How to become Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator in 2024

Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator Operate industrial trucks or tractors equipped to move materials around a warehouse, storage yard, factory, construction site, or similar location.

Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator is Also Know as

In different settings, Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator is titled as

  • Checker Loader
  • Fork Lift Technician
  • Fork Truck Driver
  • Forklift Driver
  • Forklift Operator
  • Lift Truck Operator
  • Shag Truck Driver
  • Spotter Driver
  • Tow Motor Operator
  • Truck Driver

Education and Training of Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator

Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.

Education Required for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator

These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

Degrees Related to Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator

Training Required for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator in different industries are

What Do Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator do?

  • Move controls to drive gasoline- or electric-powered trucks, cars, or tractors and transport materials between loading, processing, and storage areas.
  • Move levers or controls that operate lifting devices, such as forklifts, lift beams with swivel-hooks, hoists, or elevating platforms, to load, unload, transport, or stack material.
  • Position lifting devices under, over, or around loaded pallets, skids, or boxes and secure material or products for transport to designated areas.
  • Perform routine maintenance on vehicles or auxiliary equipment, such as cleaning, lubricating, recharging batteries, fueling, or replacing liquefied-gas tank.
  • Weigh materials or products and record weight or other production data on tags or labels.
  • Operate or tend automatic stacking, loading, packaging, or cutting machines.
  • Signal workers to discharge, dump, or level materials.
  • Hook tow trucks to trailer hitches and fasten attachments, such as graders, plows, rollers, or winch cables to tractors, using hitchpins.
  • Turn valves and open chutes to dump, spray, or release materials from dump cars or storage bins into hoppers.
  • Inspect product load for accuracy and safely move it around the warehouse or facility to ensure timely and complete delivery.
  • Manually or mechanically load or unload materials from pallets, skids, platforms, cars, lifting devices, or other transport vehicles.

Qualities of Good Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator

  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator

  • Banding equipment
  • Belt conveyors
  • Booms
  • Bridgeplates
  • Bulk liquid trucks
  • Cantilever trucks
  • Combination vacuum lifts
  • Container reach stackers
  • Container top handlers
  • Counterbalanced front/side loader lift trucks
  • Crane attachments
  • Dockboards
  • Dollies
  • Extended-reach forklifts
  • Flatbed trailers
  • Fork-grapples
  • Forklifts
  • Forktrucks
  • High-lift order picker trucks
  • Hustlers
  • Industrial crane trucks
  • Jacks
  • Lift beams
  • Lift trucks
  • Lifting clamps
  • Metal dump hopper attachments
  • Motorized hand trucks
  • On-board computers for sending/receiving instructions
  • Overhead hoists
  • Pallet trucks
  • Personal computers
  • Personnel and burden carriers
  • Platform lift trucks
  • Reach rider trucks
  • Reach stackers
  • Reach type outrigger trucks
  • Rider trucks
  • Rough terrain forklifts
  • Scoops
  • Shovel attachments
  • Shrink wrap machines
  • Sliding boom forklifts
  • Snowplows
  • Straddle carriers
  • Straight-mast forklifts
  • Swivel hooks
  • Tank trailers
  • Telescopic forklifts
  • Top loaders
  • Wheel chocks

Technology Skills required for Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator

  • Argos Software ABECAS Insight WMS
  • ATMS StockTrack PLUS
  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • BarControl Enterprise Manager iBEM
  • IntelliTrack Warehouse Management System (WMS)
  • Inventory management software
  • Inventory management systems
  • Lilly Software Associates VISUAL DCMS
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft Word
  • Motek Priya
  • RedPrairie DLx Warehouse
  • SAP software
  • SSA Global Supply Chain Management
  • Symphony GOLD
  • Warehouse management system WMS