What is a Bendi Truck? What is a Flexi Truck?

Sounds funny don’t it? You’d think we were talking about driving a heavy goods vehicle and driving a truck or lorry?

But no, Bendi & Flexi are Forklift Pivot Trucks. They bend in the middle. They are articulated. And the forks are on a pivot which can be moved to the left or the right and can be at a complete right angle to the body where the operator sits (on top of the batteries).

These VNA articulated pivot trucks are often know as Flexi or Bendi (the manufacturers’ name). And VNA? It means Very Narrow Aisle. The space between each of the lengths of racking (shelves) is called an Aisle.

See in the Rack Layout how much more storage, 77 bays, is available in a warehouse when you don’t need to leave a big aisle or turning space, which the counterbalance or reach forklifts need to manoeuvre between or around only 46 bays.

Amazing isn’t it.

No wonder Pivot Steers are getting more popular. They offer the versatility and speed of a counterbalance truck with the high lifting capacity of a reach truck which allows warehouse and distribution companies to increase capacity on their existing site without paying extra rent or rates and without the expense of moving to bigger premises.

Why should I get Pivot Steer Truck licence?

Nowadays many companies who are looking to expand or who want to replace their existing machines are buying Pivot Steer Forklifts instead of the traditional Counterbalance and Reach forklift because of their flexibility. Having Pivot Steer forklifts saves warehouse and distribution clients, money, time and space. Companies who sell forklifts like Locators confirm that currently Pivot Steer forklifts are outselling Counterbalance and Reach machines.

Of course, it’s going to take many years for the traditional and trusty Counterbalance and Reach forklifts to be completely phased out (there are still many, many, many machines in use every day). However, more and more people who want forklift qualifications decide to get training and certificates to operate all three machines.

Having all three Counterbalance, Reach and Pivot Steer (or even two Counterbalance and Pivot or Reach and Pivot) opens up more job opportunities (Sept 2020).

For example, take a look at the vacancies on Reed.co.uk, over a quarter of the jobs advertise want Pivot Operators (or a combination of Pivot and Counterbalance and/or Reach).

So, think about your future prospects. Get yourself qualified with Wallace School of Transport now, and don’t get left behind.

Call us - 0208 453 3440 or write to info@wallaceschool.co.uk