Srinivasa N D of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, has been crowned the inaugural ‘Forklift Operator of the Year – India 2015’ following a tough competition, which culminated in six live challenges at the Grand Finale on 19th November 2015.

As well as the esteemed title of ‘Forklift Operator of the Year – India’, Srinivasa was presented with a trophy and will receive an all expenses paid trip to the UK to participate in the RTITB 2016 International Operator of the Year competition at the IMHX, in Birmingham.

“One of the main reasons to run this competition was to showcase the contribution that operators make to logistics. These people are professionals and the best ones have a high level of skill. ThinkLink and RTITB are celebrating these professionals, their skills and the need for skilling through this competition,” says Saurabh Goyal, Managing Director, ThinkLink Learning.

All eight grand finalists will also receive free RTITB training from ThinkLink Learning at its state-of-the-art training centre in Haryana, North India.

Launched in July to find India’s most efficient and safe forklift operator, the competition was organised by ThinkLink Learning in partnership with RTITB, which has been running the tri-annual Operator of the Year Competition in the UK since 2008. The Grand Finale of the India competition took place at ThinkLink’s Pragu?a Centre in Dharuhera, Haryana, North India.

Hundreds of forklift operators from over 60 companies entered the competition for a chance to win the title of ‘Forklift Operator of the Year – India’. The entries were whittled down to 40 semi-finalists who competed at the regional heats in practical forklift truck challenges to demonstrate how safely and efficiently they operate their lift trucks.

The following were the eight finalists, two each from Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Chennai, respectively:

· Uday Bhan of 20Cube Warehousing & Distribution
· Hari Prakash of Menlo Worldwide Logistics
· Sandeep Walunj of BLG-Parekh Logistics
· Sandeep Baban Chaskar of TVS Logistics Services
· Dhananjay Patil from Galaxy Surfactants
· Chandresh A R from Toyota Kirloskar Motor
· Delhi Ganesh P from Linfox Logistics India
· Srinivasa N D from Toyota Kirloskar Motor.

The first of its kind in India, the aim of the competition has been to recognise and reward highly skilled and safety conscious operators and to encourage more operators to work to this same high standard.

Speaking at the Gala Dinner, Laura Nelson, Managing Director of RTITB, urged the competitors and companies present to use the, now annual, event as a catalyst for communication on the importance of achieving a highly skilled and professional forklift workforce across India. “Training is key, competence is paramount. We can save lives and dramatically increase forklift operational efficiency in Indian business if we share the messages we already understand. Tonight is just the start.”

ThinkLink Learning began working with RTITB earlier this year to launch Pragu?a, an initiative for outstanding vocational skilling in logistics, and is India’s exclusive RTITB training provider.