Forget the Champions League: two workers for Travis Perkins have been selected in the grand finals of the RTITBS Forklift Operator of the Year Competition! Working for one of the busiest and successful transportation companies for businesses dealing in trade, Messrs Adam Hayes and Kristian Sherratt competed valiantly with opponents from other countries including the United States as well as India to finally be awarded as finalists of the competition.  Taking place at the National Exhibition Center in the Midlands city of Birmingham, the competition for the best forklift driver is a rigorous and physically demanding race to win the top prize for the best operator of a forklift. Such a multi-athalon included various theory tests and, as one would suspect, the grueling endurance of operating the trucks themselves and being assessed on a variety of categories, including accuracy and speed.

One of these involved the precarious transportation of no less than 4,000 individual balls that then needed to be poured into a different container. Such skills as accuracy, endurance and a cool hand under pressure are essential to this task, as are nerves of steel which, as it turns out, the two Travis Perkins employees were the only ones to have. In full view of the cheering crowd, they succeeded the task without being penalized or letting a single ball fall out of place. Both Hayes and Sherratt, a veteran forklift driver for over a decade, are delighted that they got this in the competition and thank the support of their friends and family for helping them endure the challenges of the competition. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the guidance of Mike Seddon, who trains rookie forklift drivers at Travis Perkins to operate the vehicles in a sensible fashion. Mister Seddon declares that the competition is a credit to all forklift operators around the world and is very pleased that two employees of a firm as grounded and prestigious as Travis Perkins were able to show what they could do to the judging panel, to the audience and to the world. We await the results of the final with great anticipation.