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ACCESS
in
ACTION | FEBRUARY 2014
ACCESS IN ACTION
Manitou has been selling rough terrain
forklifts in Oceania since the early 1970s
and to celebrate the past and its current
status, Manitou Australia has been looking
for the Oldest Manitou in Oceania.
After a year, the company has found it!
The contest involved all Manitou dealers
in Oceania. Our partners in Australia were
particularly involved, because most of the
first imports were shipped in Australia,
Manitou’s Stuart Walker said.
“The oldest Manitou found in Oceania
is a MB 20C which is still working! It was
manufactured in 1974 and imported in
Australia in 1976. At that time, this unit
was purchased by Trotta Bros Building Co
in Kapunda, Southern Australia.
“This MB 20C was found by Bob
Vermeeren, Sales Account Manager at NTP
Forklifts Australia who is the winner of our
competition. He wins a $2,500 cash prize
for his quest to find the Oldest Manitou in
Oceania,” Stuart said.
“Manitou has been shipping rough
The oldest Manitou in Oceania is still working
The Oldest Manitou in Oceania
terrain
forklifts in
Australia
for 40 years,
and is now
recognised
as a major
player in
Australia,
especially in
the farming
industry
where its
telescopic
handler is a
must-have.
Providing its
customers
with quality
products
whereby most of the Manitou machines
shipped at that time are still working
today, just like this MB20 C from the
1970s. This underlines the fine quality
and advanced engineering put into every
Manitou machine.”
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As my first period as EWPA president I
know I have some pretty large shoes to fill
with the great work that has been done
by Tim Nuttall and prior to Tim, Bernie
Kiekebosch.
Tim’s tireless work trying to combat
the PPSA legislation and Bernie’s work on
standard and governance is making our
industry safer and more profitable for all.
I would like to add my personal thanks to
them and the rest of the national and state
committees who volunteer their time to
assist our association in growing stronger.
What is pleasing about the association
currently is it is a melting pot of members
with different backgrounds, ideas and
methods. This can be seen by comparing
Bernie, Tim and I.
Bernie from a manufacturing
background, Tim from rental and myself
from the technical side. This gives us great
scope in ensuring the best interests of the
members are met.
From my daily dealings I can see we
have a broad range of issues as an industry
to deal with including PPSA, grey imports,
maintaining rates, utilisations etc and most
importantly the safety of our users and
Building our industry
EWPA NATIONAL PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
employees.
Although, at the moment I believe one
of the major issues we have is our industry
has reached an age whereby the people
who were instrumental in establishing the
association are starting to depart or retire.
Especially throughout the service
deparment / divisions/ companies. In the
forseeable future I firmly believe this
will lead to a shortage of skilled labour
to service and maintain our machines.
From experience I know how hard it is
to get technicians with a well-rounded
knowledge of multiple brands.
So the question is: how do we fix this?
Currently the options seem to be to
‘poach’ employees or consider bringing in
skilled labour under the 457 visa scheme.
The latter as Clay Lucas reported in the
Sydney Morning Herald (2 Nov, 2013),
“the use of the visas by employers has
boomed over the past decade, rising from
about 40,000 in 2003 to 81,550 in the last
financial year”, Clay reports “the visas
peaked at 110,000 just before the global
financial crisis in 2008”.
As 457’s only allow the skilled worker
to work in Australia for up to four years I
believe this is a short term fix.
I am pleased to say John Glover of Force
Access has realised this is becoming a
major problem and almost single handed
he has developed and established an
apprenticeship program that is totally
dedicated to the maintenance of Elevating
Work Platforms.
After numerous visits to TAFEs around
the country John has the program,
Certificate III in Elevating Work Platform
Technology up and running.
This will certainly help to address the
skills shortage issue. But to make it a
success the industry needs to support the
program and employ apprentices. This is
not always an easy task but I am sure if
you are interested and need help, a simple
phone call to the EWPA’s office will ensure
that assistance and the right information
can be found.
Don’t forget to check the EWPA web
page for upcoming meetings and get
online and like us on Facebook too.
Rick Mustillo
EWPA National President
