘thing’ is so easy, it shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours at most, and given that it takes so little time and so little skill, necessarily it shouldn’t cost much – it’s just logic right?. Hmmm….see what we’re up against?
Get More Information on Armstrongs Forklift Courses for Beginner and Experienced Operators Here
So to all future forklift operators out there, here are a couple of home truths from us to you, via some of our clients who learnt the hard way and then told us about it in detail.
- If you’re actually thinking about going with one of our competitors (but you’re not really right?) you might want to ask whether your “1 or 2 day beginner course” starts with your theory test because if it does then you’ll want to study hard – real hard. The theory test is NOT a simple multiple choice test, it’s a full question and written answer test and there are a LOT of questions.
- If the course you’re thinking about booking doesn’t include a trainer going through the information with you before your test then don’t be surprised when you find out that you failed…and that you need to take a retest – not on the same day of course – but at a later date and at an additional cost of somewhere around the $100 to $150 mark. Ouch. Everyone loves to start their course with a ‘fail’ right? Puts you in such a good headspace for the rest of your course!.
- Next you might want to ask when the calculations test will be conducted. If it’s conducted straight after the theory test then…well, need we say more? But don’t worry, you can always come back for a retest if you fail – not on the same day of course – but at a later date and at an additional cost of somewhere around the $100 to $150 mark. Ouch. Again! At this point you’re two for three.
In this hypothetical situation (it’s not so hypothetical believe you me!), you have paid about $400-$450 for your ‘cheap’ 2 day beginner course, but you’ll need to potentially pay at least another $200 for retesting – on the basis that you don’t fail again – and be inconvenienced again by having to set aside another day to come back. So your 2 day beginner course for $400-$450 has become a 3 days beginner course for $600-$650 and double the inconvenience. See where we are going with this?
At this point you’re thinking there must be a less stressful way to go about it right? I mean, why else are you torturing yourself by reading this then?
At Armstrongs, your 3 day beginner course looks like this:
- learning support to ensure you understand all the theory. You’ll go through videos and slides to help with your understanding, but most importantly an Armstrongs trainer will be go through all the study information with you to make sure you don’t miss any of the key concepts and that you understand everything you need to know BEFORE you sit any assessments. This applies to both the theory test and the calculations test. Additional cost to you for this personalised service is $0.00.
- in the event that you are not successful on your first attempt at the theory or calculations test (or both), you can sit your retest straight away! C’mon, how good is that? Additional cost to you – $0.00.
- in the event that you are unsuccessful on your practical assessment (but this is not the difficult part for most students), you can sit your retest – you guessed it – straight away. Additional cost to you – $0.00.
- it gets better. In the event that you are unsuccessful on your practical test a second time or our trainer thinks that you could do with some additional training then you still have the Armstrongs Training Guarantee up your sleeve. An additional 2 hours and retest. Additional cost to you – $0.00.
For all you highly motivated and studious beginners out there, you might not NEED most of this extra value – but what you might WANT is the piece mind that Armstrongs has practically guaranteed that you’ll have your forklift licence at the end of your course. Think of it like health insurance. You moan and groan for years about paying for something you’ve never had to use, but are relieved to hear that the bill for the whole body scan using the latest thermo-bobby-nuclear powered-scanning machine and the three Professors it takes to work it is covered by your insurance premium that you moaned and groaned about.
But for all the guys and girls out there whose idea of a good time isn’t studying then not only do you WANT to do your forklift training at Armstrongs, but you NEED to do your forklift training at Armstrongs.
So, we’ve always known why some of our competitor’s prices are so cheap (compared to ours), and now you know too. If you like the thought of twice the stress, twice the cost, and twice the inconvenience, then we wish you all the best.
However, if you’re looking for a fixed price stress free experience then check out our forklift course page and then give the team a call.